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?

I mean, I’d like to visit Madrid, but I’d like to do it when I’m planning on it.

but before some of general information..

1.- see that some of you suggest that use orbitz only to see fares and then book directly with the airline, ok no prob!

but check the fares online!! do not talk to our sales department,the agents are suposed to sell every call that get into their phones,and a call thta is just questions or stupid questions it causes that the agents get frustrated and fired, (im not kidding)

here it is an example:

hello im online searching for a roundtrip flight,blablablabla, but when i click on it it says that i need to contact the airline, so what do i need to do??

mmm seriously isnt that obvious??

2.- yes! there is always glitches and problems within our website,BUT, none of CS agents,sales agents and supervisors knows why its happening, Orbitz does not have any technical support or any IT department, so stop getting angry with people that does not control the system, and with people that only receives a briefing that its like, when the page says sorry we are unable to complete your request,close your browser and try again.

im not kidding that the suggested thing to do directly from orbitz

so please try to understand that we can help you out trying to complete the reservation from our computers, SOMETIMES we can confirm your reservations perfectly, and other times we receive the same response,error message like you, AND ITS NOT OUR FAULT

3.- What i mentioned before also applies for why if it is a flight not available why its showing on the website

answer: ITS NOT THE AGENTS FAULT,THEY DONT DONT KNOW THE ANSWER AND THEY CANNOT DO ANYTHING TO FIX IT, JUST TO SEND A REPORT TO ORBITZ WORLD WIDE.

4.- YES! the prices change everytime on the website, so if you are online on in the phone with a sales rep, and you get a low fare, buy it in that moment!

I was tired to hear…100 dlls more?? but i saw it cheaper in your webiste…oh really when was that sir? mmm about two days ago…mmm seriously??

5.-If it says due to changes to availability the price that you selected is no longer available,, its because that what its happening!!

why do you talk and ask why is it happening and what you can do..there is a message there that says TRY SELECTING ANOTHER FLIGHT.

6.-i dont think this will be the chase but sometimes people talk to buy but they dont have email adress or credit card,

WE NEED AN EMAIL ADRESS,WE SELL E-TICKETS OK? also we do not accept gift cards that does not have any billing adress on it.

7. Very important…if you are not willing to pay UP to 25 dlls to book a flight online, if you are not willing to pay that for something do the things that you dont want or dont know how to do it by yourself then dont call us, that fee only apllies for flights and its the only pay for the sales agents, so stop trying to get your reservations free of charge with the help of one employee that takes 8 hours of calls and does not receive a pay for it,thats just selfish from our customers side.

and i think thats it from now maybe in these days i can update this post

meanwhile i will wait for your comments,curses and questions,

If reading this inspired you that i was angry while i writed this, no i was not

cheers

My issue is that I booked with Orbitz for a stay(flight and hotel) at Barcelo Mismaloya in Puerto Vallarta for the middle of May 2010. I did my due diligence and read as much as I could about this resort before booking, mainly using Trip Advisor. The reviews for the hotel were magnificent… BEFORE i booked the trip (early March). Basickly a few days after reports of illnesses started coming in and they still have been for the last month and half!!!. I dont want to risk my health at this resort. The management at the hotel doesn’t seem to care from all the reviews I have read.

I called  Orbitz and spoke to a customer service rep and they told me that they could cancel the hotel portion of the trip and I can book another hotel. The problem with this is it costs us a lot more then what we originally paid for the vacation. A Lot of $$$$!!!! Basically because its no longer a package we would end up paying almost double!

I’m really hoping Orbitz can resolve this somehow! If any Orbitz customer relations people read this, please get in touch.  I received a response from Orbitz customer relations a they are monitoring the situation at Barcelo, if the issue continues (as I still have 4 weeks left to go) then they will look into it further. Thank you Orbitz for promptly taking action about this issue.

Thank you for listening to my story.

Here are the reviews from Trip Advisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g150793-d153550-Reviews-Barcelo_La_Jolla_de_Mismaloya-Puerto_Vallarta_Pacific_Coast.html

So you would assume that Orbitz would treat customer complaints seriously, right?  I mean especially if you give them your credit card and have them charge you for a specific hotel.  I mean…would you pay the price of a Mercedes, if you knew that last second the car salesman pulls out a Toyota with defective brakes, and says…”I have no more Mercedes cars, but here is a Toyota…and you already were charged for the price of the Mercedes.” You would probably avoid a situation like this.  To the same degree, you should avoid Orbitz.  We complained to Orbitz right away, at which point our complaints were completed ignored, and we were told we should have called while we were in Paris. With which phone should we have called?  Ohh..and would they have paid the charge?  Probably not!  Hmm…and waste even more time…I think not.  We expected Orbitz to handle this like a company that cares about the customer.

After this, I call up American Express, and demand that the charge be frozen, as Orbitz did not keep up with its part of the contract.  This gets better…This was in September.  Now it’s February, and Orbitz has the audacity to call me up and demand that I pay or have my bill be given to debt collectors, which will hurt my credit.  I tell them again the situation, and they say, “The hotel did not claim you had any complaints.”  Which hotel are you talking about Orbitz?  The one that we booked…or the one we were forced to move into on a makeshift basis with clogged bathtub?  It’s funny how Orbitz is willing to take the side of the hotel, and tell me, “the hotel won’t refund us because they said you had no complaints, so therefore we need to charge you, and if you refuse to pay, we will report you.”  We have pictures to prove that the bathroom was clogged, which we sent to Orbitz, but were ignored.

How about this Orbitz…why don’t you listen to your customers once in a while, especially those that have used you in the past?  There’s a marketing concept…If a company (i.e. Orbitz) treats a customer unfairly, the customer will tell nearly 20 people about their negative experience.  When a company treats a customer well, the customer will only tell 5 people about their positive experience.  What’s the moral of the story?  When a customer complains, take it seriously, and don’t attempt to bully them and make excuses.  Ohh…and one more thing…Hire people that understand this theory.

I hope this gives everyone a nice little taste of what booking something with Orbitz is like.