Last minute trip, but getting amazing bargains...

[leebee]

We decided on Tues. 2/5 that we want to sneak in a fast trip to WDW before I start my new job on 2/18, but decided to do it only if it's affordable. WOW! I found some really good deals for our trip 2/10-2/17/02 (yes, you read that right, we leave in 4 days!). RT airfare, Bangor ME to MCO, $145.50 thru priceline (connections are bgr-bos, bos-mco); rental car at Avis (Cavalier) for $120 plus taxes, and I have a $25 off coupon to be presented at the counter, and I just WON at Skyauctions.com- we will be staying in a 3br villa at Embassy Vacation Resort for $222 for the week! AND tonight I confirmed a shared Illuminations Cruise on Valentine's Day for $15/person. I don't think I could have found better deals if I'd been planning for months rather than hours! DD does not know we are going- we'll tell her when we get to the airport. School is psyched- teacher said if DD doesn't want to go, he'll shave, walk on his knees and pretend to be 8yo so he can go instead! So far, I've spent $828.50 on rt airfare for 3, rental car for a week, luxury accomodations (by our standards!) for a week, and an Illuminations Cruise! Now if I only could get a deal on those park hoppers...(actually I have 2 days left from a previous trip, so I won't even be paying full price for tix!)

 

[BethR]

Sounds GREAT!!! And how very exciting to do something so spur of the moment! I KNOW that you will have a WONDERFUL time!

 

[kozmo]

LUCKY YOU Have a good time

 

[eeyore1226]

Wow, $145 RT from Bangor? What airline are you travelling on and are you flying on small planes? I live two hours south of you and usually take off from Manchester, NH to save money but Bangor is a little bit closer.

 

[cforza]

Good for you Leebee! I love to hear about great travel deals, since I consider myself the ultimate bargain travel shopper. You did great!

 

[Beanie]

That is a great deal!! $145.00 rt from Bangor is great!! Have a wonderful time!

 

[barbnbrian]

What's the website for Skyauctions. I tried www.skyauctions.com and it didn't work.

 

[leebee]

I bid $120 on priceline, and they added $25 bonus money. We leave bgr at 4pm, on a Delta jet, arr Boston 5 pm. Leave Bos at 6:30, arr mco at 9:30pm. Return is the same thing, but leaving mco at 9am and getting into bgr at 3:30pm. I'm usually willing to fly from bgr, Portland, Manchester or Boston to get a good price, but hate to have the pressure of driving in the winter. It would be just my luck to be having a blizzard on the day I need to drive to NH to catch a flight. Since we live right in Bangor, I can always take a cab if the weather is too nasty. Bidding out of bgr has lots of options before having to add additional airports. I usually start with the "only one connection" option, but other options you can change for rebidding include "two connections" (did this once, Delta routed us bgr-bos, bos-atl, atl-mco, return mco-bos, bos-bgr), non-jet flights (American and Delta use jets here, but usair uses turboprops) and off-peak travel (earliest flights out of here are at 5:30am). Usually by this time, I've managed to get my price high enough to be accepted. I've never bid more that $160 (before taxes) and have always gotten (well, 3 times) a decent price and itinerary. I love priceline! BTW, full fare for my itinerary, 5 day advance purchase, was $509- YIPPEE!!

 

[barbnbrian]

Great job LeeBee.

I was finally able to get into SkyAuctions, but had to do the whole sign up thing and didn't want to continue. I didn't want to enter any credit card info when I don't even know what they're all about. Do I have to sign up first to check them out and do they charge a fee to join? Any further info about SkyAuctions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[leebee]

This was the first time I had ever heard of SkyAuctions. I went to their website and started looking around without registering. I clicked on the USA icon, and when it gave me another page, I clicked "Florida" on the menubar on the right side of the page. I could scroll thru the listings, trying to get a feel for the site. I *think* I learned the following: Read the listings carefully. Sometimes there is only one offer for a particular listing, but sometimes several offers are available. Look carefully for availability- check-in (departure) date, number of nights available, minimum/maximum nights til checkout, etc. For each offer, there is a service charge (or somesuch) that varies per package; for my 7nite package the service charge was $195 plus $15 (handling? don't remember...). I personally think these charges are so that they can control the minimum winning bid for each package. Nobody had yet bid, and the minimum opening bid was $1, so I decided to go for it. You have to register to be allowed to bid, and that means giving them your home, mailing and credit card info. I did that, then went back to my package. To bid, click on the package title in the listing, which will bring up your package particulars and a bidding window. There will be a minimum bid (or current bid). I entered $1, but if the current bid had been, say, $5, I would have entered $6. There is an autobid option, and although there isn't much info available about it, I chose it. I entered $20. I *think* the autobid option means that skyauction will automatically increase your bid if someone bids against you, by $1 over the counter bidders bid, up to the maximum amount you enter. Not sure if that means for my bid, that would have been 20 times, or maybe it just increases my bid by $1 til the auction bids go over a $20 limit. Not sure, but it worked for me; I won with a $12 bid..

The $195 plus $15 charges are for the total package, not per night. I just checked, and my credit card was charged $222 for the entire stay, which is $195+$15+$12. I hope I haven't confused you more. Please remember that this is just my experience bidding, and I'm not really sure if I totally understand all the nuances of their program. I hope this helps, and that it works for you,too! Good luck!

 

[dreamer]

Leebee I think you described Skyauctions perfectly! The $15 fee is for federal express shipping. Isn't it such a wonderful site!!!

 

[leebee]

Except, of course, they emailed me my confirmation info!

 

[Beanie]

Leebee...Do you know what airline you are flying on??

Thanks!

 

[damiel]

Leebee - Can you tell me how you went about getting you $15.00 Illumination cruise reservations? We looked into going on one but I was told the price was much higher than that. Thanks!

 

[NancyIL]

Congratulations, Leebee...you got some FANTASTIC deals! I've used Priceline several times for airfare to Orlando and have been very happy. Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Kaa]

damiel-

The Illuminations cruise is $120 for 10-12 people. If you are able to share the cruise and cost with other people, then you can arrive at leebee's per person price.

 

[leebee]

Right, Kaa! I happened to be online when addieh posted that she had a cruise to share ln 2/14. She had JUST gotten the boat from someone who posted here that they were cancelling their boat reservation. I couldn't believe my luck! Of course, I wouldn't have been able to do this without all the kind folks here on the DIS! We will be sharing the cruise with 4 adults other adults and 4 other kids. The $15 per person includes tip, so I thought it was pretty reasonable. Let's see...we are flying on Delta roundtrip, all jets (although the bgr-bos legs are on very small jets- 29 seats?). Our flight leaves in 7 hours, and I'M ALL PACKED! Just gotta tell DD that we're going- nope, she doesn't know yet. I wanted to tell her AT the airport, but now I'm thinking maybe I should forewarn her, like about 30 mins before we leave for the airport, so she can say goodbye to her two kitties. I'm so escited!

 

[Pixie Power!]

Have a great trip Leebee, cant wait for the trip report!

Emma

 

[mike14450]

$120 for the Avis car is a good deal. Did you use a promo code? If so what was the deal? I'm having problems getting a good deal for 3/13-20.

Thanks - Mike