Beam me up!
© Diane Goldberg under the original topic name
Priceline does do what it advertises -- more or less. You name the price you want to pay for a ticket on a particular date; and within an hour or so, the site emails you with information about the availability of your ticket. It sounds too good to be true. It's not. And it is.
Priceline does not go below the standard airline-issued APEX fares that you can find on your own. APEX, an advance purchase -- usually 7 to 14 days for domestic and 14 to 21 days for international travel -- is non-refundable, restricted to weekday travel and is usually the cheapest fare you can get.
What Priceline can do for you is seek out odd connections and ferret out APEX fares from airlines you might not have considered.
Another place to cast your net on the Internet is http://www.travelzoo.com. While Travel Zoo doesn't seem to have the search capacity of Priceline, it does have a nifty list of special net fares for you to book online. Many of these net fares are not available to telephone customers.
Most net fares or e-savers are highly restricted fares with limited dates of travel. But, if you are flexible or simply want to go somewhere they are super bargains.
Most major air carriers also offer Internet specials on their web sites. If you are planning a big-ticket trip in advance, you'll fly lighter by routinely checking all airlines serving your home base for months before take off.
Another nifty site is http://www.travelbase.com . Like Travel Zoo and Priceline, this site offers an array of airline specials and hotel specials. It is in your best interest to research all three sites and the available airline web pages. Travelbase does offer destination information that isn't linked to any commercial enterprise. So, if you are doing destination research before zeroing in on a specific spot, it is your best bet.
http://www.skyauction.com offers big bargains to the lucky shoppers that score on their site. However, a big caveat traveler comes into play when you are caught up in the auction frenzy. Know what the ticket would cost if you bought it directly from the airline. I recently bid on a ticket to London and was chagrined when I realized that my bid was within ten dollars of the out-right purchase price. The "winner" of that auction paid more than rack rate for a "bargain" ticket.
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