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CB Travel and Vacations Orbitz horrifying service, dishonesty, scams
Orbitz

Orbitz review: horrifying service, dishonesty, scams 90

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Author of the review
12:00 am EST
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

I have been using Oribtz for many years and I used to love their service even when I ran into problem. But for the past 6 months, My husband and I have had numerous problems with them although we have separate accounts and have never dealt with them together on 1 particular case. Their India Call Center is horrible and I was hung up on multiple times by that call center in India (by Joseph and another lady) and by a supervisor named Brandon in the U.S. Call center. The funniest call was the one that I just had 10 minutes ago where I was being conferenced to Alitalia, but instead, Orbitz hung up and I ended up with Alitalia alone, then I was on another hour hold with all kinds of strange noises and finally they hung up. I have spent at least 8 hours in the past 3 days trying to straighten out my credit with them and use it to purchase another ticket.

My experience tells me that whenever you cancel something with Oribtz, they do their best to annoy you and put up road blocks so they can steal your money. I was told clearly by their rep when i cancelled a trip that I can book the flight within 1 year of that day for any travel date. I stressed with them: "are you sure I will be able to book it for a later flight as long as I book by Jan xx, 2007, they assured me :"yes mam etc.." Now I call back, on top of everything else, they suddenly tell me i have to travel by the 10th, and I told them that some screwed up, and their supervisor's response was that even if their reps told me otherwise, there were policies stated online" I told him:" I tried to look for that, and it says it's not available". He said: "well, it should have been there when you booked". Well, I talked to them after I booked and cancelled, their words mean nothing obviously and has no credibility.

My husband was going to use them as a corporate travel agent since his company is always sending people all over the place for consulting work, but after this, we are going with expedia. I haven't had the energy to call back since the last time I was hung up (15 minutes ago) because it's just not worth it and that's probably how they make their money. I'd rather lose 1400 dollars than have to go through that kind of torture again, first with people who didn't speak English or could even comprehend me, then with people who claim not to know how to use their phone and hang up on me, then to supervisor that put me on "hour long" hold, and then finally hanging up on me again. I am sad that my favorite travel site has come to this.

90 comments
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Bbuerger
, US
Feb 23, 2012 12:25 am EST

Wow, there is obviously a trend here. I've been an Orbitz customer since October 28, 2001...over 10 years (I have my original registration email). In August of last year, I purchased 4 round trip nonstop tickets. The return carrier decided to change our original nonstop flight to one with a layover. Since I was traveling with two small children, I called Orbitz to cancel the flights as this was not what I purchased. I was assured by an Orbitz representative on 9/28/2011, after they spoke with the carriers, that I would be receiving a credit for these flights. I PROMPTLY REBOOKED ACCEPTABLE FLIGHTS THAT SAME DAY. Two weeks later I received an email stating that my credit request was denied. Again, I called Orbitz on 10/11/2011 and again, after their representative spoke with the carriers, I am told that I should be receiving a credit for the original tickets. Just yesterday (2/21/2012), after recognizing that I never received a credit or even another email denying the request, I called Orbitz. Again, the representative said that I should have received a credit, told me that his system notes indicate I was told I would receive a credit, and called the carriers who said they issued a credit but it was denied for some reason. He then told me the previous Orbitz representative "should not have told you that (I would receive a credit)" and would be passing me to his supervisor who kept repeating the phrase "I'm not able to do anything for you". Bottom line, I spent lots of money rebooking flights consistent with my original purchase based on the information Orbitz conveyed only to find out later that that the Orbitz representative "should not have told you that". I run a business with 30 people that I am ultimately responsible for. If one of my staff makes a representation to a customer, I follow through on it even if it doesn't immediately benefit my organization. I will be taking my travel business as well as those who work for me elsewhere.

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Mike_D_in_Tampa
Seminole, US
Aug 18, 2016 2:55 am EDT

Made travel plans with Orbitz, thier site steered me to the travel insurance company "Access America".
my mother died unexpectedly. Canx the trip, submitted claim. Access America ran me through the ringer- they first would not accept the death certificate, then demanded I get a doctors evaluation. Getting a doctors write-up proving that this was not an underlying condition (which it said so on the doctors report) still was not enough, and they denied the claim. Ban Orbitz and this company, this is a scam and they need to be shut down. Oh, and this hellish process took over three months! SAVE your money folks, AVOID ORBITZ and ACCESS AMERICA.

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Mclmar
De Soto, US
Aug 17, 2016 7:34 am EDT

I was trying to book a vacation for 6 people for about $6500.00. First when I called they said the flight that was listed on-line that we were interested in was no longer available (of course) so we could choose an alternate one (all of which were more expensive) and that we would have to book two separate trips because they can only reserve 2 rooms at a time.

So after booking 4 of us and two rooms we tried to book the other 2 with one room but the transaction would not go through. I said I would call my bank to check on it. When I did I discovered two additional charges (besides the $4400 for the first 4 I had just paid) for $1189 each. I contacted Orbitz about this and they said they were 'soft charges' that occurred when they tried to book the flights that were not available. They said they would contact my bank. After getting disconnected a couple times and trying to get back to the same person I was talking to (impossible I was told), I finally talked to a supervisor. Basically I was told by my bank that they could do nothing and that the charges would have to 'roll off after a few days' and told by Orbitz that was the only thing they could do. One agent told me after all of this that 'that's why you shouldn't use a debit card'. They should have told me that before they accepted my card- like the car rental companies do. So I had to cancel my other reservations because I could not guarantee that we could book the rest of our party. They told me that it would take up to 5 days to get my money refunded. So here I am after spending a day arguing with Orbitz and trying to book a fair size trip with them and having them charge my bank account $6778, with no reservations and no way to book somewhere else because it will take 3-5 days for me to get access to that money again.I don't know about most people but I do not have a spare $7000 to work with. This is one of the most frustrating unpleasant experiences I have had - with anyone! I just hope I can get flights when I finally get my money...

