If you want the absolute lowest fares on domestic tickets, then consider using a blind buying site. Sites such as Hotwire, Priceline, and SkyAuction offer tickets for extra-low prices but with a catch. You don’t necessarily know your airline or flight ahead of time. Each site works a little differently, but all can give you great values if you use them correctly.

Priceline: To access deeply discounted tickets at Priceline, you need to bid using the site’s Name Your Own Price feature. The feature allows you to bid for airline tickets by setting your own price that’s lower than the advertised fares at the airline’s websites and seeing if Priceline will accept that price. You aren’t bidding against other people like an online auction site, you are just trying to bid an amount around than Priceline’s minimum. Priceline claims you can save up to 40% on airline tickets this way. The catch is that you don’t know the airline or times before you bid, and all bids are final, so you need to be very flexible to make Priceline work. But, if you have flexibility, you can save hundreds on your tickets.

Hotwire: Hotwire sells tickets like Priceline, you don’t know the airline or flight times before you book most fares, but you do know the exact price, so you don’t have to estimate the lowest price as with Priceline. Like Priceline, all Hotwire ticket sales are final. If you don’t want to go through the hassle with Priceline bids, then use Hotwire to book, otherwise, book with Priceline since you can get a better deal by bidding less than Hotwire’s offer.

SkyAuction: SkyAuction allows you to bid for flights like an online auction site. The site also lets you bid for hotels, cruises, vacations, and more. The winning bidder is the person who has bid the highest price for a ticket. With some auctions, the site lets you purchase up to a set number of tickets at the winning price if you win. All bids are final and with most auctions you don’t know the exact flights or times but do know your dates.
SkyAuction auctions can be a bit misleading in many ways.

• First, taxes and fees aren’t included in the auction price, which can sometimes make it difficult to compare SkyAuction bids to current fares.
• Second, the bid amounts are for the bare-bones flights to the cheapest destination on the cheapest days. For example, an auction might advertise tickets for flights from Los Angeles to seven major American cities, but only tickets to Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday will be at the auction price. Tickets to other cities or on other days might cost upwards of $150 more round-trip, making the trip much more expensive.
• Third, the site has a number of blackout dates that are ineligible for travel, and other dates that may cost more than the advertised auction price.

Even with those factors, purchasing your ticket on SkyAuction can be the best deal around. The best use of SkyAuction is if you live in a small or mid-sized city with high fares. Often, you can get tickets from these cities on SkyAuction that cost the same as tickets that depart larger airports nearby.

If you plan to use SkyAuction, make sure you factor in your total costs, not just the top auction bid. SkyAuction can be a great deal, since like Hotwire and Priceline, it sells unsold travel inventory at bargain prices, but you just need to know how much you will really pay.

Back to Top