Paying Less

I have become a Priceline negotiator!


(back story)
A few years ago, Anna and I opened a couple of credit cards with Hawaiian Airlines. They were giving away a lot of mile points for signing up and using their card. We decided to accumulate as many points as we could in a year or two, and then see if we could get a couple of "free" round trips out of the deal. We just used the credit cards instead of the check book for our daily, weekly, and monthly expenses, and paid them off each month. It worked well enough. We chose to end our credit lines a while ago because of the $50 per card annual fee they wanted to charge us. Um, no thanks. But that meant we needed to use our points/miles within the next 18-24 months (or something like that).

The time was coming up, that we were needing to use our points. We scoured the calendar, looked for the cheapest flights to get the best deal, and our points ended up paying for about 2/3 of our flights. Not too shabby. Now I needed to find us a place to stay while we were in Hawaii (Oahu and Maui). That was probably going to be expensive. There aren't any Motel 6s or Super 8s there.

(present time)
A few weeks ago, while we were at the bowling alley with the kids and our good friends, the Bocanegras, Rich mentioned that his sis-in-law was coming down for a visit from Washington state, and that she had rented a car from Priceline for $20, using the "name your own price" feature, for when she's here. I think he mentioned she used Priceline other times as well... that got my wheels turning.

I went to Priceline, and was about to "name my price", when I thought... I should see if there's any info on the web about pros and cons of using Priceline. There was, and I'm glad I looked. There are whole sites dedicated to helping people get the most out of "name your price" on Priceline, like biddingfortravel.com. I read all the stuff the site wanted me to read, and studied the stuff they wanted me to study, and I took the plunge... a lot more confident in my quest.

Long story short, after a few days of "bidding", I got a us a hotel on Oahu, in the Waikiki area, at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (3 stars) for $70 a night instead of $129 from their website, and cheaper than even the lowest priced 2 star hotels in the area! We'll also be staying on Maui a couple days, so I needed to get us a hotel there, too. After a couple of days of research and bidding, I got a nice 2 star hotel in the Wailea area of Maui, at the Aston Maui Lu, for $65 a night! That's a lot better than the $90+ any other way.

We are looking forward to that trip for sure. We'll be staying in nicer places than we've ever stayed, and for cheaper than we would have paid otherwise.

THEN, Anna also needed to use some credit toward a flight from Alaska Air, related to her trip to Portland last year. That credit/discount was due to expire this fall if not used. Anna decided she had to take me up to Portland to see it for myself, so she found the cheapest flights that fit our schedule. We now have a trip to Portland in Nov. to plan. I needed to find us a hotel. I spent some time researching the areas hotels, and went to bidding on Priceline once more. Eventually I won us a stay at the new Hyatt Place Portland Airport hotel (3 stars), for... $38 a night!!! The cheapest average rate for our dates was $113 on their website. I can't believe they picked up my bid at just $38?! All I can figure is that they want as much business as they can get, and hope that word of mouth advertising pays off over time. I believe the hotel is less than a year old (or right around a year old). So crazy.

I'm still trying to get the cheapest deals on rental cars for those locations. It seems that you need to wait till closer to the time you actually need the car, to get the best deal. So about a month before each trip, I'll be low balling for some rental cars. It's pretty fun.

I can't wait to see how it all plays out. There are reports that hotels will put Priceline guests in the least desirable rooms or areas of their hotel, or not give them the same courtesy and service as "full" paying guests (particularly in Hawaii). We'll see.

So yeah, I can share my new Priceline knowledge with you next time I see you if you're interested. It's way too much to type out. Or just check out biddingfortravel and start reading like I did.