anyone use HOTWIRE lately?

[hellokitty]

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on hotwire.

1. what times of day did you get tickets for?
2. what airlines do they use??
3. how many connections did you get/
4. was it a good experience..

we have never done hotwire, but i can get tickets for thanksgiving week for $155 from dallas
the cheapest i can find other places is $248 on delta direct.

any comments would be appreciated

thanks

 

[tinaluis]

Last March for a trip to Boston from Chicago for my boss. He flew on US Air and had 1 connection each way. His flight times were pretty decent, but he would have preferred working a full day on the date of his departure and instead had to do 1/2 day. You can specify 0-1 connections and be guaranteed only that.

We used them for a November trip and ended up with on Continental with a connecting flight in Cleveland (and we had to literally RUN to the gate on the other side of the airport to make the plane) on they way down and were supposed to have a connection there on the way back but our flight leaving MCO had a mechanical problem so we were put on a direct flight on ATA but about 8 hours later. Because we have three small children, we've decided to book our flights directly through ATA or SW because we can get direct flights and the connections are not worth it for us.

I know that Priceline historically has much lower fares than Hotwire so you may want to do some research on TravelSheryl's board, www. biddingfortravel.com, and give them a try. They are no more risky than Hotwire and they usually have lower fares.

 

[tinaluis]

I forgot to say that our flight times were decent (other than an 8 hour delay that wasn't Hotwire's fault) but after the events of 9/11 I was a little hesitant to fly and my 5yo was hysterical at the thought of flying and I tried to cancel and get a credit for the tix (yes, I know there are no cancellations, but considering the climate of fear that 9/11 created I thought maybe there was a chance) but they would not budge. We ended up going, of course, and maybe it was a good thing because if we could have chickened out we would have and then we might be afraid to fly, but I think they were too strict on the policy and will not use them again.

 

[travelcoupons]

you will not get a Delta flight on hotwire...

Delta owns a share in Priceline which is Hotwires' competition.