Many people must have found a good and viable means of buying dirt cheap airline tickets from sites that sell these tickets through open bidding bargain processes. There are some websites fully dedicated to selling really cheap airfares, giving bulk discounts on wholesale airline tickets and other affordable vacation travel packages. Sometimes you don’t have to go very far to find these cheaply auctioned airline tickets as they are readily available with a quick search on Google. What you just need is your carefully budgeted airfare ready for the airline’s offer for your bid.

Of course, there are great advantages of buying through bidding on online auctions but how much information do we have about these available opportunities? Another quick search on some of the most popular general auction websites will reveal a host of very cheap airfares and airline tickets available for bidding. These sites are eBay and Yahoo Auctions where discounts on airline tickets can be found in the “Travel” category of both. Many of the tickets offered may be air tickets discounted for, frequent flyer tickets. There do seem to be a few transferable bump certificates, and quite a few ancillary items like drink coupons.

A travel dedicated site is Priceline which sells tickets online using an auction-like system to offer its discounts. Theirs is slightly different from eBay and Yahoo’s in that you say where you wish to travel to and how much you are willing to pay for the trip. However, you have to be prepared to go at any time of day, on any major domestic or international airline, and to accept a stop or change of plane. All these are parts of the cheap airfare sales agreement or contract. Then you submit your credit card information for payment to be effected.

Priceline proceeds to look for flights based on your preferences, if they find that cheap air ticket you have been looking for the price you offered to pay, your credit card will automatically be charged for that airfare. After you have bought it, you cannot change the ticket or get a refund for it like most low-price airline tickets. If Priceline has a ticket available below your bid, they will sell it to you, but you won't know if you are getting the cheapest airfare.
They will charge what you offered even if the airlines can accept less and they make it difficult to offer increasing bids just to get a high commission. Also note that all airfares bought through Priceline must be for flights originating from the United States or through an affiliate in the United Kingdom.

Priceline now offers cheap airlines’ seats on many of the major US and international airlines except that reliable reports say that in practice, bids for lower than the published prices are rarely accepted, and they admit that they accept less than ten percent of the bids people make, although they do sell 15,000 tickets a day. Priceline also now offers cheap discounts on airline tickets where you know the price and the flights ahead of time. If you're planning to travel on a route well served by one of the well known international airlines, and can fly at any time of day, try bidding slightly less than the best airfare you can find on one of the regular reservation sites to see if they will accept it.

Hotwire is another site that belongs to the same company as Expedia and Hotels.com. Here, you tell them where you want to go and your departure date but they will offer you a price for the air ticket. You are given an hour to decide whether to buy. Like Priceline, you won’t know the airline until you buy your cheaply sold air tickets. Hotwire is another good place to check for last minute deals and bargains on discount airline tickets. Flights must originate from the U.S. but you can fly internationally. They also offer cheap rates on hotels and rental cars based on the same policy.

In the case of SkyAuction, they auction tickets and travel packages use a second bid type of auction; similar to what eBay does. The best strategy is to bid the maximum you are willing to pay, since if you win you'll pay just enough to beat the runner up regardless of what your maximum was. The description of what they are selling is explicit and you can see other competing bids.

Be sure to add in the huge service charge for each cheap air ticket and be sure you know what normal fares are since tickets are often bid up above the displayed airfares. SkyAuction’s services are prompt and efficient but may be very difficult to get a refund if there's a problem with the flights. Site 59 offers last minute weekend travel packages which include air and hotel, but the price is often lower than what you'd otherwise pay for air only.