lowballer

$60 in USE/USW hasn't hit in about three years. Also, 3* in those zones pretty much don't exist. You might hit for that much in the outer zones, or hit 4* downtown for $75+.

If you have miles (and if you're the same anonplz that posts to a different board, I assume you do) you're prolly better off getting a standard coach award than rolling the dice with PL.

Priceline is probably not the way to go with this. Anything less than four digits is going to be a VERY good deal. That is, impossible. The cheapest US-BKK fares tend to have six-day minimums and 30-day maximums for Mon-Thu departures in late fall (Oct-Dec). These tend to run $700-800 from the west coast nowadays. DEL is higher. I'm bored today, so just for fun I checked on UA award availability on DEN-BKK. I'm a bit confused by when you want to be where, but for saver coach I only found one available outbound date (May 20) and no return dates. For saver business class I found nothing in either direction. Fares on UA run as low as $1130 or so (I tried May 16-Aug 7). This is a Q fare so it is upgradable with UA SWUs if you can find some. You might find it for a litle less than that, but not by much. I think that's an excellent fare for those dates, in fact.

Durham and Chapel Hill are the SAME ZONE!??! That's sacrilege.

There aren't a whole lot of hotels in Lincoln Park, period. Mostly a couple of Daze Inns on Clark Street and a few boutiquey kind of places mostly in the Clark/Diversey area. Many of them have interesting histories: some used to be flophouses, there was a huge meth lab bust at one of them a few years back, etc. There used to be a separate Lincoln Park PL zone; I think the nicest thing you could get was a 2*ish Discomfort Inn which has since lost its branding. The Best Western mentioned above would not be called Lincoln Park by any self-respecting Chicagoan. Real-estate agents try to fudge the official northern boundary up to Wellington or so, but 3400 North is REALLY strecthing it.

I've been trying for similar dates, and have failed up to about $135 4* and $125 3*, for all the Midtown zones. This is turning out to be a pretty tough one.

If that includes taxes the reasonable thing to do is to BUY IT TODAY! Transcons don't get any lower! If you wait you will be wishing you bought it when it was only $214!

Bakersfield has lots of basic, but clean and modern, lodging for $35 or less. For just one night I wouldn't even bother with a reservation.

PDX-BWI is $210 or so on most of the majors. Plenty of available flight times. I guess if you really wanted to fly Southwest on a transcon you could for the same price. PDX-DCA is $330 or so on ATA and Frontier, higher on the majors. Best you can do on PDX-IAD is $398 UA, which is at least a nonstop. Transcons don't get much lower than that PDX-BWI fare, which has a base of about $170. There may be trains from BWI into DC, but I'm not one to know.

If you can fly into PVD and go a day early or late in either direction it's MUCH cheaper, as low as $148 on NW.

PRICELINE SAN FRANCISCO

I probably could have found something cheaper in one of the other Denver zones, but the location was somewhat important to me, and the property looks like a nice place. Failures: 4* Westminster $60; 3* Westminster $49, 3* Northglen $45 and 2

Little thing called the ACC Tournament going on this weekend. You can find inconvenient Daze Inns and Travelodges for $60 or so, but who wants that? I'm much happier with this combination of quality, location and price. Failures: Greensboro 3* $44; Greensboro 2

I was a tad worried about this one, beacuse rooms in SF might be a bit tight with people coming in for the Macworld Expo the following week. Because of this I had a hunch something other than the usual suspects (the Days Inn Hilton, the Renaissance, the Hyatt Embarcadero) might come up... and I was right. I was preferring USW over USE, but this hotel is right off Union Square, and not too far east at all. This is the Grand Hyatt at 345 Stockton, not the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero near the ferry pier or the Park Hyatt near the Transamerica Building. First time I've gotten this one, and it looks quite nice. Two nights, the 6th and 7th. Failed at $77 USW (got a "raise your bid $22" at $75) and $73 USE (got a "raise your bid $22" at $70). Total = 150 + 30.03 = $180.03

You're catching the tail end of the Macworld Expo. I'm trying for a hotel right before the Expo and am running into a similar problem. I think the Renaissance will bite for around $80 but I have gotten nothing in the usually successful $70-75 range.