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Malcolm Dale
, US
Aug 16, 2016 3:49 pm EDT

I checked Orbitz for a flight to UK ended up using another company. I now get 3-4 emails every week from them despite going to their website and unsubscribing. They just won't stop.

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Cmb53703
, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

This seems to be a common thing with Orbitz, promising refunds and consistently failing to deliver on that promise. My experience is with Orbitz's Hotel Club site, and I can say that their customer service is rude and incompetent on a good day.

When I discovered that I would not be able to go to San Francisco as originally planned, I called Hotel Club/Orbitz to cancel. On the other end I was promised a full refund in 10 working days. Ten working days have long since passed and I have not gotten the refund.

Every time I have called their Third World call center, I have been connected to someone who can barely speak English and who promises the refund "soon." No one is able to give me a date on the refund, so that tells me they have no intention of issuing the refund.

Orbitz and their affiliated companies are to be avoided at all costs. Never have I dealt with such awful customer service. I mean these people suck to high heaven.

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aoprilbabee
Keller, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

Purchased a one way ticket on Mon, price changed on Tues by $60. cheaper, they will not do anything for you..their policy is to refund the difference ... IF...someone else purchases a ticket for the same day, same flight & also would have to be a oneway ticket... too many "IF's"
..Orbitz blames United, United blames Orbitz & stated Orbitz would have to make a refund, but it has to be within their "IF's" to qualify, what a rip off, customer is just out of luck.

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etecbill
Beaverton, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

Formal Complaint over Orbitz not honoring price Assurance Guarantee
Two r/t tickets PDX to NBO (6/12/10 – 6/1910) for $2, 274, 09 purchased 3/19/10– New search on your website on 3/29/10 showed r/t fare including the taxes to be $2, 123. For a total difference of $151.09 X 2 passengers = $302.18 = total difference.

To qualify for Price Assurance, customer’s flight including origin, destination, dates, airline, flight number, booking and other restrictions must match qualifying booking. Maximum refund is $250.

Orbitz places the burden of proof of these exact conditions on the Customer when we do not have access to your books to prove if any customer booked the exact booking or if Orbitz slightly changed the itinerary to avoid having to pay $151.08 per ticket, on our high-priced round-trip to Africia.

It is not just that we monitored and found that Orbitz was quoting a $302.18 lower fare on this exact itinerary but that it must be placed on the exact same date, flight, airline, etc. and that is what we consider “very deceptive and unfair advertising” on Orbitz part.

This is a 100% scam whose purpose is to get potential clients excited about the mere possibility of getting a partial refund at a later date. Then you make them wait for months to even get a refund.

[protected]

https://www.orbitz.com/Secure/SignIn

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OrbitzSux
, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

My wife and I bought tickets threw Orbitz.com from Poland to the States, having one connecting flight from Chicago to our destination. I have had terrible experiences with both CheapTickets.com and Expedia, so I thought I would try a new service. I read all the fine print before purchasing and they still managed to be screwed in the end.

Orbitz.com sold us tickets on two different airlines (Lot Polish Air and United) that DO NOT have a baggage agreement with only a 2 hour layover time between flights. This means that not only do we have to pay to check our luggage twice with two different airlines, that we will be forced to deal with customs, collect our baggage, change terminals with all our luggage in tow, check in for our domestic connecting flight, pass threw security and make our flight all in under 2 hours. Where as this may be possible if everything works perfectly and the ques are light, I wanted to make sure there wasn’t something I could do to get a little more time being that I am a realist and have traveled internationally quite often.

After spending 1.5 hours on the phone with their customer service, I was told by two different people (one a service rep, then one a supervisor) first that we WOULD NOT have to check our bags again only to have them contradict themselves 10 minutes later after they actually checked with the airlines we will be flying with.

In fact, I was put on hold for 8 minutes by the service rep who then ‘called the airline’ only to find out it was closed because ‘it was 3 am in Poland.’ I informed her that I was calling via Skype from Poland and that it was in fact 11:00 am. I asked if she had actually tried to call at all and if so, what was the number? She said that they cannot give out the numbers because they are specifically for services such as Orbitz.com or the like.

Completely confused as to what she was saying, I asked her about possibly moving the flight time of the connecting flight back to give us more time. She informed me that it would $200 per ticket to do this and add 4 hours to our layover time. I explained to her that I was on Orbitz.com and that the ticket price for the exact same flight we were now talking about was only $112 including all taxes and fees. I asked her why would I spend $400 to move tickets when I could just buy two more for $224? She told me that if I did it this way, I would not receive my money back for the original tickets I booked.

Obviously, I asked if I paid the $200 per flight ‘transferring fee’ would we then receive money for the original flights? She said no. I asked why would she even bring it up in the first place if it wasn’t an option at all to which she replied, and I quote, ‘These are the tickets you purchased and agreed to so there is nothing we can do about it.’
I then asked to speak to her manager. I was connected with a woman named Luna who I was forced to explain the entire situation to again. I asked how Orbitz.com could sell ticket combinations for international flights not taking into account all these issues? She told me repeatedly that ‘the computer says its enough time according to the airlines standards.’ When I asked her if this was a standard situation, she agreed that it was not and told me that these times are ‘based on domestic connections.’ I asked her if she knew what she was now saying and if she really thought it made sense and she launched into whatever the monitor she was sitting in front of told her to say, repeating it over and over.

