opaldog

I will quickly relate my story. I purchased tickets from BOS connecting at LHR to CDG. The time seemed tight at LHR, but Orbitz insisted it was a legal connection. Continental said it was illegal and that Orbitz had no business selling international tickets. Orbitz would not reschedule my tickets. Needless to say we missed our connecting flights both coming and going. We were very late to Paris, with no luggage. We ended up in Newark on the way back, had to stay over and connected to Boston the next day. Orbitz continued to tell me it was a legal connection. I called them from LHR and they did nothing for me. Continental gave me in writing that it was an illegal connection and that was why we missed our flights. It was a horrible experience. I have learned alot about connection times and never to deal with Orbitz. They totally lack customer service and bottom line, they either lied to me or were ignorant of minimum connection times.

Dori

I'm sorry about your experience. What was the layover time given at LHR?

opaldog

Orbitz said 75 minimum connect time. The airlines (Continental) told me 90 minutes. Now with my experience, at LHR, I would say 2-3 hours to be safe. It was a horrible airport, in my estimation. Not only did we not make the connection and have to wait forever on standby, running from gate to gate, but my son had his ATM card eaten in the Barclay's Travelex machine. The people at the airport's attitude was, who cares!.

JuneBride

I also had a very similar situation happen with Hotwire.com. They actually pointed out, (ater the fact) that in small print it reads 'most connections are less than 60 mins apart'. And they were not at all accommadating for re-booking my missed flight BECAUSE it was a discount ticket. UGH! Never again!

Andre

This is quite interesting: I responded to a thread a few months ago, where the original poster had the same routing (with an 80 min. layover though). BOS to LHR was on Virgin (with a CO flight number) and LHR to CDG was on AF.<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=126&amp;tid=34387820<BR><BR>The strange thing is that the entire journey was on a single ticket issued by Continental (purchased through Orbitz)! In my understanding, this makes CO responsible for getting you from BOS to CDG and back - Orbitz is simply the agent.<BR><BR>Opaldog, was your ticket of the same type - not 2 separate tickets, but 1 set of documents with the final coupon showing your entire itinerary?<BR><BR>Andre

doc_

Whenever possible I always try to fly non-stop to europe. If I need to make a connection,buy the ticket directly from the airline,it is worth the extra $$$.

heretoday

It is the issuing agent (Orbitz) not the airline that is responsible for what is known as issuing an 'illegal' connection. Good Luck in getting them to admit it.

Andre

That's interesting, heretoday!<BR><BR>I am/was under the impression that if I purchased a single ticket from a travel agent, I had a contract of carriage with the issuing AIRLINE (which does NOT have to be the one operating the actual flights), not the agent. If the agent issued a ticket incorrectly, I would imagine that the airline could in turn seek damages from that agent, but it (the airline) would still be obliged to honor the ticket issued in its name. <BR><BR>This also appears to be consistent with what happened to Opaldog: he/she was put on (much) later flights by CO, but without additional charge.<BR><BR>It's a different story if the agent &quot;packages&quot; 2 tickets together -you then have 2 separate contracts of carriage with different airlines and each carrier must only honor its portion of your total itinerary - if you don't show up on time for your flight because the 1st flight was late, that's not the 2nd carrier's problem. In this case, the agent acted as a tour operator and sold you a defective composite &quot;product&quot; (itinerary). You then have to duke it out directly with that agent. <BR><BR>I will try to get a specialist's opinion on this (work in the travel industry). <BR><BR>Either way, it's impossible to overstate the importance of allowing AT LEAST 2 HOURS between connections at major airports - no matter who issues your ticket!<BR><BR>Andre

opaldog

Andre:<BR>I am the person you gave info to a couple of months ago. The worst did happen. My tickets were issued by Continental and the issuing agent was Orbitz. Continental (plane operated by Virgin Atlantic) did get me to Newark and Continental got me to Boston. My anger lies with Orbitz. They issued the ticket and when I spoke with them before the flight, they said 75 minutes was the minimum connect time and that they would do nothing for me, that I acted as my own travel agent. I wonder, however, if I paid them a fee to issue the tickets and they are the issuing agent, does that make them the &quot;travel agent&quot; ? The Orbitz Customer Service people were useless and rude. I would avoid LHR at all costs unless I had alot of time to spare. I will continue to pursue this issue with Orbitz. I have it in writing from three different airline agents that the flights were illegal connections. I am angry at the way in which Orbitz deals with their customers.

