Problem with Orbitz
 

Last August I purchased 2 tickets to Budapest thru Orbitz. We were traveling Sept 19. Because of 9/11 I called Orbitz (took hours to get thru) to cancel. They charged me a 100.00 per person cancel fee and said the tickets were good for a year, but would need to go to USAir to reschedule. Now USAir tells me they were refunding tickets in full, no penalties, for those traveling at that time. And they want to charge me another 100.00 per ticket to change. I said I'd already paid Orbitz. They said I would have to contact Orbitz to get that money back. No one at Orbitz will talk to me. Has anyone had a similar problem? Can offer any advice? USAir says the fare is no special fare and should have been refunded in September. Am I out of luck? Thanks in advance. Janie

Keep at it, be relentless and a pain in their butt. And have all the documentation and dates and times clearly in hand. Don't take no for an answer. And don't make a couple of tries and decide "no one at Orbitz will talk to you." <BR><BR>You can also try the Better Business Bureau, but they tend to be helpless with internet stuff. <BR><BR>Does anyone remember the website for complaints against airlines? Does it work for Orbitz?

I am laughing at you.....here crying because you got burned by one of your self booking sites. Maybe next time you'll pay someone a 1/5 of what you paid Orbitz and they will help you with real customer service... <BR><BR>LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

OK, IM OK W LOL - BUT LOLLOL?

LOL--- it means I am in the floor laughing so hard at all of you that I am crying and my gut is about to split from laughing so hard.<BR><BR>LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

Penny/Joyce,<BR>Then what you meant was ROFLMAO.

Oh, dear, someone call the people in the white jackets. We have someone dissociating into a laughing jag because he (she? Penny, is that you?) got a chance to re-obsess about not using travel agents. Give it a rest. If self-booking were not a good idea for a lot of people, it would have died a while ago. Instead it's growing, largely because both passengers and airlines prefer it. <BR><BR>But "laughing" you are more than welcome to continue in your good relationship with your agent. We're happy for you. But lay off the laughing gas, you look like an idiot.

Thanks JJ for at least being constructive. My problem is not with travel agents, it's with Orbitz and the fact that they took advantage of a bad situation and made it worse. I will be a pain in their neck till I get my refund.

Straight and where did you leave your jacket???? Oh yeah, I'll return it tomorrow, hope the public is safe until then.<BR><BR>LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

Janie, you might be stuck with the $100 penalty for the cancellation on each ticket if you cancelled your reservation before US Air notified Orbitz that it would waive cancellation fees and provide full refunds.<BR><BR>I had a similar experience with Orbitz when Sabena filed for bankruptcy protection. I was told that if I cancelled the ticket that I would pay the $100 penalty. Now at the time that sounded like a reasonable idea instead of standing on line being a creditor and getting 10 cents on the dollar. However, a customer service agent at Orbitz told me that she thought I should hold off and see if other airlines were offering reaccommodation. I decided to hold off and wait. Turns out that other airlines were not offering reaccommodation, but Orbitz was authorized to issue full refunds. The catch here is that I had to wait it out. I actually received a full refund in 15 days, although I was informed by Orbitz that it could take up to 3 billing cycles (90 days) for the credit to appear on my credit card statement.<BR><BR>If I were you, I would call Orbitz again and ask to speak to a supervisor. If that doesn't work, you should write to the President of Orbitz (I think the corporate office is in Chicago). Write a very detailed letter with all of the events and see what happens. <BR><BR>By the way, I understand the first $100 penalty, but I don't understand what the second $100 penalty is for. Could you clarify that?<BR><BR>Also, if you need more info, feel free to email me. I have a lot of contact information for Orbitz. I've used them successfully about a dozen times.

Orbitz told me they could not exchange these tickets cause they were a web fare and I had to go to USAir to get them to do a new reservation. USAir told me that since they did not issue the tickets they would charge a penalty to use them toward the new fare. 100.00 apiece. I'm sick to death of talking to Orbitz and getting the runaround. You obviously have much better luck when you call. But I don't want to 'get lucky' with airline reservations. I want a human being to help me and preferably the same one each time who knows what they are doing. Once I straighten out this mess the next time I travel abroad I am going to check Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Cheaptickets etc, then call my cousin who works for Amex and see what he can do. Maybe I should have done that the first time but hey, I thought booking myself was 'fun'. I didn't think anything could go wrong. Maybe it never will again, but as I see it, I'm out 400.00 on this one. Janie

Laughing,<BR><BR>You bring this wonderful site down to a mindless level.<BR><BR>Big Al

Laughing, Anon, Wild Bill, xxx, Lisa all bring down this website, so don't just blame one.

I'll blame as many as I please, Slob.

This site is truely becoming a disgrace.<BR>How can you call someone you do not know a Slob. Who died and made you the judge of this board?<BR>Why can't decent people discuss travel without the sicko's of this world typing in derogatory comments.<BR>What a bunch of losers.

Janie,<BR><BR>Orbitz is owned by a group of the major airlines. It is not surprising then that they have given you the treatment that they have. <BR><BR>Laughing,<BR><BR>Your have a weird but funny sense of humor. <BR><BR>And the others here that are name calling and trolling, what help have you been??? You really shouldn't call the kettle black until you look at your own.<BR><BR>As for travel agents, I hope they do refuse to issue airline tickets (except for mine) in the future. It would serve the majority of the public right to be stuck with the arrogant, self serving airlines. If you haven't experienced the problems being reported here, eventually you will. And when you do, I hope as many people here, will point their fingers, sit in judgement, call you names and make you feel bad.

I somehow arrived at the Orbitz site in search of purchasing 2 tickets on the "Companion Fare" promotion by Northwest Airlines. I continue to type in my departure city Louisville,Ky and my destination to Jacksonville, Florida. Yet my response still shows that I am going to some foreign country I've never heard of and lists prices well over $2000 per ticket! I know I'm just a college student, but this site is really ridiculous because I'm very computer-oriented and yet I cannot find any information that I want...Does anyone have any advice???

I just tried it by cutting and pasting the cities from your post above and had no problem. For July 14 - 21 I got a fare of $233. Try putting in the airport codes for Louisville and Jacksonville, which are SDF and JAX.