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priceline discount fare


jonesyLA
By jonesyLA,
in

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hello all. i'm attempting to purchase tix thru priceline. in order for me to get a discounted fair price, (price line chooses your departing and return times) for about $85.00 cheaper i am running the risk of having to leave early morning on my departure date. e.g. i'm departing lax on sun, 08.30 w/ an overnite flight. (which is fine, i'd like to get into Amherst MA. by mid morning) however, priceline will choose the departure time on wednesday, 09.02.2009 anytime between 6 am and 10 pm. my question is, does anyone have any experience as to when priceline may choose a departure time. i'm shooting for a late as possible departure time so that i can spend some extra time in Amherst. this deal also includes a room and rental car. thx.

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Welcoem to BetterBidding!

There is no telling what time your departure time will be, it can be anywhere within the window designated by PRICELINE... it's all based upon occupancy levels of the airlines for the particular route that you're flying. I ususlly advise users to assume the worst case scenario (in your instance, a late flight out of LAX and an early depature home)... if this scenario played out would the price still be a good deal??

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Let us know how you'd like to proceed and we'll advise accordingly.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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i'm shooting for a late as possible departure time so that i can spend some extra time in Amherst.

You can't specify a late departure on a "Name Your Own Price" airline ticket. You could get a 6am departure and the ticket is nonrefundable. Only use PRICELINE's NYOP for airline tickets if you're very flexible on departure times.

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hello all. i'm attempting to purchase tix thru priceline. in order for me to get a discounted fair price, (price line chooses your departing and return times) for about $85.00 cheaper i am running the risk of having to leave early morning on my departure date. e.g. i'm departing lax on sun, 08.30 w/ an overnite flight. (which is fine, i'd like to get into Amherst MA. by mid morning) however, priceline will choose the departure time on wednesday, 09.02.2009 anytime between 6 am and 10 pm. my question is, does anyone have any experience as to when priceline may choose a departure time. i'm shooting for a late as possible departure time so that i can spend some extra time in Amherst. this deal also includes a room and rental car. thx.

Since you said this "deal" comes with air, hotel & rental car, I assume you're looking at Priceline's vacation package product, which comes with a "playtime guarantee". For two night packages, Priceline guarantees you 44 hours "on the ground" at your destination, and 64 hours for three night packages.

What's unclear in your situation, however, is whether you're booking a two or three night package. If your departure date is August 30, and you're looking at a red-eye, you could depart as early as 12:01am Aug 30 which would be a three night package. OR Priceline could have you depart late in the evening on Aug 30 arriving on Aug 31, which would mean a two night package. At the moment, I'm not able to locate a vacation package for your travel dates that offers the "name your own price" airfare component with a red-eye departure from LAX. All I'm able to view are set packages where you select actual departure times & dates, which is completely different from "name your own price". When you viewed the vacation packages with the lower priced air fare option where Priceline chooses your flight times, were you able to see whether it stated it was a two or three night package? Knowing that would help to determine your guaranteed "play time" on the ground at your destination, establishing a window of time possible for your return flight.

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Since you said this "deal" comes with air, hotel & rental car, I assume you're looking at Priceline's vacation package product, which comes with a "playtime guarantee".

Thanks, BEAV, for catching a detail that I missed...that the OP was trying to purchase a Vacation Package, not airfare alone.

I didn't know Priceline allows "Name Your Own Price" bidding for the airfare portion of an air + hotel Vacation Package.

I checked a couple random dates and destinations to see how NYOP works with Vacation Packages and I couldn't find any "Name Your Own Price" option at all, at least not for the city pairs and dates I chose:

1) SFO-SAN, 8/5-8/9/09

2) LAX-LGA, 8/13-8/17

Am I missing a link to NYOP on the VP menu page? Or does Priceline only allow NYOP airfare bidding for Vacation Package between select markets? (Not the markets I checked.)

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for about $85.00 cheaper
Since the OP knows the amount of savings (and therefore the price) i suspect there is no bidding involved... PRICELINE has put together a package of air+hotel+car, the hotel name is probably known, but the flight times are not.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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Thanks, BEAV, for catching a detail that I missed...that the OP was trying to purchase a Vacation Package, not airfare alone.

In the words of our Secretary of State "it takes a village" ! :)

Try SFO-SNA 8/25-8/27. In my display, the Wyndham Orange county was the first to appear, and the air fare is opaque with flight times chosen by Priceline indicating your flight will depart any time between 6:00am and 10:00pm. Note that if you select this option you will be flying into LAX (rather than SNA). If you go this route, you'll notice Priceline says the package is backed by their "playtime guarantee" with 44 hours "on the ground" for a 2 night package. In this particular package, you can also pay an additional $15 and select your own flight times into Long Beach. (IMO the $15 difference is the approximate differnce between the "name your own price" rate and the retail air fare if you were booking air only.)

The next package in line, the Crowne Plaza Irvine, you will notice has pre-selected flights on JetBlue to Long Beach. If you browse through the list of different flight options, you will find the option to either fly into Long Beach or LAX, however you won't find a "name your own price' type of deal where Priceline will assign your flight times. This of course is insane since Priceline offers this option in the Wyndham Orange Couunty package but not the Crowne Plaza Irvine.

As a side note, also pay attention to the room-type selection available. You can select "Priceline Value Rate" or a variety of different room-type options for more money. IMO the Priceline Value rate is more-or-less their "name your own price" rate compared to the rack rate if you select a certain room configuration. I wish there were more emphasis paid on Priceline's Vacation Package product. I will use Walt Disney World in Orlando as an example. Many people buy their own retail air fare and then shop for a hotel using Priceline's 'name your own price' product. In many cases, you can purchase a vacation package with retail air fare (select your own flights and times) as well as selecting the hotel you wish while getting the "name your own price" hotel rate all at the same time. IMO it is the best of both worlds.

You really have to look closely at all the options in Priceline's vacation package product. There are often some hidden gems in there...

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After looking at your example now I get it, BEAV.

Then I looked again at the two sample itineraries I chose earlier and I see there were opaque airfare options for those itineraries too, after all. They just didn't jump out at me before. They're the listings that say "Priceline Airline Partner" instead of giving a specific airline's name. The two types of listings are mixed up together in one list and you have to scroll through to find the opaque options.

Vacation Packages is the Priceline area I look at least; almost never. My inclination is to break things into little pieces and look for the best deal on each piece individually. I can see now that I might have done better on some past trips by booking a package than purchasing air and a NYOP hotel separately. Maybe not better on total price, but for the same price I paid I could have chosen my hotel, instead of taking potluck with NYOP.

Next time I'm flying with flexible travel times I'm definitely going to investigate the Vacation Package option.

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