We went around and around, me explaining the situation in as many different ways as I could and her speaking but not actually saying anything until she told me she would do ‘some research and put me on hold.’ After 11 minutes, she came back telling me that there WAS in fact a baggage agreement and that I wouldn’t have to worry about checking the luggage at all. I told her, again, that this contradicted what the previous woman had told me and asked her to make sure.

After being on hold for another 10 minutes, she came back and said that she had spoke to Lot Airlines (who had previously been closed because it was 3 am in Poland according to the first woman) and that there WAS NOT a baggage agreement but that ‘they said it was probably enough time.’ I was so furious at this point that I asked her if she realized she just contradicted herself. She ignored the question completely and went back into her schpiel about how ‘the computer says its enough time.’

It took me asking 4 more times for her to admit that the was wrong about the baggage agreement and then put me on hold yet again only to return to say that she was just told that if we miss our connecting flight, that United would move our tickets to the next available flight free of charge because ‘their standard times were in fact not enough.’

I asked her if I could get something stating this emailed to me and she said they had no way of sending out emails from their computers. I asked her then what would Orbitz.com do for me if I get there and this isn’t actually correct and I am forced to pay for additional tickets as well as checked luggage? I told her that I had in fact been recording this entire conversation and that I just had her making a guarantee that I wouldn’t be charged if I miss the connecting flight. She asked if I could hold again, I said yes, and the call then dropped.
She hung up on me after an hour and a half of contradicting information and mistruths.
It is my plan to call every day, record the conversations and make their lives hell until I get satisfaction. Actually, what I should say is, until I get reasonable service for my nearly $2000 spent with this horrible company.

Please do not use this service at all unless you want to deal with the same sort of situations. I wish that I could possibly suggest a better service but I haven’t had much luck with any similar in the past. Granted, the situations have been different, but the complete lack of care for the customer has been exactly the same.

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Oposse
, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

The hotel was difficult to locate due to the fact that it was still under construction. Half of the facility was incomplete.

The pool was kept locked, there were no lights in the parking area during the evening, and phone service was only local and only after calling the front desk.

The water was shut off intermittently for repairs and only one ice machine was available for an entire bank of occupied rooms.

I voiced my complaint to the manager who stated that, "Repairs were in progress; wait a while, and the ice will come down... and buy a phone card if you want to call out."

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bluemoore
Wilmington, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

I planned my vacation to Ohio. It would've been my Mother and Father's 60th wedding anniversary;sadly my Father passed in November. Also my sister was there visiting from memphis who I never see.I had a 2 day migraine and had to xl my flight with orbitz yet had purchased travel insurance through Access America. The same PM of the day I was to leave originally, I started feeling better. It has been 4 days now and I have not heard a word from anybody to get my flight rebooked! NOT A WORD! I wanted to rebook it the very same day I canceled. Orbitz customer service didn't helpt at all if you can understand them;advised me to get in touch with Access America! I cannot! They will not respond! Now it is too late for my trip andI am reporting both companies to BBB..unless they agree to give me a refund. The agreement was I was able to rebook before May 2010..hellloooo? I spent $453+...they want something from a Dr according to the site... which I didn't need to go to;I've had migraines my whole life! This has been a disheartened time and I have spend everyday in bed crying. I will NEVER do business with ORBITZ or ACCESS AMERICA AGAIN! Here I come BBB!

Now my vacation is almost over and I do not get another until next year!

I demand a refund of all money exchanged with these companies! I demand a credit on my cc immediatley! Although nothing can replace that very special week.

In addition to my other comments:
...I FINALLY just received an email after days and days..2 actually, one was from a "sara" that used capital letters which we ALL know, lol..you do not ever use capital letters when emailing a customer! She was yelling at me.Then she tells me I have to have a Dr fill out a form for the reason I had to cancel my flight..then I'd have to wait 5-7 business days! Well, my vacation is over...I have explained to them 4 times I didn't have to go to the Dr., then she wanted all my receipts, proof, of payment, flight info..etc. Everything was in the email I have sent to them all these times. I'm taking this to the Attorney general's office Now!
I just received another email tday 6/10/11, they said I needed to read all terms! I DID! Otherwise I wouldn't have purchased it! I always get travel insurance, but have never used this insurance or Orbitz. They said if it would make me feel better, I could still file a claim!...I am looking for every complaint website or resource I can find!

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Bulbay
, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

I called customer service - to ask for assisytance they were rude told me I had no comeback refused to let me speak with a suppervysor. Took no responsability for the product they sell - claimed it was nothing to do with them an dwe are simply out $1800 They also told me they would consider changing only the date of the flight not the airline or destination for a fee that amounts to 460 for the two tickets! Well thats useless as we will now NOT be going to France at all so what good is it? They have my money, why cant they just ge me a credit towards my next ticket? Because they are thieves!

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myrnalabo
, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT

I was in the middle of buying an airline ticket one way for 78 bucks and in a matter of minutes price went up to 112.00. So, I figured they are going up, i should buy them now. Well, hours later I looked directly on Spirit airlines and the tickets were $59. What a difference! I could not believe it. I called customer service, the lady at Orbitz said that she couldn't refund me and that she could match it for 87 just like one in the morning flight.

