After Visiting Priceline.Com, Stymied Writer Needs Vacation

Sun., May 16, 1999

Jill Schensul Universal Press Syndicate

Is it just me, or is William Shatner still living in the world of science fiction?

Shatner says this priceline.com thing is “big, really big,” but I don’t get it. I’ve tried this online buying site four times to purchase airline tickets, and I have yet to succeed in making a purchase through the service - which is to name your price, and they see if they can get it for you.

One major drawback of priceline.com is that you relinquish a lot of control over what flights you’ll take. You can’t be specific on arrival and departure times or the airline you fly on, though Priceline uses only “major carriers,” it assures you.

Would-be travelers simply agree to leave between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. (or more off-hours flights, if you choose this new option to increase your chances of getting a ticket) on a certain day, return at any similarly vast span of time on another day, and will accept one (or two, if you select the option) stops along the way. You check off the airports you would consider flying out of (I had a choice of four from the New York metro area ranging from a 20-minute to a two-hour drive away). You promise to buy whatever they find for you. The tickets are nonrefundable, nonendorsable, nonchangeable.

As for “naming your own price,” priceline.com advises that you go no lower than the lowest advance-purchase fare the airline offers anyway.

I figured for all these concessions - not to mention the 20 minutes it takes to fill out the eight-screen form - why should I pay the usual low price? I wanted a deal.

So, after doing a little research and figuring I could buy a ticket to Paris from Newark for about $330 with tax, I decided I would pay no more than $250.

I was informed that I would still have to pay airline taxes, which could come to as much as another $80. I was not informed, until near the end of the process, that I would also have to pay $12.50 for express mailing. In effect, I was agreeing to pay more than $300 anyway.

At about Step 4 came a new wrinkle: Priceline now has “national sponsors,” which will kick in money toward your bid - if you give them something, of course. If you bit the hook for a calling card with 20 minutes free, or for two free issues of Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine, you would get $5 added to your bid. Being greedy, I opted for the Visa card option: The company would kick in $40 if I would fill out an application for its credit card. Off I went on a short detour to fill out more forms and give out even more personal information.

Once I had the extra $40, I went back to my original bid and arbitrarily changed my contribution to $220; with the sponsor donation, my offer was now $260. At this price, I actually thought I might have a chance at getting my ticket at “my price.”

I cringed a little at the thought, mostly because I also needed to book a ticket for my husband, who would be (I hoped) leaving with me but returning from Paris a week earlier. I couldn’t bid on both itineraries at once, so it would have been impossible to guarantee we’d leave on the same flight.

I had a knot in my stomach as I initialed all the things I’d asked for and agreed to, and came to the “THIS IS IT!” coda at the end of the form, right before the SUBMIT button.

I submitted.

Then I waited.

Priceline mercifully promises to get back to you in an hour. During that time, I worried about what I would do if I actually got the ticket and wound up paying $320 to leave out of an airport in the middle of nowhere at some ungodly hour of the morning, having to change planes in San Juan and arriving in Paris after a 14-hour epic. And what were the chances of getting the same flights - no matter how untenable - for my husband?

Well, I figured the worst that could happen would be I’d be terribly inconvenienced, terribly jet-lagged or, if I decided to abandon my plans altogether, out $320.

After an hour or so, I had e-mail from priceline.com. Nervously, I pushed the “read” button.

No deal. All that typing, all those concessions, all that submitting, just for a “sorry, try us again sometime” (but don’t try us again with the same itinerary).

I felt terrible and relieved at the same time. I wondered fleetingly if I was still applying for that unnecessary Visa card.

Now I really, really need a vacation.

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