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Priceline ends some airline booking fees

Priceline spokesman actor William Shatner Priceline is breaking from the pack and eliminating booking fees for certain air tickets. But you’ll still pay fees on flights you win by bidding in its “Name Your Own Price” auctions.

Extending a promotion it began in June, Priceline said this afternoon that it will permanently end its $5-per-ticket fee for regular published fares. But it won’t stop charging booking fees for auctioned fares. On those fares, it wraps this charge into the total price, along with taxes and other fees.

And just what is this charge? Priceline isn’t saying.

“It’s a proprietary formula based on the route you’re flying and the price of the ticket,” spokesman Brian Ek said.

Name your own price indeed!

So far other websites aren’t rushing to copy Priceline’s move.

Where are you getting the best online deals for airfares?

“We have no intention of dropping our airline-ticket service fees,” said Jim Cohn, spokesman for Orbitz, which charges $5 to $12, depending on the route.

Expedia was still charging $5, and spokeswoman Erin Krause declined to comment on Expedia’s future plans.

Travelocity charges service fees of $5 to $11 per online transaction, spokeswoman Amanda Borichevsky said, adding that the fee varies by destination, carrier and other factors.

But earlier this year, she said, Travelocity launched a website that doesn’t charge booking fees for domestic tickets, CheapToTravel, which she described as a “bare-bones site” for the cost conscious. (International tickets carry booking fees of up to $5.) The tradeoff: You don’t get all of Travelocity’s customer-support services on CheapToTravel.

—Jane Engle, Assistant Travel Editor

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5, 2007 at 3:59 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Business Travel, Frequent Flier, News, Tips & Advice, Travel Insider. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.