My husband and I are traveling to Denver in November, and saw a good price on airline tickets with American through Orbitz.

Seeing that my travel agent has recently moved out of state and has been in a state of flux, I decided to purchase them online.

I received a confirmation, but no E-tickets, although they say that E-tickets are issued, not paper tickets.

Could someone please explain how this works and how I get the E-tickets? Do I need to call American?

This is the first time I have ever purchased tickets online and it has made me a little nervous not knowing how to correctly go about this.

No worries, wanderer!
Just print out that confirmation you received (or go to the website and print out a receipt using your confirmation code). That IS your e-ticket (e as in email). Bring that and your ID to the airport, and away you go! You can even go back online within 24 hrs of your trip and print out your boarding passes (checkin online). This will eliminate the need to go to the checkin counter at the airport - you can give you luggage (if you have any) to the skycap and proceed directly to the gate (which will be listed on your boarding pass - but double check with your skycap because occasionally they change the gates) with your printed boarding passes and your ID's.

Have a great trip!

PS regarding the boarding passes: you need to go to aa.com to get those, not Orbitz. There will be some sort of confirmation code on your email which you will need to type in on the AA website (you can choose your seats using this method too).

I have used Orbitz about 10 times in the past with no problems. But to put myself at ease I call the airline I am flying on(in your case American)and confirm my dates and seating. At this point I am treated the same as if I had booked thru them. That said I have found all I need to do is hand my I.D. at the counter (if I check baggage) and they will pull up my itinery and give me the Boarding Passes.

Hi Wanderer,
Congratulations on your first web airline ticket purchase.
Here is something that may help you in the future.
After I check for fares on sites like Orbitz, travelocity or expedia, I check to see if the particular airlines has the same fare or lower on their website for the dates and times I have chosen.
If they do then I purchase my tickets through the particular airlines.
I do this because a couple of years ago a flight I was booked on through Travelocity was cancelled and when I went to the counter the airlines would not help me because I used a discounter to purchase my ticket.
That attitude may have changed since then but I don't take the chance.

AMCanadian

Just out of curiosity, did you check fares for the same flights directly with American before booking with Orbitz? Often prices are just about the same. I find Orbitz, CheapTickets, Expedia, and other online fare shopping useful, but prefer to book directly with the airline whenever possible.

Anyway, I did book Paris last year with CheapTickets (considerably lowers fares than Air France website). I received an e-mail confirmation indicating that e-tickets would be forthcoming (also via e-mail), and that arrived a day or two later.

What you need is a booking number. Once you have that, you can usually confirm everything online at the airline's website. Sometimes you can even select or change your seats.

Also, you need to check a day or two departure and a day or two before returning home. Airlines change their schedules all the time.

Welcome to the world of online travel planning. I do what a few other posters have mentioned- used orbitz, travelocity, expedia as a starting point to see which airlines have the best fares. Then I go to the websites of the airlines with the best deals and try there as well. I usually find that the "middlemen" are usually $5 higher than the airlines themselves (service charge).

Remember there are low prices airlines like Southwest and Independence that are not advertised on Orbitz or Expedia. They are often the best deals.

I do use expedia and orbitz (and their partner hotwire) often for car rentals and hotels.

Ditto some folks above. I research prices on Expedia, etc. but then go to the carriers' own website or telephone them direct to purchase tickets. Not saying it's a better method but the prices have always been similar or lower and it give me more peace of mind dealing direct with the airline I'm flying.

I wouldn't call Travelocity a "discounter". Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity are all online travel agencies in that they act as brokers between you and the airlines. Just as with a bricks-and-mortar travel agency, if a flight is cancelled, the airline expects you to work the issue with the agency first. Online travel agencies all have 800 numbers and are easy to reach by phone. Wanderer, I suggest you find the 800 number on the website and have it handy if issues arise while you're travelling; for example, you could have called Orbitz directly to ask after your e-tickets. Happy Trails!

I have used both Travelocity and Orbitz before for airline tickets. No problems with either one of them. However, whenever possible, I prefer to book directly with the airline. As others have said, usually (not always) if you go to the airline's own website, you can get exactly the same fare minus the service charge.

But there are other reasons to deal directly with the airline: usually, you get better terms if you need to change your ticket. I recently used Northwest to go to Europe. I booked it first on Northwest's own website. Northwest has a unique "24 hour change-your-mind" policy that enables you to cancel your ticket by midnight (central time) the following day. I in fact used that policy, and re-booked with different travel days the next day for no fee. I don't think I would have been able to do that using Orbitz.

Also, often the airlines offer you incentives to book on their websites, such as bonus FF miles.

Sometimes Orbitz and Travelocity have great fares that the airlines themselves aren't offering, so if you want the fare, you must book with them. Otherwise, I say go directly with the airline.

Andrew

I've booked thru Orbitz because I like the layout of their site and the way they list flight combinations and prices. Their fee is $5-6 dollars which isnt bad for convenience. some airline sites are tough to maneuver. You will be fine with the email confirmation # and they send you a reminder email a few days before your trip. As the previous poster said call the airlines directly for your seating. The reservation itself will be fine

What's especially impressed me about Orbitz is the way they notify me about any itinerary changes--which the airlines seldom do these days. Because of that I've had the opportunity to change airports in order to get the plane configuration I want without having to pay a fee.

I just used Orbitz to fly into Savannah GA and back out of Atlanta. I had no problems and actually had the opportunity to enter a phone number for flight confirmations. It worked great. I used my cell phone number and an automated message confirmed my flight was on schedule about 2 hours prior and then called when there was a slight delay, even before it was posted at the airport...

One other cool thing about Orbitz, they have unique flight combinations I've not found anywhere else. They will mix and match airlines to get you the best price.

To get your seat assignment you don't have to call the airline - as long as you have your confirmation you can go to the airline website. For the really seat-obsessed, go to seatguru.com and find the configuration of your flight first to figure out the best seats...

Email Orbtiz or call them they are very good to deal with on the phone. I always received my e-ticket though email, but I thought they were issued through Orbtitz. It has been a couple of years since I have done this.

Sorry but after using ORBITZ I started getting tons of pop-ups on my computer, really aggravating stuff, and lots of spam. Haven't used it on my new computer and haven't had any problems. Co-incidence? Maybe, but no Orbitz for me!

We used Orbitz (I thought it was easier to use than Expedia) in September 2005 for our first "non travel agent" trip and everything went perfectly. I booked hotel, airline, seats and insurance in one fell swoop. Even had option of changing our plane seats. Rec'd email confirmation day before flight. As mentioned in another post, after 48 hours, I did call the hotel and the airlines just to double check that we made it into their computers ok. We printed our e-tickets from home. Coming back from San Fran, we used a machine at the airport to print our tickets and avoided a HUGE line at the United desk. Good luck and please let everyone how it goes.