First Experience with Priceline

[Bluefish]

I had never used Priceline previously, but decided to give it a try last week to book a trip from LAX to San Jose Del Cabo for early May. After a couple unsuccessful "Name Your Price" offers on airfare (for which I eventually burned some frequent flyer miles), I tried to use Priceline to book a rental car from National.

I had picked my car, elected to take the insurance coverage, provided my credit card info, and hit the button to purchase the tickets. Instead of the quoted cost of approx. $120, I got a screen that said that the pricing had changed and that the cost was now $280. No explanation whatsoever was given. Thinking that there must have been some type of mistake, I went through the whole process again and at exactly the same point I got the same message: a 130% increase in the price I had initially been quoted with no explanation whatsoever. I booked my rental car from another company and on another travel site for approximately $122.

I contacted Priceline customer service about this, and got a very unhelpful response to the effect that prices can change between bidding and confirmation. I suppose that makes sense up to a point, but to see an instant increase of over 100% when very nearly the same pricing originally quoted is in fact available elsewhere makes no sense it all.

It is absolutely infuriating to spend the time to carefully sort through various car options and then have what appears to be some kind of "bait and switch" pulled at the last minute. Is this sort of thing common?

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

So we can better respond to and answer your questions above can you confirm if you were bidding on a car rental OR was the price shown before your purchase?

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

[Bluefish]

It was not a "Name Your Price" bid; the price of $120 was shown before I attempted to purchase it.