Cheaper Ways to Travel

[jimmybee]

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to put up a message about travelling for interviews since everyone seems to ask the cheapest ways. Although I haven't had any interviews yet myself, when I do get some I plan on using priceline.com to book my hotel reservations. I have used it twice and I am very pleased with the hotels that I have gotten. Both times I have used it, it was for rooms in downtown Chicago. Both times I got rooms on Michigan Ave (if your not familiar, it is the really nice part of town), in 3 star hotels for $62 a night ( I bid $50 and then with a $5.00 fee plus tax=$62). Anyways, these hotels were the best hotels that I have ever stayed at. So, in conclusion, this service has been good to me, but it might not be as good of a deal in other cities.

Also, I have used priceline for airline tickets and it worked very good to. I got two round-trip tickets to Portland, OR from Detroit for $265 each. Everywhere else was telling me $425-$475. The problem with flying though, is that you cannot pick what time you fly in or out, so you couldn't plan your schedule as good as you would like. If I did priceline, I would fly out the day before the interview and leave the day after.

If you have any questions, let me know. Hope I helped some of you.

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[Socceroo4ever]

Just curious though, I don't know if that's going to be as well for us. As I understand it, without having actually used priceline.com, is that the farther away the time that you need to be somewhere, the more likely you'll get a good deal. I recall reading somewhere, maybe in PC World, that you have to give a block of time, say a few days, that you'd like to travel, and it matches you up. That's not so great for interviews that are on a specific day, not, say, any one of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday of such-and-such week.

In any case, if this works out for the rest of us, I might give it a shot! Best of luck to all in their travels to the lovely interviews.

------------------
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night,
God said "Let Newton be," and all was light.

-- Alexander Pope

 

[Djanaba]

Not quite how Priceline works, there...

You must specify a certain date, and your preference of when to fly (morning, evening, etc). Of course, they can blatantly ignore your preference, but if they come through for you, it will be on the date you specify.

All in all, you have to be sure that you are OK with traveling any time on the day you specify -- so for interviews, you MUST specify the day before your appointment to arrive, and after to leave. This may be longer than you wish to be gone, but the price may make it worth it.

I've used the program, and for the money, I was happy. Travel took an entire day from the midwest to NYC, though, and took a silly route. But it was super cheap. Good luck to anyone who wants to give it a shot!

 

[jimmybee]

Like I said....I really only recommend using the HOTELS

 

[jimmybee]

Like I said....I really only recommend using the HOTELS and not the flights. You could probably get the airline tickets to work out for you, but it might be a little bit of a hassel. The HOTELS, on the otherhand, will definitely work out excellent.

 

[drfermin]

In addition to the large time window, I believe priceline also stipulates that you have to make at least one connection on each leg of the trip. This may cause you more stress than it is worth, especially in the winter when there could be weather problems that mess up your connections.

 

[MrAnonymous]

Priceline is okay with airfares but not hotels, in my opinion. I got $200 tickets ($221 with fees included) to Richmond, VA from Seattle, WA where the lowest cost I could find were $900. However they don't give you the option of flying in the morning, noon, or evening, but in my experience they let you travel in your time window. I always arrive one day before my interview and stay one day AFTER my interview just in the case the tour/interview takes too long on interview day. The hotels I found were not cheap at Priceline, in fact, their rates were higher than the student rate!! When I received my interviews they gave a little sheet explaining the hotels around the area and its student rate. Priceline does NOT give good prices all the time on airfares, that's why I shop around. The New York trip costs me $373 from another site, Priceline was too expensive (although, its lower than most other sites). That's why I find the lowest price around and make a lower bid at Priceline. If Priceline doesn't take my bid, then I'll fly with another site.

[This message has been edited by MrAnonymous (edited 09-19-2000).]

 

[Socceroo4ever]

I suppose all this goes to show that no single source is the best source in anything in life! Even so, I thank all those who posted about Priceline and clarified my narrow misconceptions on how it works. I think in the future I'll grab the best of all worlds and do my own researching: check Priceline, the airlines directly, and any other source I can possibly think of!