So, I asked her than "would have to change my flight right?"
She answered "no."
And so I said than I want to do that.
She says let me transfer you over to the department that changes flights.

I told her you just told me that i didnt have to.
she replies with oh well there will be a charge if you change it.

Im thinking do you know what you are doing !

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compose12
richland, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:36 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I booked a package with Orbitz. The flight schedule changed to be a couple hours earlier which was ok. Orbitz didn't change the time of the car reservation though. I called the car rental agency. They said to call Orbitz. I called Orbitz. They said they couldn't help and transferred me to their "package" department. Before transferring me, I said, , , , don't hang up on me. The guy said, if you're hung up on, I'll call you back. He "transferred" me, and I was disconnected. Note that I was calling from a landline so it isn't cell service that was the issue. It's been 10 minutes. He hasn't called me back. I'm about to call again.Calling again at 3:18 pm after no call back - automated - getting transferred to an agent - 3:19 pm - on hold - i have an agent- too many numbers - I gave her too many 9's the first time - of course, it's my fault - now transferring to the packaging specialist - again - let's see if we get disconnected - 3:22 p.m. - on hold - i have a person - very soft voice and hard to hear - have to do a record locator again - asked for more verifications - now on hold once again - more Beethoven - 3:24 pm - all I'm trying to do is get the car rental time updated which Orbitz should have done themselves when the flight time change occurred. 3:26 pm and still on hold - this booking is for a wedding trip - I've now heard virtually the entire Beethoven piece so I'll have a real knowledge of it for the wedding I guess - 3:30 pm and still on hold -3:35pm - mike is my "customer service" agent - he's working on it. He has put me on hold AGAIN! i think the only song they have on hold is the Beethoven wedding song - 3:39pm - and he's come back on the line to say "it's done" - only 21 minutes...really?

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Vicky
, US
Aug 12, 2016 7:35 am EDT

Booked a trip to Punta Cana with an advertised discount of 15%. Did not receive the discount but did get 4 different excuses why. Obviously staff is not qualified, nobody has the same excuse twice. Flights changed, received alert, this was okay. Flights changed a second time with no alert. I happened to find this change by logging onto my trips. My connecting flight in New York left before I arrived there. I managed to get this fixed after several phone calls and emails(which I don't think they actually read as they're responses made no sense). Customer service is awful, they make no attempt to make their clients happy.

I have booked with BJ's vacations for many years with no problem, and will never book with Orbitz again.

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EdwF87
, US
Dec 09, 2009 5:34 am EST

Orbitz Customer service is horrible. I talked to 5 people up to the night supervisor.

I booked a cruise with Orbitz on November 3rd, 2009. Had a family emergency and called for a refund on November 4th, 2009. I have not been through so much crap with any company like orbitz all my life.

It was a nightmare trying to get my refund back. I waited till December 1, 2009 to get my refund and it wasn't there. I called Carnival Cruise line and they informed me that they were waiting on paperwork from whomever I booked the cruise through. This was Orbitz Worldwide Inc.

This is where the nightmare began. I was on the phone for 2 hours after an Orbitz Associate told me that they had to re-send some information to Carnival Cruise line. Who knows what would have happened if I didn't call Carnival in the first place...because in the beginning of my call...an Orbitz employee told me that it may just take a bit longer. After I told him that I have talked to carnival and they are awaiting information to be sent from Orbitz that should have been sent 4 weeks ago.

So with that out of the way...The orbitz cruise customer service employee informed me that she would be calling me back on December 8th, 2009

This was a week away and I couldn't wait until I received that phone call with good news that my refund was on its way.

December 8, 2009 I left early from work so that I could receive the scheduled phone call from orbitz customer service. An hour goes by from the time in which I was supposed to receive this phone call.

Sitting with a confused question mark over my head...I decided to call Orbitz. Wow I didn't know that it took me talking to 4 different people that I would finally get someone from the Orbitz cruise customer service department. This person puts me on hold to call the cruise line and 10minutes later explains to me that today my refund was processed into my account and I should see a refund soon.

At this point I have had enough...I didn't know if I could believe this person and based on the poor customer service and trouble that I have gone through so far...shouldn't I get the 100.00 fee refunded back?

(for those who don't know...whether you cancel your cruise an hour after booking or days after booking...Orbitz charges a fee of 100.00)

So here I am... I ask for the supervisor after the Orbitz associate started yelling through my phone expressing how it's not their fault and how I received false information from the Carnival Cruise line and the Orbitz employee that I talked to last week.

This supervisor did no good and took 30minutes to get to talk to this person. He basically said good luck getting the 100.00 back and said he was the highest leveled employee that I could talk to.

I would basically avoid dealing with Orbitz overall. They have bad customer service and don't admit a mistake when clearly they made one.

Here is a list of the people I talked to today on the phone.

Edgar-basic customer service with Orbitz

Kayla-Sales department with Orbitz Cruises

Beronica- Cruise Refund Department (this was the person who called Carnival and then proceeded to yell over the phone about how Carnival lied to me about the paperwork not being sent)

Pablo-the highest supervisor that you are provided to talk to at night (after 5pm) this man was very rude and didn't offer any help or assistance with my situation.

After reading online...I found out that a popular Radio host "Clark Howard" has had a bad encounter with Orbitz. He wasn't able to get a refund until he decided to talk about the poor customer service he received over the air waves. Promptly after the airing of the radio show...he received a call from an Orbitz employee offering a full refund. He declined because he believes that he should have received the refund in the first place. This occurred in 2008. It's now a year later and Orbitz still hasn't improved their customer service.

