[DGAdDawg]

...Anyone use it? Boy and I are planning a long weekend in St.Louis. Catching the Braves-Cards game Friday night and sightseeing Saturday. Coming home Sunday.

We're just out of school and in our first jobs. Our hotel budget is $100/night, which makes finding decent places downtown hard!

I've read about Priceline on tripadvisor and just wanted to know more...

[Apple Cheeks]

I used it to book some flights recently, but since that trip is still in the future I can't say much more about it.

[PhotoChick]

I travel at least 2x per month and I use Priceline for hotels all the time.

I would NEVER use it for flights since you aren't given any guarantee about the number of connections or the time you fly. But hotels and rental cars rock on Priceline.

Check out http://www.biddingfortravel.com for tips and tricks on how to bid and what hotels you're likely to get.

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[CountingDown]

Yup - use it often. Just booked a trip to San Francisco (to visit DS1 and DIL in October).

I use it (or Hotwire) for both flights and hotels.

A couple words of caution - if your flight is canceled, they will not bump you to another airline - you will be booked on the next available flight - which might not be the same day.

Since you can't choose your times, or carriers, you can end up with an early flight or a late one.

You can choose the number of connections, airports, and days that you will be flying.

Do your research first - since you cannot put in another "bid" for several days unless you change something other than the price.

[DGAdDawg]

Thanks!

I've been reading biddingfortravel.com...it just kind of makes my head spin.

We will be driving from Memphis to STL, so no need for flight info.

I'm thinking of first bidding for 4-star hotels to try and get the best possible. Does this sound like a good plan?

[Apple Cheeks]

Weird. I was able to pick my carrier, flight and times for the trip. I had about a dozen to chose from, in fact.

But maybe that's because I'm only going to be in the air for about an hour, and there are tons of flights everyday to where I'm going.

[PhotoChick]

Weird. I was able to pick my carrier, flight and times for the trip. I had about a dozen to chose from, in fact.

Did you just buy from Priceline or did you actually BID on a flight? If you bid, you cannot choose any of those things. You can just buy from Priceline, but I find that I can often get the same or better deal by buying directly from the airline. Bidding on Priceline means you do not get to pick your airline or your time.

Hotels - Don't just blindly bid on 4star hotels. Check betterbidding.com to see what hotels are in the area you're staying and then bid based on that. I've gotten some REALLY nice hotels by bidding 3 star and somtimes even 2.5 star. I got a brand new really NICE room at a Holiday Inn Express just off of Times Square for $78 a night. I got a fantastic hotel in downtown Phoenix (a Marriott I think) for $37 a night. But you have to do a little research.

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[CountingDown]

Originally Posted by PhotoChick

Did you just buy from Priceline or did you actually BID on a flight? If you bid, you cannot choose any of those things. You can just buy from Priceline, but I find that I can often get the same or better deal by buying directly from the airline. Bidding on Priceline means you do not get to pick your airline or your time.

Hotels - Don't just blindly bid on 4star hotels. Check betterbidding.com to see what hotels are in the area you're staying and then bid based on that. I've gotten some REALLY nice hotels by bidding 3 star and somtimes even 2.5 star. I got a brand new really NICE room at a Holiday Inn Express just off of Times Square for $78 a night. I got a fantastic hotel in downtown Phoenix (a Marriott I think) for $37 a night. But you have to do a little research.

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Similar experience here. Definitely do your homework. Some GREAT deals are to be had. We use Priceline and Hotwire every time we travel to Chicago. We have stayed in lovely hotels for as little as $45 a night - right off Michigan Ave.

Betterbidding is a great resource as well as doing a google search. Bid low, and change a parameter if you want to bid again right away. Also - different accounts with different credit card numbers will allow you to bid more often. - and using lowestfare.com (as opposed to Priceline) will give you more flexibility for bidding sooner as well.

[Apple Cheeks]

I didn't bid. I just used them to buy my flights.

[DGAdDawg]

Thanks for the advice!! I have to pay off the plane ticket home I just bought and then I'll focus on our trip

[net knee]

Congrats on Graduation and the new jobs!! I used priceline to book my flights to Orlando Florida. I used travelocity to book my hotels which are about 2 miles from sea world or disney land (staying at 2 different ones) and got one for about 50 bucks a night for 3 people and the other for about 60 a night... I acutally found my cruise on priceline and other sites but priceline had the cheapest so Carnival matched the price for me