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Priceline.com, which also operates Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and Priceline.co.uk, is one of the leading online travel providers for deal-seeking leisure travelers. Offering a complete range of travel services including pricing, availability and reservations for flights, accommodations, car rentals, cruises and vacation packages, Priceline.com is best known for it's unique "Name Your Own Price" service which allows users to obtain the lowest available price for many travel products.

FEATURES & ADVANTAGES:

-> The famous "Name Your Own Price" feature allows you to bid whatever you want on airline tickets, hotel accommodations or rental cars. You'll know if you've been successful within 60 seconds or less.

-> The "Best Price and Quality Guarantee" insures that if you find a lower available online price for the same deal, within 24 hours of purchasing a "Name Your Own Price" ticket, Priceline will refund the difference for cruises, they will refund 110% of the difference.

-> When searching for a cruise, each ship is reviewed in great detail, with full itineraries, color photos & layouts of the staterooms, full deck plans including color photos & 360 degree tours of all public areas, customer reviews by real travelers who have been there and "Expert Reviews" by writers from CruiseCritic.com.

-> The trademarked TripFilter provides excellent search functionality for airfares, hotels or car rentals; displaying a side-by-side comparison of all available offerings that meet your specific needs, which can further be filtered my many helpful criteria such as price or rating.

-> Fantastic savings on last-minute deals are offered up in the form of "PriceBreakers", which are featured on the site and are also available through e-mail or RSS feed.

DOWNSIDE:

-> All original departure cities must be within the United States, which limits travelers from other countries.

-> The "Name Your Own Price" feature for airline tickets does not include the laundry list of taxes and fees imposed by the US government or by the airlines. Be sure to budget an extra $12-$59 for domestic US flights or upwards of $200 for international travel.

-> When using the "Name Your Own Price" feature, you won't find out the name of the airline or the flight time until your purchase is complete (ditto for the hotel name or rental car company when using it for one of those services). As a result, you may end up with a provider you otherwise would not have chosen, so you should be willing to accept these terms before you commit to buying the non-refundable tickets.

-> The "Tours & Attractions" search is populated with a very limited list of cities and has some major hiccups with accepting travel dates.

Priceline is great for US travelers with flexible plans who don't care about accumulating points by booking with their favorite provider. The pricing is typically the lowest advertised, the site navigation is extremely user-friendly and the "First Time Users" link provides a great tutorial that will help you get the best prices out of the site. My only complaint with Priceline.com is the abundance of trite William Shatner TV ads that litter the airwaves on their behalf!

Learn more about this author, Victoria de Martigny.
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