need help LAX-LIS Sept25-Oct5 2006(flex dates)

[travelbuddy]

Hi. I need some advice. This is what I have done so far:

researched and found lowest internet price around $850US pp. Breakout is 550 plus 277tax plus fees. I did priceline name your own price starting from 200 and went up to 425 in $25 increments. I noticed that the offers which came back repeated and were not that attractive. One offer was I think $825 if I'm willing to take 2 connections and the other was $832 and I can select my flights. What happened to "save upto 40%"? Could it be that there is low availablity? We are flexible with dates but I read somewhere that most business close on monday (true?) so i don't want to depart LAX on sunday.

I also noticed that when selecting for different airports, the taxes will vary and the final total price sometimes was less than my previous bid although i increased it by $25. Anyone shed some light?

Wife and I are not dying to go as we can delay trip to another month. But if I can get 35% off, she'll pack our bags.

[thereuare]

Please follow-up your previous Priceline Whislter thread with whatever you ended up doing for that stay (and then bump this thread to the top).

[travelbuddy]

ok done on the long awaited nail-bitting hanging old thread. Sorry not to complete as I was probably in transit with no internet access at that time.

UPDATE on LAX-LIS:

wife and i decided to head to hawaii instead and postpone LIS to the spring. but would appreciate any insight on the Priceline name your own price tax variation.

thanks!

[thereuare]

Taxes are set by each airport.

So if you select AirportA and a possible routing is thru AirportB, then the taxes of each (plus FAA taxes) are the maximum taxes for that routing and that is what Priceline shows. If you select AirportC and a possible routing is thru Airport D, then the maximum taxes is derived from those two airports.

Since the above algorithm would need to be based upon the maximum possible taxes for the routing, there can easily be a difference of $25 (or more) when computing based upon an airport with higher taxes then your previously bid, combined with a stopover/connection in an airport with high taxes.

[travelbuddy]

thank you, kind moderator.