It's sad to see a company be so horrible with customer service.

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Leonard Eilbacher
Fort Wayne, US
Oct 06, 2010 8:54 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

On the return flight of roundtrip flight to China, Orbitz booked me for a 25 hour layover in SFO. I tried to correct it, to leave SFO a day earlier, while at ORD during an outbound layover, but the representative with whom I spoke disagreed with my reading of my itinerary. She didn't seem to understand the significance of the International Date line, and that I could arrive at SFO on the same day I left Hong Kong on an all-night flight. Thus, I had to stay at a hotel and wait around until the next night. Orbitz record locator: AP110101N3OP2032.

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Barbara Jurney
, US
Jun 15, 2011 3:05 pm EDT

Orbitz ads, both on the internet and on TV are misleading. They say price guarentee if the price goes lower you will recieve a check back for the difference. Well no they are the ones who determine if the price is lower, if some one buys the exact same ticket as your and they will monitor it and let you know if the price is lower. So there is no way for the consumer to see if another person purchases a ticket at a lower price and you get the difference back as they promise. Also the ads mis-lead you to believe if the price goes down you will automatically get the difference refunded to you. There is no reason to buy early, as I did believing that I would get the lower rate if it came out. Also no reason to buy from Orbitz as they are not going to give you the difference. I also recieve an email teklling me they guarentee the lowest rate or you will get the difference on your next ticket, yet it would not open up any where to try and get the difference applied to my next flight. I will never use Orbitz again. And they had better not charge my credit card a fee after this flight.

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lakhani
markham, CA
Jan 15, 2011 11:15 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Booked a roundtrip to Mumbai from Toronto on Turkish Airlines through Orbitz. The return portion of the trip indicated a layover of obver 50 hours in Istanbul but did not explicitly state that the flight arrived on the 7th. They refused to provide any refund or hotel even though their employee confirmed something from turkish airlines. We have spent in excess of 8 hours on the phone with their customer servie centres in Manila and Fargo, however to no avail. In fact, one of ther senior supervisors, Ephina, even suggested to us that her Manager Eve, has no last name and that orbitz.com in the US does not have a phone number. Their folks are unbeliveable. Do not ever book with them again - no to orbitz.

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Picard
Oakville, CA
Dec 09, 2010 4:31 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I bought a ticket online from Orbitz.com departing from Jakarta (Indonesia) with final destination Toronto (Canada). Since there were no direct flight between Indonesia - Canada then I chose a flight plan that had me to transit twice in China. Below is the itinerary:

Sat, Dec 4 2010
Air China 978
Depart 1:10 AM Jakarta (Indonesia)
Arrive 7:25 AM Xiamen (China)

Air China 1810
Depart 11:55 AM Xiamen (China)
Arrive 02:35 PM Beijing (China)

Air Canada 32
Depart 06:45 PM Beijing (China)
Arrive 06:35 PM Toronto (Canada)

Just before midnight I went to the airport to check in but they asked for my chinese visa. I didn't aware that I needed a visa to transit in China. Turned out Xiamen is a domestic airport so it wasn't a connecting flight but was a stopover. Unfortunately visa on arrival was not possible either at that time, Air China has confirmed that.

The only option was to re-route my flight directly to Beijing but since my ticket was under Air Canada so Air China couldn't do anything about it. I went back home, confused about what should I do next and whether my ticket is still valid or not. It was 2 o'clock in the morning when I arrived home, tired but still managed to write a complaint letter to Air Canada.

Woke up in the morning I realized that it was Orbitz to blame since they didn't put any information about the stopover. I sent an email to them and thought that I should cancel my ticket. I canceled my ticket online at around 11 AM on Dec 4, it's probably too late but at least I tried. Orbitz replied back to me and apologize of what happened then asked me to call their customer service and reschedule my flight.

I waited for a couple of days and decided to reschedule the flight to Jan 2011 if possible. I then called them and turned out it wasn't possible to reschedule it since I already canceled the ticket. The only option was to refund my ticket and let me book a new flight myself. They charged me $200 to refund my ticket, I complaint that it wasn't my fault and they should have refunded all of my money.

The girl I was talking to on the phone said there wasn't any other options since she was only following the procedure. So I was forced to get the refund with $200 charge plus a long distance call for 20 min for the mistake they did. If only they just put the transit status as a "stopover" I wouldn't book the ticket at the first place and even if I did I would have applied for a chinese visa. I filed a complaint on their website (Dec 7) and they haven't replied until now.

Since so many people have become their victims, can we file a lawsuit against them? Any pro bono attorney out there?

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Noalse
, US
Sep 06, 2011 7:38 pm EDT

I was caught up in the airport closures earlier this year due to the volcanic ash from the Ieland volcano. I was supposed to glide from Vienna, Austria to Brisbane, Australia but my flights were cancelled and I had to rebook on flights 5 days later when the airports reopened. I had by this time made my way to Frankfurt and so only used the Frankfurt to Singapore part of my ticket as I had to buy another ticket from Singapore to Brisbane as this flight was full. Anyway I tried to get a refund for my unused part of my ticket and have now been waiting 3 months for Orbitz to do anything about it. Everytime I ring they give me another excuse about how the airline has not processed my refund and that it will be another 60 days or two weeks or whatever time frame they like. I am sick of ringing them and want to take further action, but there does not seem to be anything I can do to get my CASH back. I would never use Orbitz for a second time and would advise all of my friends and family never to use them either.

