Travelers can no longer name their own price when bidding on airline tickets on Priceline.com.
In a somewhat surprising twist, the Priceline Group website has done away with its once popular "Name Your Own Price" feature for airline tickets.
The Wall Street Journal confirmed that the website removed the auction option on Sept. 1 as it pertains to airfares. Currently, users can still name their own price for hotels and rental cars. However the practice is becoming less and less common.
While the Name Your Own Price feature appears to be on the way out, the more convenient and simple Express Deals are heating up on Priceline.com. Similar features are available on Hotwire.com, which is owned by Priceline rival Expedia.
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With more and more bookings happening on mobile devices, the Express Deal feature has become a better option for both consumers and Priceline.com, which still takes in a portion of the sale.
"We've removed the need for the consumer to bid," Priceline.com's senior vice president of air and vacation packages Brigit Zimmerman told the Journal. "It's a heck of a lot easier."
With Express Deals, customers don't find out the name of the hotel or rental car company their booking until after they book at the discounted rate. The key difference is that the supplier rather than the customer is setting the price.
Looking ahead, the biggest question is whether Priceline.com will remove the Name Your Own Price feature altogether.
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