Need help, education and help on bidding

[RUDYCC]

Ok, I'm not a priceline newby. I've bought hotel reservations 3 times (in same city) and rental cars twice, so I do know hotel and car bidding and rebidding. However, I've stayed away from the PL airline bidding because I just don't get it (maybe you can help me out). I GET the hotel and car bidding. It's like a light switch: you either get your car (or hotel room) at the price you want or you don't. However with airline bidding, you don't know when you get there or when you leave. I don't see how anyone finds it useful unless you are going on vacation and don't care at all about the time lost. For example if I need to get someplace sometime on a Monday........I could get there early or be in by midnight. So to be sure I'm not in midnight and miss what I was going to do on Monday during the day, I need to bid on leaving Sunday and so now I'm going to have to spend extra for the hotel room ......and eat up my savings on airfare. ?????

This is my situation currently: I need to be in DSM early Monday so I am going out on Sunday (don't care when). To return on Wed, I would prefer not to leave until 2 pm. So any suggestions? I know that I can use (on a regular ticket) standby to get on an earlier flight if my flight is late in the day. Can I use standby with PL on Sunday and/or can I also move my Wed flight forward in the day if I get stuck with a earlier than noon flight? (Plan is : IND to DSM 6/25 and Wed 6/28 back to IND) . As I said I don't care about the time coming in on Sun and I'll be booking my hotel through PL for Sun, Mon, and Tues. Am I missing something on how to do this?What about the standby idea to move ahead or back flights booked through PL as long as the moving is on the same day? :) As I said, I'm comfortable with PL on hotel and cars, but the airline has me nervous. Can anyone help me out?

[thereuare]

Ok, I'm not a priceline newby. I've bought hotel reservations 3 times (in same city) and rental cars twice, so I do know hotel and car bidding and rebidding.

... and not one winning bid posted on the board :)

How about a follow-up to your Priceline Des Moines thread and posting some of your other wins?

[matt4670]

Hi, I'm new here. I have the same situation as Rudy. How can I tell when my flight will depart? Can anyone shed some lights on this matter? Thanks.

And I WILL post my bid here afterward :)

[thereuare]

When "naming your price" you're buying an 'opaque' itinerary, so you will not know your departure times until after you purchase your ticket(s). Another aspect to be aware of is that you also agree to the possibility of at least one connection.

Most travelers are not that flexible in their flight plans, and the deals for airfare have not been that great lately, that we see very little airfare bidding (and even less successful airfare bidding).

If you're plans are flexible enough and you'd like to try anyway, please start a NEW TOPIC with the details of your itinerary.