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extremely_disappointed
Greensburg, US
Sep 08, 2009 6:20 pm EDT

I wanted to do something special to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary, so after much debate. I located a Mystery Dinner Theatre taking place on an old steam locomotive!
This started to sound like something we would both enjoy, which we did in spite of the choice of lodging. We researched the area and decided to go that little bit extra for a one time event like a 22nd anniversary weekend. We booked and paid for what appeared online as a splendid old historic INN ... perfect, well not so fast.
We booked and paid for our nice little historic suite through ORBITZ 2 nights for $267.42 -- then when we got there the "hotel" ask for our credit card as "confirmation." The room was a typical 'bait &switch' any Holiday Inn express would have been as delightful! -- over a month has past -- numerous phone calls have taken place -- the double charge of 210.90 by the hotel has been credited to our account -- but we have still paid $56.52 more than what the hotel was charging us. ORBITZ made us feel like they were the injured party and they would refund us the $210.90 we were overcharged, and wanted us to go away thinking the difference between the 56.52 and the 210.90 was their way of apologizing for our disastrous weekend! Only to find that the "hotel" had already credited the money back to ORBITZ as a miscommunication. Bottom line we still had a 'bait & switch' room without the airy balcony and the accommodations displayed on the website, and were harassed by mouthy little condescending desk clerks for attempting to retrieve our overpayment!

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Saywhatagain
, US
Jul 06, 2010 8:12 am EDT

We bought flights, hotel reservation and rental car for a trip to San Francisco for three. The flight went well, both ways, the car rental was fine, but when we arrived at the hotel (Ramada SF-Airport, San Mateo), they claimed not to have received the registration and tried to move us to a location much further away from SF. We ended up for hours on the phone with Orbitz and all they offered to help was to get another hotel with us paying the difference that was much higher than what we had seen earlier on their site. Ramada did not want to refund us despite the fact that they didn't seem to have our reservation and no room. We found another hotel ourselves for a night (that one was decent, but didn't have a room for our entire stay.

The Ramada then had a room and we stayed for 2 nights, because we couldn't find anything else. It was filthy, the bedsheets didn't seem to have been washed properly, several of the towels were stained with large yellow and red (blood ?) marks spots, others were gray. After several discussions with Orbitz they seemed to have managed to have Ramada agree to refund us and we moved out.

We eventually received a refund which covered the nights we didn't stay at the Ramada, but only after seriously pushing they agreed to compensate the extra $26+ we had to pay extra for the first night - pathetic (their offer was for a $25 rebate on future trips - hah are you kidding me after spoiling our vacation).

Be warned and stay away from Orbitz, they don't help you if things go wrong. Aside from that they pocket an extra 20% or more for the booking, just check the hotels yourself.

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Luisfm
Natick, US
Oct 07, 2011 7:35 pm EDT

I recently purchased a trip to Europe. I used the same name I always use when traveling domestic. Nowhere during the booking process I was asked to enter my name as it appears in the Passport. Turns out that the name in the passport is slightly different (it have an additional last name that we latinoamericans use). I've spent countless hours trying to make the correction but the only solution Orbitz offers me is to forfeit this ticket (close to $900) and buy another one. Fat chance. Since their website does not warn you about this situation at booking time, I think they are at fault and need to own their lack of thoroughness.

I have to add, that this is the second time I have problems with Orbitz, but it will be the last. On a trip to Spain last year, I had to do an emergency change of plans. They did not help me at all when I called from Madrid and left me on my own over there. Stupid of me using them again this time.

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Merry Reed
Portland, US
Dec 13, 2010 6:43 pm EST

Orbitz should have a disclaimer: Book at your own risk because if upon arrival hotel is no longer in business it is your problem...however should that happen give us a couple of weeks and we will find you another site within $100 of original booking price (not so good when arrival is peak season and booking was done 7 months prior) or refund your original payment.

Booked in May 2010 for site in Australia January 2011...I called site direct in November and got recording that it had been sold and was closed. Called Orbitz, talked to oh so many people with absolutely no results, sent over 20 emails, sent information gleaned from web (it sold in April 2010)..today (Dec 12) received email they had found a replacement (original across from beach and under a mile from where we catch free bus to golf...this one over a mile to beach and over 6 miles to free bus) or would refund original amount.

I asked for refund and found lodging within walking distance for 2 1/2 time amount...not better, just difference from early booking and peak booking.

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Anzhelika
Staten Island, US
Mar 04, 2010 10:32 am EST

I booked a travel package and came to realize 24 hours later that another website had the SAME deal for $500 less. $500!
I called Orbitz to express my frustration and got nowhere.
1 hour and 45 minutes I was offered $75 voucher. Really for a $500 price difference?

They should be ashamed of themselves for overcharging by $500 and refusing to give adequate restitution.

Not to mention that I have traveled with them before 5 times, I am a returning customer, and that is how they treat you, $500 price difference, and they brush you off with a $75 future travel voucher, USELESS to me since I will never travel with them in the future.

Beware.!

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Equil
, US
Sep 21, 2010 1:04 pm EDT

I purchase my airline tickets in July and at that time I requested the seats, and never was I told my seats were not reserved. 3 days before I am to fly I go on line to print out my itinery and find out my seats that were selected were not requested by Orbitz with the airline. I have tickets but no assigned seats. Then the person I spoke with at Orbitz Iwas told that at my connecting flight I could request another seat if I got to the airport 2 hours prior to my flight. I will be in first plane and not able to be at the airport 2 hours before. Orbitz had no problem taking my money they just can't deliver the service.

