If you're planning a trip and you're willing to roll the dice a little (which is quite fun, btw), you can save some serious money when you Name Your Own Price at Priceline.com!
Here's my brag post -- if you've gotten great deals at Priceline, I'd love to hear yours, too! Leave a comment and share with us!
I just got back from a trip to Kansas City. It's about a 13-hour drive, but I'd much rather drive than fly. Now, my car's a piece of-- ahem, I mean, it's been paid for, for quite a while, and it's great for getting me around town, but I knew I needed a rental car to be sure I'd make it there safely.
First stop: scoping out prices at rental car companies. The best I could do for a weekly, mid-size car rental with my AAA discount was $242. And that was an amazing discount from the next-closest price, $283.
Next, I clicked on over to Priceline (using QuickRewards' link, of course -- so I'd receive 1.1% cash back) and placed a bid. Won it on my first try (which actually makes me think I should've bid lower!): $170! And what I really loved was that it was the same class of car at the exact same rental car company that wanted to charge me $242 through AAA! That's a 30% savings off the LOWEST price available! Sweet!
Well, the next thing I needed was a hotel in Kansas City. Don't know the place, had never been there, so I did some Googling of hotel reviews and checked out prices. Ouch! In the area of the city where I wanted to stay, even the Holiday Inn was over $125 a night! The cheapest hotel I'd consider staying in, a Red Roof Inn, was $40/night with their Red Hot Deals special rate. But I decided to roll the dice with Priceline again and see if I could spend a few dollars more and get a nicer hotel.
So, back to QRs link to Priceline, choosing the area of the city I wanted, and shooting for a 3.5 star quality hotel, I bid $46 a night...and guess what? I got it! For 6 bucks a night more than the Red Roof, I got the Marriott! Went to the Marriott website and found that my $46 room would have been $144 *with* my AAA discount! That's 68% off! And can I tell ya...while I don't have a problem with staying at a Red Roof Inn, the extra 6 bucks a night for the Marriott was SO worth it! :)
Remember, you'll get 1.1% cash back from QuickRewards when you use their Priceline link (except it's a flat $2 for retail airlines)! Just forward your confirmation email to support to get your account credited! (I did!)
