Bloomington, IL-Boston

[zimbabman]

Hi :)

I am traveling to Boston in March with my fiancee. We're about 4 hrs away from Chicago airports and would like to avoid their parking costs anyway. Found a number of airports in central illinois which do not charge for parking (bloomington, springfield, peoria). Priceline has the lowest fare available at $266 with Delta. I tried $150 per ticket and was rejected- a counter offer being made of $240 per ticket.

Any tips you could provide me with for winning this for a KILLER price?

Thanks :)

zimbabman

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start by reading your messages and adding the requested information to your priceline needham and priceline winchester threads. Then click this PRICELINE link and reply to this thread, we'll have a look and comment on your post above.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[zimbabman]

Thanks. I went ahead and replied to those posts.

Any advice fellow priceliners can give me on bidding for this flight??

[thereuare]

In the current airfare environment GREAT fares on airfare can be difficult to come by... but still worth trying. However, from regional airports there are fewer flights so a successful bid may be even tougher (and perhaps the increased likelihood of a non-direct flight)

What would be your maximum bid for this trip which would make an opaque airfare purchase worthwhile?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[zimbabman]

Well I have a companion fare with American Airlines that I can get a round trip for $230 each ticket. Current prices are $265 each. Would like to get them for about $200 a ticket. That'd be about 20% savings.

Do you think if I search for Chicago-Boston on name your own price I'll find much better deals? I am prepared to drive up to Chicago if I can get a crazy good deal

[thereuare]

As noted above, i don't expect to find any 'crazy good deal' on airfare these days, but they do happen here and there, so it's worth trying.

With airfare the best course of action is to determine how much of a discount you need to make traveling from Chicago worthwhile and try bidding up to that amount. It's hard enough determining the 'retail' direction of airfare rates... the opaque side of airfare just adds another level of complexity to the mix.

You can use the re-bidding techniques discussed in this thread Priceline Airfare Bidding to start low and gradually work your way up to your maximum bid.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Let us know how it goes or if we can be of further help.