Going to ASA? Use priceline.

[CanGas]

For those of you who are interested.

I know by booking your hotel you support the ASA - BUT - ASA price for JW Marriott, Grande Lakes = $249/nt. After bidding up in $2 increments (hey I'm still a resident) I got it on priceline for $152 for Friday 17th - Wed 25th.

CanGas

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[coprolalia]

Priceline SUCKS! I recently used them to book an interview trip, and trust me when I tell you that they completely f*cked the whole thing up.

The lady at the car rental place told me - and I quote her exact words - "Wow, I can't believe they gave you this price. That's about $20 more than we would've charged you had you booked directly with us."

Not to mention the fact that they didn't get the payment voucher transferred right, the way they booked the car charged me for gasoline (which took 20 minutes to get off the bill), they tried to charge me for an extra day through their computer (which took another 20 minutes to get off the bill), and still at the end of it billed me an extra $30, even though it should've been zero (or, at best, under $3 the way the taxes worked out).

I tried to call them to straighten it out, and I got put on hold for over an hour before the person on the phone told me that they will have to submit it to their accounts recovery system, and I will have to call a separate number in a week to get the credit voucher.

Screw it. Not worth the waste of my time. I'm willing to suck down the $30. Still, I learned the most important lesson: I will never use Priceline again. If that's the way they're going to treat a soon-to-be high-roller, they don't need my business.

-copro

 

[pillowhead]

Priceline SUCKS! I recently used them to book an interview trip, and trust me when I tell you that they completely f*cked the whole thing up.

The lady at the car rental place told me - and I quote her exact words - "Wow, I can't believe they gave you this price. That's about $20 more than we would've charged you had you booked directly with us."

Not to mention the fact that they didn't get the payment voucher transferred right, the way they booked the car charged me for gasoline (which took 20 minutes to get off the bill), they tried to charge me for an extra day through their computer (which took another 20 minutes to get off the bill), and still at the end of it billed me an extra $30, even though it should've been zero (or, at best, under $3 the way the taxes worked out).

I tried to call them to straighten it out, and I got put on hold for over an hour before the person on the phone told me that they will have to submit it to their accounts recovery system, and I will have to call a separate number in a week to get the credit voucher.

Screw it. Not worth the waste of my time. I'm willing to suck down the $30. Still, I learned the most important lesson: I will never use Priceline again. If that's the way they're going to treat a soon-to-be high-roller, they don't need my business.

-copro

have you tried hotwire? you know exactly what you're paying up front (no bidding). i've been screwed by priceline before and now use hotwire and so far, so good.

 

[rsgillmd]

I tried a number of different sites -- priceline was always the most expensive. I booked my flight through Cheaptickets. Hotwire, Expedia, and Travelocity had similar prices. Priceline was a little more expensive (for the same flight).

Their bidding thing looks nice on the surface, but somewhere on the site in finer print it says you don't get to pick your times for the flights. As a guy who wants to fly out post-call and return after the poster presentations are done, times are somewhat important.

I had a cousin who got her plans turned into a hassle because she went through priceline. So copro is not alone.

American Airlines, the one ASA was recommending, were way too expensive even with their "discount."

I booked the hotel through ASA though. They actually had the cheapest price when I booked it.

 

[CanGas]

Sorry, I'll clarify. I would never use Priceline for renting a car, booking a flight, ect. I only use it for booking hotels. And when I am booking hotels I have done all the research so I know exactly what I will get. I use biddingfortravel.yuku.com to see exactly what hotels are in each fare class. I generally book 4-5 star so I know exactly which hotels I am bidding for. I then go onto the hotel websites and large resellers and see what the best rate I can find is. I then use the bidding strategy described at http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/to...Re-Bidding-for-Experienced-Hotel-Bidders.html.

I start bidding generally at 30% of the best rate I can find. Have repeatedly gotten 4-5 star hotels in NYC, Florida, California for 50% or less than the best rate I could find elsewhere.

Doing it this way I have always gotten a better price than on hotwire or other sites and have ALWAYS gotten a hotel in my top 3 list. In the case of Orlando I knew that the JW Marriott, Grande Lakes was the only resort hotel and bid accordingly. Current room rate on their site is $359/nt + tax for the suckers. ASA listed it for $249/nt. Kayak.com pulls up a cheapest rate of $167/nt + tax on gtahotels.com. I got it for $152 so saved $15/night over the cheapest rate I could find and nearly $100/nt if I just accepted the ASA rate.

All I am saying is if you do your research right you can get some sweet deals on priceline BUT you have to know what you are doing and I think they are only good for Hotels.

CanGas