January 30, 2009 by aarons44.

I tried to book a vacation last night for $3200. Failed three times - twice online and once by phone. Turns out that my debit card has a $2500 daily limit. So I called my bank and requested an increase. Tried again with Orbitz, and again in failed. Tried again, and again it failed. I logged into my bank account online, and I see that my available balance is about $2200 less than my actual balance. My bank was already closed, so I waited to call them this morning. Just found out that the $2200 are transactions pending from Orbitz! Apparently, even though they failed to debit my account for the full amount, they left the transactions pending. No wonder increasing the amount didn’t help. I was going to call Orbitz to see when they will be cancelling the transaction, but after reading this site, I might just call my bank back and see if they can do it.

Update: After talking to Orbitz, it appears that it was a “ghost booking”. It happens so much, they have a term for it. Basically, they charge part of the fee, even though the booking was unsuccesful. They were very responsive on the phone, promising me that the booking did not actually happen, and that the funds would be freed up. IN 3-10 BUSINESS DAYS! Who can afford to have an extra $2000 tied up that long? Not me. They told me to contact my bank, but my bank can’t do anything without Orbitz faxing them an authorization. Don’t think that will happen. Time to call my Congressmen and let them know how I feel about this. It’s probably not illegal, but it should be.

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January 30, 2009 by redman84.

Last year, my girlfriend and I decided to take a week vacation to Charleston, South Carolina. Instead of choosing to drive, we decided lets just fly, stay downtown and walk everywhere we need to go. However, our plans did not come through as we initially planned. We booked our air travel on US Airways through Orbitz. About a week after booking air travel, every hotel that was within our price range on the peninsula in downtown walking distances was booked solid and we were forced to make the decision to stay over in Mount Pleasant. We decided at this time, rather than pay for a rental car all week, we would cancel our trip on Orbitz and drive the six hours to Charleston. Upon our cancellation, we were made aware that we were given one year to re-use our Orbitz credit of $513.00 with a $100 US Airways re-booking fee and the $30 Orbitz fee. Not seen as a major issue at the time, so we did not make any issue with this.

Now, almost one year later and a deadline for travel to be completed by February 16th, we decided to make a quick 2 night get away back to Charleston and use a rental car service for two days. After researching hotels, car prices, and finally choosing flights on US Airways that would fit best into our schedule, I called Orbitz to rebook the trip. And this is where it went downhill…quickly. I told the customer service rep that I had found some flights on the Orbitz website that were ideal for our travel. She asked me what the departure times were….I told her…and then this is where it gets to be a serious issue. As follows:

What I found was a departure from RDU to CLT at 7am, change planes, then CLT to CHS arrive at 10am. Return flight, CHS to CLT at 3pm then, CLT to RDU arrive appx 5:30. This particular trip for two would cost, according to Orbitz for two passengers, $399.98. I told the customer service rep of this and she told me that it was no longer available, that she would have to pick the flights for me from US Airways back-end server. Instead, this lady had flying from RDU to PHL at 7am then PHL to CHS arriving at 11:30 and on return CHS to PHL at 12pm, then PHL to RDU, arriving at 5pm. I wasn’t at all thrilled by this, actually very upset that I could not connect out of an airport within a 30 minute flight from home, and instead having to fly completely out of my way to get to and from my destination. But here is where it gets worse and I will make this as clear to understand as possible:

This is what Orbitz offered me as the best option

Initial cost of Travel: $513.00 (credit to account)

US Airways rebook fee: $100.00 per ticket ($200.00)

Orbitz rebook fee: $30.00 per ticket ($60.00)

Cost of new travel arrangements:$393.90 per ticket… ($787.80 for 2)

Total: $534.80 to owe Orbitz in order to travel.

Grand Total w/ existing credit:  $1047.80

That is completely outrageous and by no means fair. They are asking me to pay them more than the initial trip cost was to complete my travel. Worst of all, I have basically 2 weeks to figure out what in the world I am supposed to do. An overall charge of over a thousand dollars for 1 round trip, for two people, and the longest flight of all four is about 40 minutes is completely insane, unfair, and absolute extremely poor business practice. For them to dictate what a paying customer can and cannot do and not even allowing them to chose the least expensive option is just down right piss poor. Now we’re either out of $524.79 which I still don’t understand why that is not our credit and they’re only giving us $513, or I’m forced to pay another $500+ dollars to travel. Its a no win situation and extremely frustrating and rather quite disturbing. I will never use their service again after this.

If anyone has any suggestions on any actions I can take please, let me know. I just really hate to lose my money and better yet, throw more complete unnecessary money down the drain.

