Priceline.com Offers Tips For Beating Rising Holiday Airfares

Priceline.com's head of airline ticketing offered his "insider" advice for travelers looking to snag holiday air tickets at the best possible prices. "Holiday travelers are best advised to lock in their tickets - and their prices - by booking as soon as possible and preferably at least 21 days before travel," said Mark Koehler, priceline.com's Senior Vice President, Airline Ticketing. "This year, waiting until the last minute to buy a holiday travel ticket will be a particularly poor bet. The airlines have fewer seats to sell and prices tend to creep up the closer you get to departure date."

Koehler, a veteran of the nation's airline industry, offered some additional money saving tips. "Travelers who buy their holiday tickets now, as opposed to waiting until November or December, likely will save anywhere from $50 to $100 per ticket. Also, prices will vary widely depending on departure and return dates. Try changing your dates until you hit a combination that works for you. Book away from heavy travel days and try different flight times to bring the price down."

Priceline.com's Annual Best-Days-To-Fly Calendar*

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, priceline.com customers currently are finding the lowest fares for the following trip combinations:

-- Depart November 18 or 20, and return November 24 or 28

Tuesday, November 21st and Wednesday, the 22nd, are once again proving to be the heaviest travel days of the holiday, with 50% of all customers choosing to fly on those days.

Christmas

For Christmas, priceline.com customers currently are finding the lowest fares for the following trip combinations:

-- Depart December 21, return December 26, 27, 29 or 30.

-- Depart December 23, return December 27.

-- Depart December 24, return December 27 or 29.

For Christmas, December 22, 23, 26, 27 and 30 are currently the heaviest air travel days for the upcoming holiday.

* Best Days To Fly recommendations are based on a sampling of actual tickets purchased in September for travel during these holiday periods.

In addition to airline tickets, priceline.com said it has plenty of hotel rooms, rental cars, air/hotel packages and cruises available for both holiday periods.

About Priceline.com[R] Incorporated

Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) operates priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Priceline Europe, a leading European online hotel reservation service.

In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting all the best published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com's TripFilter[TM] advanced search technology, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com's famous Name-Your-Own-Price[R] service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.

Priceline Europe operates one of Europe's fastest growing hotel reservation services through its Booking.com network of hotel reservation services, Activehotels.com and priceline.co.uk. Priceline Europe operates in 40 countries in 12 languages and offers its customers in Europe and the U.S. access to approximately 25,000 participating European hotels.

Priceline.com also operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including priceline mortgage and certain international licensees.