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gcislandboy
, US
May 10, 2011 9:44 pm EDT

I was planning a trip for me and my wife and a group of friends to go to Cozumel. I pick the Vacation Packages menu, pick the flight, hotel, everything is good. I happen to see "EXCLUSIVE OFFER, 47% off per night 48 Hour Sale Book by May 4." I'm sitting here, its May 3 at 9pm. Hey that sounds great. I go to book. The total before was $2201, now $1971. Save $230. I know 47% is more than $230, so I call customer service to ask what the 47% is off of, hotel, airline, or both. I was told the discount should come off of the total price. I'm thinking, YEA. So I ask the customer service rep to calculate and give me the price and I will book then and there. He tells me $1971. So then again, thats not 47%. He tells me that that is the discount and theres nothing he can do about what it says online, even though hes on the same web page as me. He then says thats the price if I were to book airline and hotel separate. Nope. I had already checked from the airline website and hotel website. Orbitz was still higher on price with their 47% discount. In a nut shell, seems to be some False Advertising and everyone needs to be aware that just because it says, SAVE whatever, check around and make sure. This is not good business.

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Lisa Schweig
,
Mar 18, 2008 4:59 pm EDT

I will never use Orbitz again! I made reservations in August 2007 for a February 2008 trip, and everything was fine at that time. A week before our trip, I checked on the itinerary to find.

(1) our Boston to Tampa flight, through Dulles, now ended in Dulles

(2) our return flight was changed to include a missed-connection in JFK.

Everything was worked out in the end, after 4 phone calls over a week (and many hours), so maybe I am lucky! But the money I saved wasn't worth it at all.

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mcmurray
, US
May 13, 2011 12:06 pm EDT

A business colleague and I were booking airplane tickets through Orbitz. We click on the complete booking button at the same time - he gets the advertised price. I get not available at that price - they raised the price of my ticket by a substantial amount. I called - no help. Looked on the web site and the price was the lower price again. I WOULD SERIOUSLY RECOMMEND NOT USING ORBITZ. Very fraudulent in their pricing and their price assurance and guarantee policy is NOT trustworthy. You might also want notice how ticket prices go up if you try to book more than one passenger together. My company will NO LONGER be using Orbitz.

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J. G
,
Oct 22, 2007 12:00 am EDT

I bought a ticket through Orbitz; received an email saying that total trip cost is 910.68$, called customer service and they confirmed that. But my credit card was charged 995.36$. I called customer service again and they said that they miscalculated the price before and they will still charge me 995.36$ and they will send me a voucher for 50$. Can they do that? Is there nothing I can do to pay only the amount on my receipt? Any suggestions?
Thank you.

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Droten
, US
Sep 30, 2010 1:48 pm EDT

When you use the call center to make a change it takes twenty to thirty minutes. The person at the other end put me on hold for five minutes, then came back to confirm the nature of the reuqested change, then left to research the change, then came back to say that he could do it, then had to put me on hold so that he could execute the change. The change was simple; the hassle used valuable time. Orbitz: I am a CEO of a small company. Don't have time for this. Will look for other options to support my business travel planning. (By the way, your website makes no provision for this feedback.)

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Richard1245
, US
Jun 27, 2011 2:19 pm EDT

For an upcomig trip to Los Angeles, I found a decent offer on Orbitz: A return flight in United First Class sold as a Continental code share for $2800.-. I booked the flight, checked the seatmap, selected 1A and was happy. A few days later, I double checked departure times and found, to my great surprise, the reservation downgraded to business class. Now, $2800.- for business class is no deal at all. These seats are available for $1100 ($500 plus the equivalent of $600 in miles). I called Orbitz and asked for what seemed to me a no brainer - that the bait and switch be rectified: Either offer me the product you sold me or refund the transaction. It took three and half hours of meandering discussions until I got a supervisor to offer a refund, "pending approval by management". It's now three weeks later and I am still waiting for the "pending approval". My suggestion: Always book directly though the airline's website. At least you know what you are getting. And avoid Orbitz like the plague. They don't take responsibility for anything, not even their own blatantly misleading advertising.

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Leia
,
Jul 21, 2008 11:50 pm EDT

I booked a ticket from San francisco to phildelphia on 6/30 and i didn't receive my confirmation email. I called the customer service next day and the agent told me the booking didn't go though because i filled the security code of my credit card wrong. I will have to book another ticket. I double check with the agent to make sure they won't charge my first booking. The agent said since it didn't go through i won't be charged. So following that night i found another ticket from oakland to phildelphia since i also live closed to oakland airport. Just few days ago I found i got charged for the first reservation too. I called and talk to the customer service supervisor and she said it is because i filled my email wrong in the first reservation. She said i filled yahoo.coon. Anyway, they can't refund the money to me, but i can use the credit in a year. I just need to pay extra 150 rebooking fee. I learned that their customer service doesn't really help you, they just make everything worse. and now i am all broke!

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Cavanio
, US
Apr 06, 2010 6:26 pm EDT

I have purchased several trips using orbitz. in the past they have always been great to work with. but they have gone WAY downhill! I purchased airlind tickets for 4, good price and all, but the following day the airlind dropped the price on the same itinerary, all of orbitz' competitor did the same. expedia dropped, hotwire dropped, priceline dropped, Orbitz raised by 140 dollars. When i called customer sevice about it, they said that if an orbitz cust purchased for a lower price, then i would get a refund, no one can buy for less, because they RAISED thier price!