I've never been in that Travelodge, nor have I run in the marathon, but I do live in the city. I am also surprised the marathon is on the 22d; usually it's Columbus Day weekend. Anyway, that location might be good for the marathon but is far from everything else. It shouldn't be too dangerous, but it's not exciting either. You will be getting spartan accommodations -- probably not bad but nothing more than the bare minmum. Are you sure that's what you want for four days in Chicago which includes running a 26-mile race? Don't you want to make sure everything goes smoothly and you're not bothered by noise, a bad bed, an so on? If your cheapest acceptable option is $89 for the Travelodge, and you can get a 3-4* Loop hotel for another $20 or so via PL/HW... why not? If you want to scrimp you can still split your stay between two hotels. Finally, how do you plan on getting to Mt. Rushmore via Southwest? Is that a troll, or were you planning on flying to DEN and running the rest of the way?

Vegas on NYE? If it were me I'd stay up all night. Will you have a car? Can you stash your stuff in the car for the night, parking it in a (free or cheap) casino garage somewhere? If you don't have a car but still need a place to put your things, can you do a one-day car rental for this purpose? Heck, you might even be able to sleep in the car for a couple hours, and you can't drive a hotel room up and down the Strip.

(1) A good TV with oodles of channels. It's quite surprising how many higher-end hotels lack this. I know, it's their way of getting you to pay for movies. Nice idea of "service" there. Anyway, "Free DirecTV In Every Room" seems like a marketing plan waiting to happen, doesn't it? (2) A hot tub/ sauna/ steam room (3) A fridge. Sticking a bottle of milk or Coke in an ice bucket doesn't cut it. (4) A public computer in the lobby, free for guests to use. I don't travel with a laptop -- not worth the hassle for me -- but it's nice to be able check my e-mail, credit card statements, etc. once in a while. You don't need the most sophisticated computer here. Why don't more hotels offer this? (5) Laundry machines, when I'm traveling for several days and have only a few changes of clothes Funny how 2* properties are nearly universally better at these things than 4* places are. I've learned any advertised "free continental breakfast" can be a crapshoot. I've seen more than my share of plastic-wrapped muffins, rock-hard bagels and "orange juice" that's essentially colored water. I don't eat breakfast anyway, so it's not really a priority. A lot of times I travel to hike in mountains, and have no use for fitness machines when my plan is to use Mother Nature's really big ones. This is also why (2) is a priority at the end of the day.

This hotel is at 3805 Murphy Canyon Road 92123. That other address isn't even in Mission Valley; it's on the other side of I-5.

Somewhat surprised I got this. Not only did I bid only a day or two in advance, but the Chargers have a home game this weekend (the stadium is a couple miles away) and are decent nowadays. This is the Holiday Inn right off I-15, not the 2

I was getting lots of "raise your bid" screens on this one and was assuming I'd hit at $75, but it bit at $74. $73 failed. The Hilton is a glorified Daze Inn, but when I bid USW it's because I *want* it. I won't have a lot of time in the city and the Hilton is convenient to transportation. Total $74 + 18.23 = $92.23

Correct on both points. I was getting the "raise your bid" screen on the way up to $35 so I was assuming the Holiday Inn had simply raised its rate a few bucks. This was a surprise but hey, I'm willing to try something new. Or not so new, because I did have a PL stay here a couple years back when it was a 4P. :) As a 4P it was okay but there was room for improvement. Strange as it sounds it might be nicer now as a La Quinta than it was in the Sheraton family.

A few interesting developments in the Vail zones: * The Vail zone now offers 2

As it is now there is no distinction in the hotel review listings between Miami and Miami Beach. Hotels in both locations are listed as "FL Miami Blah Blah Hotel Zone Name". This makes it harder to distinguish Miami Beach hotels from others. Now Miami Beach (and South Beach, which is in the city of Miami Beach) is part of the greater Miami bidding area on PL on HW, and I understand you are trying to follow a convention of listing all the hotels in one metro area together. However, they are separate cities and most people looking to stay in one of these areas decidedly do NOT want the other. I suggest the hotel review titled, for example: FL Miami Marriott South Beach be changed to: FL Miami Beach Marriott South Beach. This will allow all the Miami Beach hotels to be listed together. Also, the hotel listed as "FL Miami Royal Crowne Plaza South Beach" should be changed to "FL Miami Beach Royal Palm South Beach". It is no longer a Crowne Plaza. I just stayed at the Royal Palm, and I'll be happy to write a review if these changes are made. Thanks.

New data point on 4* ORD for ya. This is a Thursday, and I got it for about what it hits for on weekends. Failed at $48, but I got the "raise your bid" screens on the way up, so I knew I was getting warm. Hotwire suggested lots of PL 3* availability, so maybe you can go a bit lower with 3*, but I'm happy with the Hyatt at this price. Total = 49 + 14.66 = 63.66