Priceline Reviewer's Comments

Priceline’s “Name Your Own Price” has revolutionized the way people book plane tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals. Priceline is the only online travel service that allows you to negotiate with the airlines and hotels about your rates.

If you don’t feel comfortable “Naming Your Own Price,” you can make flight, hotel and car reservations through Priceline, just like any other online travel site. There is a $4.95 to $14.95 service charge for all tickets booked with Priceline. Most domestic flight service fees are cheaper than international costs.

Additional Features:  

Priceline is the only online travel site that allows you to negotiate your booking price. With “Name Your Own Price,” you can submit a price you believe to be fair, for flights, hotels or cars. The airline, hotel or rental company will then reply to Priceline with an acceptance or refusal of the offer. If they accept, Priceline will automatically purchase the reservation for you. In order for Priceline to make the reservation you must provide a credit card prior to seeing the details of your reservation. For example, if you submit an offer for airfare you have to provide passenger names and credit card information when you make your offer. If the airline accepts, you will not see your full itinerary, including flight time, number or airline until after the tickets are purchased.

Priceline’s additional features are subject to the type of ticket you book. There are different rules for tickets purchased using Priceline’s usual services vs. their “Name Your Own Price” feature.

You cannot get frequent flyer miles when you buy a “Name Your Own Price” ticket. However, you can get frequent flyer miles if you buy a regular discounted ticket. Priceline also offers a low fare guarantee, a low rate guarantee and a low cruise guarantee. The low fare guarantee for flights and low rate guarantee for hotels are only eligible if you “Name Your Own Price.”

However, since you cannot "Name Your Own Price" for cruises, Priceline has a 110 percent guarantee on all cruise bookings. This means if you book a cruise with Priceline and within 48 hours you find the same cruise, including ship, dates and cabin category, at a lower price, Priceline will refund your credit card. The guarantee only applies to rates available to the public and does not include group bookings.

Booking Options:  

Priceline offers flight, hotel, car and cruise reservations. Additionally, you can buy attraction and show tickets and you can book city tours to popular site seeing spots in your destination city. Flight, hotel and car bookings can be reserved using “Name Your Own Price;” however, cruise prices cannot.

Priceline provides adequate search perimeters for flights, cars and cruises. The hotel search is a little sparse. You cannot request hotels near an address, point of interest or with particular amenities.

One frustrating feature we encountered with Priceline is the lack of a calendar. Most online travel websites provide a visual calendar of some sort to help you choose your travel dates. Priceline does not. Although this isn’t critical, these calendars are usually helpful.

Resources:  

Priceline provides few travel resources. They have travel guides to many destinations around the world which includes eating guides, weather reports, nightlife, shopping and more. Passport information is available on the help page and there is a small amount of information about cruising.

Unfortuantly, Priceline does not provide the ability to check flight status, offer any travel news or security updates.

Ease of Use/Support:  

Priceline is an easy to navigate online travel site. Everything is clearly labeled and easy to find. They provide email support and a comprehensive FAQ. Additionally, the “self service” section is a short cut for answers about Priceline’s services and profile management. Priceline is the only online travel site we reviewed that has a step–by–step guide to making your reservations.

Summary:  

There is no doubt you can get some of the best flight, hotel and car prices when using “Name Your Own Price.” This is the best option for those with very flexible schedules and nerves of steel. Booking reservations this way can be nerve racking and uncomfortable for some. We found if you decide to use Priceline’s more traditional method for booking, the prices and searches were comparable to the top three sites.