Travelocity better than Orbitz …

?!?     So far, my experience with Orbitz sucks. The most valuable lesson that I learned from my ordeal is ALWAYS check all the travel sites before (and up to 24 hours after) making a final booking and never rely on your “feelings” about a company… do some “google” search reviews before handing over your credit card number.I am a fairly sophisticated traveler. I was looking for a quick and easy Mexican vaca and following the advice on travel forums decided to book a vacation “package” through Orbitz. After researching hotels, I selected a fairly upscale non-all-inclusive property (that is sometimes a “featured listing” at Orbitz). I booked online and the next day, found the SAME upscale hotel — same flights, same days — with an upgraded room and an all-inclusive package included for just a few hundred dollars more on Travelocity.

I immediately called Orbitz and asked them to “price match” Travelocity. Orbitz would not price match. In fact, Orbitz did not, and to this day, does not, even list the all-inclusive option on their website for this hotel because (I’ve since learned) it is a new hotel offering and Orbitz’s reps advised they do not have any information about it. Here, Travelocity clearly is better than Orbitz.

Customer service directed me to the Orbitz Price Assurance Guarantee (which does not apply to packages anyway) and which in my opinion is fairly worthless to the consumer (and a peace of mind/false sense of security money-maker for Orbitz). From my reading of the guarantee, it’s basically Orbitz saying “Yes, we may overcharge customers on our website, but as long as we overcharge every sucker booking on our website, we don’t owe any sucker any refunds.” Feel free to read it yourself.

In Orbitz defense, they do not have a formal “price match” guarantee and I was offered a cancellation, but because of a timing misunderstanding, the airline tickets were issued and became non-refundable before I had the opportunity to cancel.

I escalated through Orbitz customer service and re-checked the Travelocity website everyday and every day the same flights, dates and package existed at the price I was originally quoted. Again, this makes Travelocity better than Orbitz.

Long story short, I escalated all the way up to the CEO of Orbitz. I figured that he would be happy that I notified Orbitz of a new product and helped speed the process of getting the all-inclusive option listed on the Orbitz website which would generate additional revenue for Orbitz. I thought the least he could do was match the Travelocity price.

Today, I received a call from a sugary-voiced southern woman from Orbitz customer service telling me that Orbitz will not be matching Travelocity’s price and that just this morning Orbitz received the information from the hotel about the new program and will be updating their website shortly.

Ms. Southern Accent also tells me that the Travelocity package I have been referencing is almost $1,000 more than has been showing up on my searches (going all the way through to final check-out). I tell her, “No way, I checked at 2AM this morning.” Sure enough, while we are on the phone, I check Travelocity’s site and my price is gone and she is correct — it is nearly $1,000 higher. She implies, but never states outright, that the Travelocity fare may have been a mistake OR a special offer for a limited number of rooms OR any number of other scenarios which all boil down to Orbitz not matching Travelocity’s rate.

So, for those “in the know” — what is more likely? That this was a mistake in Travelocity’s system or that Orbitz put pressure on the hotel to rescind the Travelocity offer? Could there be another explanation that I’m missing?

Assuming the rate was a Travelocity mistake, then Orbitz wins because who wants the hassle of arguing with front desk staff in a foreign country after hours of travel. But, if Orbitz flexed it’s muscle to push the Travelocity deal underground, Travelocity wins.

So, back to the original question… does Orbitz suck? Anyone out there with a similar experience with either company?

This entry was posted on July 13, 2010 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.