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January 18, 2009 by bamako.

I just spent 5 hours on the phone to orbitz- mostly on hold to try and change my ticket. When they did actually get around to talking to me- they gave me a different story every time, kept telling me I had to contact the airline directly- which I would and they would tell me it was orbitz I should be talking to and then I would have to be on hold again before I was able to talk to someone. Then they tell me that all their supervisors are busy and that someone will call me back- no one did. I got so frustrated I called the out of US customer service number and finally got someone who at least attempted to help me, but in the end couldn’t. I called the airline one last time and finally they took pity on me because orbitz was being such stonewalling assholes, that they took care of it. Then I get a call from orbitz telling me that the issue is resolved as if they had anything to do with it. Ugh !!!!!!! 

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January 9, 2009 by sukilove.

I have worked in hotel management for ten years.  I’m going to give you a few simple tips when booking, something you should know before you leap to ’save’ a few dollars!

It’s a good idea to always call the hotel previous to jumping online trying to save a few dollars by booking through Orbitz.  Ask your hotel if they have specials, discounts or even coupons.  Never fail to call the hotel first.  If the first person you speak with at the hotel doesn’t give you a discount, it doesn’t mean that the person on the next shift won’t!

Orbits and other hotel booking agencies will basically fill the lower end rooms of a hotel for reservations.  Most if not all hotels will put Orbitz and other agencies into the cheapest rooms that they have. Your special request is never ever guarenteed.  The hotel typically will take these reservations to fill up empty rooms.  Most of the rooms they fill first are rooms that are there lowest prices. Want to be by the indoor pool?  I say it’s not going to happen, you’re going to be far away from the best aspects of the hotel.  You’re going to get the crappiest room.  I am sure that not all hotels are like this, but a majority of them will be.  They get paid $40 for a room that a walk in guest would normally pay $70 for.  You are not going to get a great deal.  The hotel is not to show you your receipt.  Orbitz and the hotel does not want you to know how much Orbitz is making for booking your reservation. Most likely you have paid the same rate the hotel would have charged you and you don’t get as many choices or options if you would have called the hotel directly.

Also, some hotel booking companies will NOT guarentee a preference like smoking or non-smoking, ground floor, pool side, single or double bed, etc.  You basically pay Orbitz to hold a room for you, you are never guaranteed a preference and you could be paying more for a room than you would have booking it at a hotel.

If you are truly interested in booking a good stay at a hotel, and you don’t want to waste your money, do comparison shopping with the hotels in the area you are staying in first.  Call the hotels first!  Don’t just look at their website for prices, call the hotel and ask for discounts!  The people working at the hotel KNOW their property, they know what will be best suited for your tenure in one or more of their rooms.  Orbitz takes your money to hold a room for you.  They may  even charge you more than the hotel will.  You will most likely be put into a room that you will loathe.

The only good time to book a hotel through Orbitz is if you simply don’t care what kind of room you will get and are willing to gamble, you also already know that the hotel rates are higher than Orbitz.

One last thing, and yes I have done this for my customers!—–Ask the hotel to match the Orbitz rate!  Don’t be shy!  I do it all of the time.  Not only will you be better off booking it at the hotel, you are going to be well informed of what your hotel room and stay will be like. You won’t be in the dark about it!  You will also be avoiding the fees you’re paying to Orbitz!  They don’t like to cancel reservations!  I know that if a potential guest is going to book online with Orbitz, I will only make about $40 on that room.  I would normally make $70. Orbitz will charge them $60.  I can make that $60 matching their rate, getting the full price and Orbitz doesn’t make any profit, my hotel does.  Some hotels MAY NOT do this, but it certainly does not ever hurt to ask!  The hotel can make more by giving you this discount than by letting Orbitz take your money and book it for you.

Knowing the way  many hotels set up Orbitz reservations, I would always suggest to spend your time talking to the hotel reservations office first.  Skip the third party booking and the hassle of never knowing where you’re going to end up in that fancy resort you chose for your wedding night…(only to end up near a loud elevator and ice machine with a broken toilet in a smoking handicapped room with a twin bed).  Ok, that was a joke but still……it’s a gamble, one I would prefer not to waste my money on.  They capitalize on filling empty crap rooms at hotels and taking a huge fee to do so.

My basic point is that hotels utilize Orbitz to fill empty rooms, to raise their ADR/RevPar, to gain revenue for rooms that otherwise will not be rented.  Orbitz even states on some of their hotel mailings that they are great for filling up unwanted rooms (NOT WORDED exactly that way but the meaning is there).

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