Priceline says mobile flight bookers like taking it easy

Priceline.com is one of the most well-known flight- and hotel-booking sites out there, and the company recently shared some information with TUAW about how its mobile device-based users tend to set up travel. The company identified three trends for the people booking flights from mobile devices like iPhones and iPads, presumably through the company's iOS app.

First, those who booked air travel on mobile devices tended to be younger than the average purchaser of a flight ticket on a desktop. The average age for a mobile booker was around 32, about six years younger than desktop users. That still seems old to me, but it makes sense that the people booking flights tend to be older, as they're most likely to have the money for traveling this way.

Mobile air bookers also tend to book things closer in advance, says Priceline, and about half of those booking flights by mobile device only booked one-way tickets, which the company says means those users like to make plans on the move rather than far ahead of time.

Finally, mobile bookers had one big advantage: They tended to pay less for their tickets, with an average price of $283 as compared to desktop users' $315. I'm not sure that means mobile bookers have a nose for deals necessarily; maybe it just means that people tend to book pricier flights on the desktop in general. No matter what the reason, it's definitely interesting that there are such clear differences between Priceline's mobile users and those on the desktop.