This is some pretty valuable information, thanks! Do you know how would one go about calculating the value of, say, a trip during a pricing game? What factors go into it (like length of trip, distance from Los Angeles, round trip, etc.)?
Well the biggest trick for trips is the "distance rule", where the further the distance from LA, the higher the price would be, and this would work only in games where multiple trips are offered. But 90% of the time, trips are offered either singularly or bunched together in a Showcase. Currently, airfare prices are down a bit, so I find that the price overall (especially for international flights) has come down compared to 5-10 years ago. Remember though that hotel rates are based on peak season, and typically, around $500 a night for three- or four-star hotel and around $1000/night if five star. All-inclusives are by far the most difficult though to price, as they can widely vary and have a number of extras that many contestants don't understand. The only trips that aren't round trip are in a few showcases (the "Around the World" type formats), where you shave about $2000 off or so. The rare "first class" airfare can occasionally happen, and generally speaking, add about $1000 if a short flight, $2000 if domestic but longer than two hours, and $5000 if overseas. Six nights is the standard length of a trip offered, but sometimes fewer and even rarer more days are built into the trip. Finally, if a trip is offered as a one-bid prize, don't bid less than $2000 if three nights and $2500 if four. But for games like Coming Or Going, you're better off just using the "Going" price. I'd say that the most difficult games for guessing the price of a trip are Freeze Frame (usually a 1 in 3, but sometimes with four or five possibilities) and Squeeze Play (especially if five digits).