heretoday

Yes, Orbitz is the travel agent. And, yes they are responsible for the misconnect. Your 'store front' agent would be responsible if they were the 'agent'. Continental would be responsible if they issued the ticket. Since Orbitz sold the ticket on behalf of Continental they take the responsibility. Or in this case not. It's sometimes difficult to get online agencies to admit making a mistake since when you hit the I agree button you indemnify them of all wrong doing.

soccr

opaldog -- I hope you do go after them, complain wherever you need to complain (what about other, outside agencies such as FTC, BBB, etc.?), even to the point of one of those chain-rattling letters from a lawyer. They need to be brought up short on this sort of thing by SOMEONE, otherwise it will just keep happening. Please keep us informed.

opaldog

Thanks for all the replies. I just got an e-mail from virgin stating minimum connect time is 90 minutes. I do intend to go after them, not only because they lied to me and refused to do anything about it, but because they told me they didn't like my tone of voice and hung up on me. They know they can get away with it. They are anonymous. Keep you updated.

JamesA

You would have had to change terminals, 75 minutes way too tight, remember, it's your baggage transferring too. I would avoid LHR as a transfer point, if you MUST transfer then always go over Amsterdam or maybe Frankfurt, but always avoid Heathrow or Gatwick.

Andre

opaldog,<BR><BR>I thought the itinerary sounded mighty familiar... sounds like a horrible experience!<BR><BR>I agree that Orbitz did a terrible job with your ticket - I just don't know what you could sue them for... They sold you the exact ticket they promised at the price specified. As a pure agent, that's all they are legally required to do. Again, I think (and hope) that Continental will give them hell for issuing such a routing and try to get them to pay for the cost of your hotel in Newark for example.<BR><BR>Perhaps you can sue Orbitz for emotional distress or something like that... Unfortunately I don't think there's much else you can do. <BR><BR>Alternatively, you could sue Continental(!) for having allowed its agent to issue such a ticket. Such actions might finally make airlines a little more discrimminating regarding which agents they allow to issue their tickets.<BR><BR>I think you're certainly doing the right thing by posting your experience on this board - by doing this you're making people aware that just because an itinerary shows up on Orbitz (or any other web site), that doesn't mean you should book it without looking at the details.<BR><BR>You've also described the pathetic attitude of Orbitz' customer service and that will definitely hurt their business, as it rightly should.<BR><BR>Andre

heretoday

I, too, wish you luck opaldog. But, I fear you are in a losing battle. Read the fine print in Orbitz (or any other web booking site) and you will find that you have given up all your consumer rights when you hit the 'I agree' button. You agreed that Orbitz has no responsibility for any mistakes on tickets issued through their website. This is the reason I avoid these sites for anything other than researching fares. I buy directly from the airline or my local agent.

opaldog

I agree that I will never get anything out of Orbitz. At this point I think getting them to admit that they were wrong and apologizing for their attrocious behavior would suffice. If I had know more about international connections, I would never have purchased those tickets, but I think there are alot of people purchasing tickets that don't know the minimum connect times. I plan to post my message about Orbitz whereever I can and notify any consumer reporters etc.

BlingBling

I would file a complaint with the BBB. Opaldog has a valid complaint - he/she was not only sold airline tickets with illegal connection times but the fact that it was even offered is professionally unethical. Some travellers insist on booking with the shortest connection times but they are usually warned of insufficient/illegal minimum connecting times and the reservation has some documentation stating that the traveller was advised of the possible consequences but declined a sufficient layover and that he/she assumes responsibility for any missed flights and additional expenses required to continue on with the itinerary. Heathrow is one of the BUSIEST airports in the world and Orbitz should know that 75 mins is not enough time for an intl/intl connex. The BBB won't put Orbitz out of business but if they receive enough complaints the BBB can at least warn consumers about your inept experience with Orbitz.

soccr

Write a letter to Consumer Reports and/or their travel letter. How about one or more of the travel magazines, too? Frommer's Budget Magazine (shhhhh, don't tell Fodors) may even have an ombudsman column. Make a ruckus -- hurts them more than trying to force compensation, since -- as Andre and others have pointed out -- it's a little hard to calculate actual damage (although I might go for the full price of the ticket plus any hotel and meal costs).

opaldog

I will certainly do all of the above and more. This was a vacation that we had saved for for 2 years and were it was a gift to our two adult children and my son-in-law. The stay in Paris was great, but we arrived late without luggage and wasted the first full day taking turns waiting for luggage. We worried all week about getting back and of course, with good reason. Never do business with Orbitz.

Seamus

Opaldog, this while situation is just lousyl my condolences. Here's an alternative for the future -<BR>the value of Orbitz is in being able to compare schedule and fares of several airlines withtout having to negotiate all of their websites. Use Orbitz to check and then call or go online to the airline that offers what you want to actually ticket.