Comments on: Soft charges ‘Fall off’ ???

By: steven

steven — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:42:52 +0000

President and CEO of Orbitz is Barney Harford
barney.harford@orbitz.com. I’m sure he’d love to hear from everyone.

By: steven

steven — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:54:50 +0000

Orbitz has a big green banner over “Flights” that clearly states “NO FEES”. Apparently that only means in certain cases. I was billed $6.99 for a flight and told that they get complaints about that all the time, by Laura at Orbitz. She said the No Fee policy does not count for international, multi-airline, delta, or American airlines. What deception! These people suck; use a different site, there are plenty to choose from because these people don’t deserve our business.

By: Kristian Erik Hermansen

Kristian Erik Hermansen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:12:24 +0000

I had the same issue! They charged me 7 times! I was able to request a couple vouchers for the inconvenience, however, now that I go to use them on another flight and guess what?!?!? Well, I have the same issue again with probelsm booking the flight. Orbitz.com really sucks when using debit cards for booking flights…horrendous. They need to hire some competent application developers and staff support because they appear clueless. http://kristian-hermansen.blogspot.com

By: argo

argo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:37:39 +0000

Orbitz really screwed me up. My fiance booked our honeymoon and I tried to change a flight–YEAH RIGHT!

Their OrbitzTLC team, which could only stand for Orbitz Total Load of CRAP, received and responded to my emails without reading them, just as they did to you. I even put numbers by my questions and they said I didn’t ask them any.

The larger issue was that they would refund the ticket, less change fees, but I had to book and fly 2 weeks before I had booked the original tickets for–something that no one in their right mind would do.

They messed up my honeymoon. If Orbitz had a face, I’d mess it up.

Bottom line, I’m going to the BBB with this one.

By: Orbitz LIES

Orbitz LIES — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:19:40 +0000

Ty Dub …WTF?

They billed me $1322.95 for a $646.69 flight! They did drop the OVERCHARGE after a few days…but I could not use my account until then. Orbitz had maxed out my account

Debit cards are just like credit cards! They are processed immediately, within seconds! I have ten years worth of recepts to show me they are.

Orbitz is the ONE that was totaly screwed up.

By: Ty Dub

Ty Dub — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:57:18 +0000

That’s how debit card transactions work, my friend. I’m not defending Orbitz at all, and I have no affiliation to them. I’m not saying they never rip people off, but in your case, it is your fault for not understanding how a debit card works. It’s not just Orbitz that do these “soft charges”, but pretty much ANYWHERE that takes a debit card, although most of the time(90% or so) you don’t notice that this happened, either because it’s resolved fairly quick, or because the amount put “on hold” is close to the cost used on the debit card.

You can google how a debit card actually works, and this will clear up your confusion on the subject.

Everyone assumes check card/debit cards are like credit cards, and that they process immediately. This is not the case, as a debit/check card work more like a check.

Companies just check to see if you have funds available in your account, and authorize your card based on whether you do or not, then they put X amount of dollars on hold, to insure that they get their money after the process clears (7 - 10 days) This is why it seems like an immediate transaction. If they didn’t do this, it would take you a lot longer to purchase some things, as the card would just be treated like a check.

By: oxforduniversity

oxforduniversity — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:14:22 +0000

I have used Orbitz, hotwire, Expedia and Travelocity, all have their pro’s and con’s.

I spotted a site called Anyfares.com, find air tickets so cheap that my savings were about 35% cheaper than Orbitz, hotwire, Expedia and Travelocity. Flights internationally such as Europe in particular that are great and South American, China and middle East countries, they have expcellent rates. Demastic though there are some what competitive where I used either Hotwire or the airlines direct from their web sites.

What I really like about Anyfares.com is they sell tickets on US dollars in foreign countries and all their tickets are e-tickets so if you are in France and need a fight to St.Petersburg Russia or London or Franskfurt, they sell everything in US dollars and you have your tickets emailed in 10 minutes so you can just travel just like that. Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, they sell their tickets if you are out of the US, they will charged you the currency in that country if you want to fly from there to somewhere else. So if I was in France for example and I want to fly to London, Frankfurt or anywhere, they will charged me in Euros or Pound Notes (it is like charging you double when the US dollar is so weak) when if you are an American and want to save, you can’t save because Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity will charged the currency if you are outside the United States but with Anyfares.com, they don’t. Euro’s, Swiss Marks, British Pounds, Russian Rubles and etc, they currencies are high to the US dollar and if you are an American, you are stuck if you have to meet those currencies if you have only US dollars.

So consider if you have a money budget and you can’t afford the high currencies, try http://www.anyfares.com

Jim