natinwpb

I checked a RT from JFK to Milan for Sept. this morning and it was showing a great rate of $589 which included taxes. When you click on it, it gives you the "oops this fare is gone" message. Checked it an hour later and it still says that fare. I got all excited for nothing.

Intrepid1

Go to www.onetravel.com and/or www.itasoftware.com and see if you can find it there.

AAFrequentFlyer

Why do you hate Orbitz?

The fare is a valid fare, unfortunately the airline(s) have not loaded any inventory.

It's not Orbitz's fault.

rick_c

Lately, it happens all the time. One day one of my colleagues and I clicked on lots of different flights just to see if the fares were good, and nearly every one of them was not available. While it may not be the fault of Orbitz, it is still a waste of everybody's time.

Intrepid1

Orbitz is owned by an airline consortium so everything it does or doesn't "do" is ultimately up to the airlines which own it.

Intrepid1

Sorry...I am incorrect...

"Orbitz was acquired by Cendant's Travel Distribution Services division in November 2004, and is part of the Consumer Travel Americas group."

Looks like the various airline owners took their money and ran with it.

tcreath

I agree with the op. This happens to me on Orbitz all the time. Whether its Orbitz' fault or not is irrelevant; its a pain and it rarely ever happens to me on the other consolidator websites (travelocity, expedia, etc.). I always get excited but rarely is the offer good once you start clicking through. Its a waste of time and can be a downer. I stopped using Orbitz a while back because of this.

Tracy

AAFrequentFlyer

The same thing happens with Travelocity Dream map and with Expedia farewatch.

tcreath

I don't use those functions on travelocity or expedia. I was referring to just simply going on the home page and putting in the date and place you want to go and choosing an itinerary. I just find it aggravating when I'm looking for a simple point to point airfare on orbitz and it comes back as "not available" and with a different fare that is usually a lot higher. I never have a problem when I do the same on travelocity or expedia.

TexasAggie

Hi Tracy
You seem to find SUCH good airfare deals for all of your trips. Where do you look?

Lostmymind

you and I must be on the same wave length, I was trying to book the same flight and got the same message. I am still holding out hope!

nina

This happens ALL the time, on Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, and I'm on farewatcher with Travelocity, so I can check the site a minute after I get the email telling me about the new fare and it will inevitably be gone.

How long do these bait and switch airfares last anyway, 30 seconds?

AAFrequentFlyer

As I said, the fares are valid, it's just that the airlines have not loaded any inventory, so the fares were not available, even for 30 seconds, to begin with.

Ziana

I would print out pages now and later with time stamp and call and DEMAND that price.

Gardyloo

Now that Orbitz is owned by Cendant, it's being sold by Cendant (along with sister company Cheap Tickets.)

The big agencies like Orbitz (Cendant) or Travelocity (Sabre) all pull fares from the same global distribution services; it's really a case of how often they update their prices - usually several times a day, but for parts of the site like their fare search services, the updatings might not be as fast or as thorough.

I really recommend ITA - www.itasoftware.com - especially ITA's 30-day search. You can't book via ITA but you can go directly to the airline showing the cheap fare and book without paying Orbitz or Expedia et al their booking and "handling" fees.

sundowner

I had a comical experience with orbitz this week. A guy needed a one way flight from San Antonio to Houston (200 miles) for that day. I didn't plan on buying the ticket on Orbitz but used it to find airline choices. The first flight that pulled up on orbitz was:
San Antonio to New Orleans.
Spend the night.
New Orleans to Atlanta.
Atlanta to Houston.
How crazy is that! A one hour flight turned into 3 flights and hours and hours of plane time plus an overnight.

AngelaS

Whenever I find a fare on Orbitz or Travelocity, I usually go to the airline's website to see what the fare is there. Sometimes it can be lower, and if booking directly through the airline you can use miles.

FainaAgain

I am with Angela, only the airline's website always gives a lower price.

tcreath

TexasAggie, I swear I don't know how I stumble across the cheap flights! I guess I get bored enough at work that I just play around with different websites for fun. A little sad, but my friends finally quit making fun of me when I found our $300 St. Louis to Paris tickets last November! But usually I just search tons of different websites until I find a good deal. I found those tickets on Travelocity, using the "flexible date" option. Like they mentioned above, a lot of times I will get messages saying that "American Airlines doesn't fly from Chicago to Paris" or something like that, but if I play around enough I can usually come up with something pretty good.

Many of our trips are created because I find a great deal and we just go from there. For instance, today I was just checking out both American and Aer Lingus's website to see how much a flight would be to Ireland for next February and I found tickets for about $650 for both of us. Now I'm thinking Ireland for Valentines Day! Poor DH...I know I must drive him crazy because every time I call him I have another flight deal I found!

One other thing...I am usually pretty flexible about where I fly from. I live in St. Louis but its usually a lot cheaper to fly from Chicago. We are always willing to drive the four hours to save hundreds of dollars off of our tickets prices.

Tracy

TexasAggie

LOL! I too share your habit of trawling for cheap airfares when bored at work. Since we're in Denver we're pretty far from any other major airport except Colorado Springs (which isn't really a major airport). But now that Southwest Airlines is flying Denver to Chicago I'm hoping that we'll be able to take advantage of some of the awesome ORD--Europe fares that come up every once in a while.

Ireland for V-Day sounds very romantic by the way, and at a good price too! DH and I did Germany (Romantic Road - cheesy I know) for V-Day 2005. It was such a neat little get-a-way.

-jill