A customer service supervisor said they would place a voucher for the difference in my account. didnt happen!
They will tell you what you want to hear, then not follow through.

I will never use them again, and would advise all to not use them!

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amarieri
, US
May 22, 2011 7:13 pm EDT

First of all, I'd like to start this complaint by saying that I'm not one of those people that only says something when I get bad service. I am a Director of Stores for a large company and if I get amazing service somewhere, I have and will take the time to write a letter and mention who helped me.

This is not one of those times. I booked a flight through Orbitz to go to Europe and decided it wasn't the right choice for me. I called Orbitz back in February and asked if I could cancel my flight and if there would be a penalty and she said that it wouldn't be a problem but that it would cost me $200 and that I needed to call back by September (ticket is for late October) to be sure. That wasn't an issue for me at all. I just made sure that I could cancel my Europe reservations (some also at a penalty) before I canceled my flight. Price of my bad decision. Not a problem. I called back tonight and get somebody singing a completely different tune. "Oh, this ticket is non-refundable and non-transferable." Excuse me? Did you log the last call that I made? "Why, yes, ma'am, but I have no documentation about what was talked about." How convenient. And then in a desperate attempt to get me off the phone, Jill asks me to call back later. Why would I do that? Solve my problem! And I have been holding for a manager now for... 30 minutes. Charming.

WOW. AS I TYPE THIS, Jill, the rep that helped me, has decided that since I asked for a manager that she will now honor my original request citing that she "READ THE RULES INCORRECTLY." Excuse me? I am furious! This is no small amount of money we are talking about. And what if I hadn't demanded to speak to her boss? She wouldn't have decided to read correctly?

I will never use Orbitz again. There is obviously a training problem, a customer service problem, and a dishonesty problem. Integrity is one of the things that my company prides themselves on, and this company obviously has none. I am disgusted. There are so many other sites to choose from. I highly recommend AVOIDING this one. I will gladly pay a higher price and use a more reputable and reliable company than ever deal with Orbitz again.

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Jeff-smith
Phoenix, US
Nov 04, 2014 12:27 pm EST

Orbitz will not stop sending me spam emails. The unsubscribe button in there emails does not work. That is not right! They give me no way to unsubscribe!

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Dissatisfied Orbitz Customer
Kauai, US
Oct 26, 2011 9:26 pm EDT

I purchased a multi-city trip online from Orbitz and found out that I miscalculated the return date of the 2nd portion of a 3-part trip. I changed this online immediately, agreeing to the $150 change fee but never received a confirmation by email. I called them to clear this up over the phone. They said that their system had a record that I had tried to change it, but it must have been my fault that the request did not go all the way through. They would be able to change it with me over the phone, but there would be a fare difference too, aside from the change fee, totaling $450 plus $150 change fee, plus $30 Orbitz service fee. The manager agreed to waive the $30 service fee. I decided to hold off as maybe it would be cheaper to change my obligations at the destination city and take the flight on the wrong date. As luck would have it, I did not want to change my obligations and called back to change, thinking it would be $450 plus fees after all. The agent told me "sorry", the only seat they have at this point would cost me $1800. I decided to get my own one way ticket for that segment and forfeit the second part of my multi-city trip after which I found out from a friend that this may result in the rest of my ticket getting automatically cancelled in the system. I tried to contact the carrier to advise them of my upcoming "no-show" to try to assure that the last part of the trip does not get cancelled and found out that the computer system does not work that way! I was also told to talk to the other airline (Orbitz booked the ticket under a different carrier's locator number), which I did. They told me to talk to Orbitz. Orbitz told me that if I don't show up for one portion, the rest of the trip will be cancelled. If I didn't want it to be cancelled, they would have to initiate a change to the ticket, and the last portion of my trip could be preserved for $1800 even if there are no changes to that portion! I went online to the Orbitz website and found that I could buy a new ticket for $320 including taxes. I asked them why didn't they just give me the $320 flight, instead of offering to keep my last leg for $1800? They said that I'd have to talk to United. (the airline that Orbitz put my Alaska Airlines flight under). After being on hold for half an hour with United whom I already spoke to for an hour last night, who had redirected me to Orbitz, I asked the Orbitz agent if I could cancel the remainder of my trip and book the $320 ticket, using whatever credit I get from the foerfitting of the portion of my trip, minus a change fee and service fee. At this point I decided that I did not have the patience to do any more figuring out and did not want to explode. I am taking a break from this mess and will go down to the airport later to see if a human can help me in person. Shame on Orbitz for their irrational suggestions and unhelpful policies and money-grubbing attitude! I will NEVER USE THIS SERVICE AGAIN AND HOPE NO ONE ELSE DOES EITHER.

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Orbitz
Chicao, Illinois, US
Nov 07, 2014 4:48 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hi Jeff,

My name is Lynne; I’m a member of the Orbitz Customer Relations Team. Please email us at socialnetwork@orbitz.com and provide your Orbitz Member Email info. We'll review your "My Account" details to verify "Email Preference" is set to "opt-out" status. Thanks for reaching out.

Kindly,
Lynne
Orbitz Customer Relations
Chicago, IL

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Mtn mama
Silver cliff, US
Apr 16, 2010 1:59 pm EDT

Orbitz would not honor our request to cancel our flights (when we should have been able to cancel).

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Fernando Ortiz
,
Apr 04, 2008 7:34 am EDT

TLG *GREATFN [protected]