Book on Priceline and then get canned? No Problem!

Today, Priceline announced a new insurance product which protects against, among other things, job loss due to a layoff or involuntary termination. We've seen some other innovation in this area with Kia offering to cover car payments in the case of job loss and JetBlue awhile back offered to refund customer's tickets in the event they were laid off. Priceline's policy is a little different because it is not a "value add" for buying from Priceline - consumers have to actually pay for it - $16 for an air ticket and $5/ night for a hotel reservation. Still, anything that gives consumers more confidence to buy is a good thing. It will be interesting to see how it performs for hotel bookings as this is the 1st time we can remember seeing travel insurance for hotel.

On a side note, as usual, the air supplier web sites are still limited to hawking regular old travel insurance. Yawn. Once again, Priceline proves the OTAs can out innovate the suppliers - even without booking fees.