LAST year when Paige Pierson lost her job in the San Francisco Bay Area's dot-com contraction, she resolved not to abandon her travel passions.
The auctions on eBay had been a constant source of entertainment and the occasional bargain in recent years, and being a dot-commer, Ms. Pierson knew of other Web sites that sold travel through auctions. So in February, while musing about how to introduce her newborn son, Logan, to her extended family in Munich, she ventured online, looking to match the click of her mouse with the clack of a virtual auctioneer's gavel.
Her first move was not to eBay, but to SkyAuction.com, a New York-based auction site for airline tickets, vacation packages, cruises and accommodations. There, she found one-way vouchers for flights on Lufthansa, up for bidding at $1, with no reserve. Ms. Pierson entered the bidding, and shortly thereafter walked away with the equivalent of a round-trip flight from San Francisco to Munich for about $300.
As one of a small but ardent group of online travel-auction fans, Ms. Pierson found that the well-publicized risk of online auctions can, with some care and flexibility, be far outweighed by the rewards. "It was pretty sweet, considering I was unemployed," said Ms. Pierson, who now works for Williams-Sonoma.
For our travel to Portland, Oregon over the holidays, we attempted to use PriceLine.com. In the end, we found the best deal straight through Southwest Airlines Website. We have never used SkyAuction.com before, but we will certainly check it out. Thank you Bob Tedeschi for this story!
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