Bidding on International Flight to Germany

[BlackRose]

I'm planning on flying to Germany in August for three weeks and have been trying to find cheap flights. I ran across Priceline's Name Your Price for flights which can give me a flight as low as $500. I'm wondering if anyone has used Priceline to get an International flight and if so, is it worth it? I can save over half the cost of the flight using Priceline, but I just don't know what I'm getting with those savings so I'd really appreciate if others could give me their opinions and experiences.

Thank you.

[Romelle]

What is your origination point?

There don't seem to be the deals from bidding on airfare that there are on hotels and autos. However, bidding doesn't cost anything but your time. So you can certainly check to see if there are savings before committing to a regular ticket.

The first step is to thoroughly research regular prices. The airline web sites themselves and general ones like Kayak and Orbitz. There are quite a few links on the Support Page (see up above). I particularly like matrix.itasoftware.com, although one can't buy tickets from it.

My son has used Priceline for a number of flights to Amsterdam. From here, Minneapolis, he usually gets US Air.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "....I just don't know what I'm getting with those savings...". When you bid, you get a regular economy seat ticket on a regular major airline. It can just cost less. You don't get to pick the times of day or the routing.

I'd guess savings would not be very great since you are traveling at peak tourist time. But again, it is free to bid and find out.

Romelle

[BlackRose]

I'm flying out of Boston and after posting on here I actually had a bid of $200 go through which just seems insane... $200 was the lowest I've tried...

[Romelle]

When you say "....had a bid of $200 go through..." did you actually give them credit card info and complete the purchase?

If so, what airline did you get?

Romelle

[BlackRose]

Okay, no I was confused by the way the site works... Sadly I didn't get as good of a deal... going to wait and see if prices go down...

[yellowdog]

BlackRose

Keep us updated and let us know if we can be of further help along the way.

Please use the board's PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your purchases and searches

Yellowdog.

[thereuare]

Please use the board's PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your purchases and searches

... and please click the links above before replying and use the requested links for your future searches, bidding, and travel purchases.

Thanks.