Priceline Hotel: Help! book vacation vs. separate

[mzjones34]

okay... i'm trying to plan a trip to miami. i would be flying from sfo to miami and would prefer to stay in a 4* or resort in south beach. i'm looking for the (infamous) weekend of 8/28-9/1.

for hotel i'd like to keep the rates to $90 as i've seen from other postings -- but i realize that might be a dream considering it is a holiday weekend. on the other hand, the weekend is 3 weeks away and the hotels are not booked. maybe a good sign?

my questions...

1) am i likely to get a better price if i book as a "vacation" versus buying hotel and air separately?

2) can you recommend a strategy for both: a) booking as a vacation and :) booking the hotel separately?

currently, i see flights for about $278 to FLL, $436 to MIA (the latter is preferred).

thanks -- once again!

[thereuare]

Question 1: I prefer to book separately because you can therefore choose the times and fly non-stop. Using Priceline/Hotwire for airfare, whether thru the airfare product or the vacation product, you can choose neither the time you fly or if you have a connecting flight or not. Since this is for a long weekend, how yould you feel if your flight left late on Thursday and early on Monday (plus a 3 hour layover along the way in each direction)? It's all a possibility.

I took a quick look at the Vacation package and didn't see anything in South Beach, but Miami Beach is 'close' to use for comparison purposes:

Hotwire Hotel @ $61/nite * 4 nites + $283 Hotwire airfare * 2 passengers = $810

Hotwire Package at Miami Bal Harbor: $490/pp * 2 passengers = $980

I don't know if the 2 comparisons are apples-to-apples, but my thought at first glance is to do it on your own.

Question 2: based upon the above info (feel free to do your own inquiries, as my example above is by no means complete) is the Vacation product a viable option? I'd also need to be more specific about the zones you're interested in. Is only Miami Beach acceptable, or is a resort in Miami Beach fine as well?

Other thoughts: no harm in trying and bidding low at this point in time, but i don't think you'll be able to get rates for this particular weekend similar to historical winning bids on the board as rates appear to be higher for this period. As an example, I just checked the Crowne Plaza website which is a hotel i had stayed at in South Beach (via priceline) so that i could compare prices... and they're sold out.

[Welldone Rumproast]

Just a thought about FLL versus MIA airfares:

Although fares (and fare sales) are more byzantine than ever, FLL does offer a great "leveling" factor: SOUTHWEST, JETBLUE and SONG operate only out of FLL, and to my best knowledge do not go into MIA. AIRTRAN goes to both.

Sometimes, when the mainline carriers match a low-cost carrier's fares, they will apply the sales to all three South Florida airports, but other times not.

As they say, "Your Mileage May Vary" :)