Well first let me preface the "repeat bidding incident" with the previous successful purchase. At ual.com as well as expedia.com, the lowest fare offered for a RT Denver to Phoenix was $243. I bid $128 and was successful (with taxes/fees added, it came to $243).
As for the next trip, I'm headed to the Bay area later in October, again from Denver. I specified up to one connection (the minimum you can spec, though my Phoenix flight is of course direct), no prop planes, no red eye flights. I began bidding at $115 (thinking that the lowest available fare on these other sites was $236). After that, I changed the $115 bid to two connections, and failed.
Then I incremented, let's see, $128, $150 (after realizing that the $236 fare was out of date, and that the cheapest flight was ~$325 now), $165, and then straight to $195 I believe. $218 with taxes and fees. This bid was successful, and the trip has me flying on Delta through Salt Lake City into SFO, with an average layover of 60 minutes. So not as good as a direct flight to be sure, but an apparent savings of $108.
Randy |
