But, to their credit, if you pay the $25-35 per-flight fee at booking, they'll put you on any other flight they can find even if you have lousy weather at the airport. I've disparaged their 'On My Way' customer service fee before, because it lumps in many kinds of service that should be customary. If that breaks your heart, keep an eye out for packages where you fly Air Canada. If your flight is washed out, they can't help you. The one thing Priceline's deal doesn't cover is airline delays. It has to rain more than half an inch per day at your destination airport, for at least half the days of your trip, as measured by the National Weather Service or a comparable organization. To get your rain refund, you have to be traveling from three to eight days. Priceline's price of $1,198 for two beat the lowest airfare we could find on Kayak, combined with the price from the Comfort Inn's website, by a whopping $500. Much greater savings appeared on a 'special airfare' package with opaque flight details from Omaha, Nebraska to New York City, staying at the Comfort Inn Long Island City, a budget hotel just outside Manhattan. On a sample package from New York to Maui in July staying at a Westin hotel and flying on United Airlines, Priceline's price of $3,470 for two came within $20 of booking the same airfare and hotel directly through the Westin and United sites - but United also suggested alternate flights that would have saved $140 per person if you booked directly through them. In those cases, you don't find out your flight times or where you're connecting until you pay. Many packages use opaque airfares, which hide the details of your flights in exchange for big savings. Like with all sites, sometimes their packages are great deals, sometimes they aren't. You don't pay extra for the guarantee over Priceline's standard package prices. Priceline will pay you automatically within 21 days if they see it rained too much, they say. When you're booking, look for a little sun symbol and the 'Sunshine Guaranteed' logo on your specific vacation package. You have to buy your trip by July 17, travel between July 1 and September 7, and book your package at least 12 days in advance of travel. Priceline's 'Sunshine Guarantee' covers trips from three to eight days in length to certain places in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe, where airfare and hotel are both booked through Priceline's vacation packages tab. Priceline just introduced an unusual new deal for hydrophobic travelers: book a vacation package through them and get your money back if it rains while you're there. Rain, rain, go away? Book Priceline ( and travel another day. The specific promotions described in this article have now passed, but it remains online so that the resources named will be of future use to travelers.

Lowest airfares guaranteed