Priceline also offers you ways to search in which you can specify the airline or only non-stop flights, and of course its feature well known from those TV commercials -“name your own price.” With this, you literally type in the price you are prepared to pay and Priceline comes back with an itinerary and a price for you. The main disadvantage with this is that you won’t know your airline, flight times or connections until you have completed the transaction and are committed to buying the tickets. Priceline guarantees that the connections will be reasonable, and the flight won’t be an overnight “redeye” flight. Personally, I would rather perhaps pay a little bit more and have more control over my flight times. But there is no doubt that Priceline can save you money and millions of people happily use the site.
Traveling at Short Notice
According to a recent survey by the Travel Industry Association, over 60% of leisure travelers planned at least one of their trips with less than 2 weeks notice. If you regularly have to travel at short notice or to the same place, sign up on different airlines websites for last minute specials or alerts. These announcements of impending lower fares or airfare sales are generally emailed to you, or will appear on the home page when you access the airline’s site. Orbitz and Travelocity also offer similar features on their sites, which alert you to airfare deals or specials between your indicated cities. Hotwire also specializes in last minute discounted airfares. Some of the major airlines now have a guaranteed low fare rule posted on their own websites, to save you the time and trouble of tying to find a cheaper fare on competitors’ travel websites.