ddeputies

Not a bid win. regular quote rate.

bid win

Bid multiple days starting at $50 and went up. Finally $58 was accepted.

Seemed like a good deal.

Current Hotwire price for same was $27. I had been watching the Hotwire price, and it just increased about $3 from last week. I know that I'm bidding pretty far out, but I can tell you that last year, I did a ton of bidding and got a lousy price for nearly an identical trip in July. Last year, I had to settle for $43 per day on hotwire! That stunk. I think the prices really rise for cars in the summer as compared to some of the current prices for MSP. So this year, I bid much earlier and was willing to go higher to lock in a price under $25 per day. Perhaps I could have gotten a firesale very near my trip date, but it was worth it to me to lock in now a reasonable rate (nearly half of what I paid last year).

I tried A LOT of bidding with priceline to get a car at the Minneapolis airport for my selected dates. I have multiple priceline accounts to increase the bidding, yet I never got any bids accepted. I started bidding weeks before my travel date. I was bidding in the $15 to $20 range early on for mid-sized and better without success. With 24 hrs left before the trip, I searched several other non-priceline options and found that hotwire had the best deal at $43 per day for a mid-sized rental. So with 24 hours to go before the trip, I upped my bids on priceline. I went as high as $30 for midsized and $35 for premium, luxury, SUV, and minivan. I was trying to undercut the hotwire price with ANY mid-size or better vehicle at that point. I got no bids accepted so I had to settle for hotwire at $43 per day mid-sized. I am not sure if I waited too long too start bidding higher or what. A few weeks ago, I got $15 from Chicago for mid-sized booked the night before for a 3 day rental. Maybe I hit Minneapolis at high season / bad time. Or maybe my bidding strategy was flawed.