Priceline "name your own price" International Flight Information

[victoria_lauren09]

I need help!

I am going to be traveling from San Antonio, Texas (SAT) to Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB) on December 3, 2012, and am looking to return on January 7, 2013. My times are completely flexible however. I have no experience at all with the Priceline "Name your own price" feature. I've read through all the terms and conditions, I know there is a fee for issuing a paper ticket, and all other fees are included in my 'bid'. I also know that my ticket is non-refundable and non-transferable. That's fine. I am not going to be considering not going.

I need to know:

When I insert all my information into the "name your own price" page (Flight dates, Airport info, billing address, card info, name and date of birth) is my card charged with the amount I placed as my bid immediately following?

Can they deny my bid offer?

and am I GUARANTEED a flight?

Currently the going price for a round-trip ticket is +/- $1400.00. Priceline says you can receive a ticket from your bid up to 40% off. I am looking to place my bid at around $800.00. Is this reasonably doable?

Please and thank you! :)

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

I need to know:

When I insert all my information into the "name your own price" page (Flight dates, Airport info, billing address, card info, name and date of birth) is my card charged with the amount I placed as my bid immediately following?

Once you submit a bid PRICELINE will check with the airlines to see if any ticket is available for the route you selected at the price you've entered. If so, the transaction is automatically completed, your credit card is charged, and you're then told the specifics of the itinerary. If they can't find an airline to offer a ticket at the price you've designated then your credit card is not charged. At this point the bid has 'expired' and they won't check again unless/until you enter another bid.

Can they deny my bid offer?

Yes, if they can't find a hotel to accept the price you're willing to pay. Let's say you place a bid for $10 (an absurdly low amount for which no airline would accept), PRICELINE will come back stating that they couldn't find any airline to accept that price. Once you get the 'rejection' email the bid is over unless/until you decide you want to try again.

and am I GUARANTEED a flight?

No, see the $10 ticket example above... only if they find an airline that is willing to offer a ticket for the bid price you enter.

Currently the going price for a round-trip ticket is +/- $1400.00. Priceline says you can receive a ticket from your bid up to 40% off. I am looking to place my bid at around $800.00. Is this reasonably doable?

Difficult to say if this is do-able... but my guess would be probably not. Capacity (number of flights for any given route) for airlines has been reduced over the last few years and there are fewer flights running on each route. This means flights are fuller then they have been historically and there are less empty seats on most flights... this translates to airlines less likely to 'cut a deal' since they don't have many open seats and most seats are already filled with full paying customers.

With the above noted, it costs nothing to place a bid (you're only charged if they find a flight within your bid price) so it's worth a shot. Usually you have to wait 24 hours before being able to place the same bid again but with a bid amount, but you can use the techniques in this Priceline Airfare Re-Bidding thread to get an almost unlimited number of re-bids... so you could start even lower (say at ~$600) and increase your bids by $10-$50 each time (bigger increments at the earlier bids which are less likely to be accepted and smaller increments at the later bids which have a better chance of being accepted)

Feel free to ask any additional questions you have and/or let us know how it goes.

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