OT: Priceline...what's the scoop?

Several of you sparked my interest yesterday when you mentioned the great deals you got on Priceline.com. Having never used a site like that or expedia, etc. I am a bit leary. So what's the scoop, from my quick visit there, I see you will be locked into your choice, date, etc. Now really how much is realistic to offer. I was looking at New York City, picked a 3 or 4 star and offered $120/night, which was less than half the median. I didn't complete it since I am not positive I will be going. Also, they say you find out within seconds of your offer being accepted, but how long does it typically take to get accepted? Just wondering... Sarah

Sarah: That is exactly the reason why I never used Priceline. I always tried expedia, etc. There are tons out there. Also, I will go to those sites and find out which hotel, airline, etc has the cheapest price, then go to THAT website and see what their pricing is direct. I have been able to get maybe $5 or $10 cheaper by going directly to the service I want. HTH

Sarah- Also sometimes if after doing all that research on-line-- you call the hotel directly you can get a still lower rate. If you are going to use something like priceline. Then I would try for really low--the worse that could happen is the bid is not accepted. So that bid of $120.00 --drop it to 60-- and then start working up. I used priceline once for a plane ticket. Man were the airline people nasty to me. There were delays on the flight and they kept reminding me I had a deep discounted wholesale ticket. I was also on red eye flights going and coming. So if you ever do the airline ticket thing -- count on being on either the latest or earliest flights.

Sarah--I use Priceline a lot. The way I learned about bidding was to go to biddingfortravel.com (add the www). there is all sort of great info there on how and what to bid. I usually bid on 4 star hotels and have never paid over $100--sometimes as low as $50 gets it. There is a method of bidding using zones--you will learn about it from that site. Go read it and then if you have any questions--let me know. Expedia is a totally different kind of site. The offer get's accepted or rejected within minutes. What dates are you looking for and is there a specific area you want to go to? Remember read it and then email me and I will be happy to help you.

Thanks, I thought I remembered you mentioning another site you got information from. Know the site that alerts you to mistakes??? Like when USAir sold tickets for $1.80?