Orbitz- Is there real value?
 

I am beginning to wonder what value Orbits offers to travelers who book through your website. My two concerns are poor CSR response time and hotel value.

I tired to contact Orbitz Hotel Specilist three separate time regarding a issue before I was able to reach a CSR.

The first call was made 11:00 PM PST after traveling 5 hours on a plane, I was sitting on hold in the hotel lobby for 45 minutes waiting for the hotel specialist so I could check into the hotel. After waiting 45 minutes, I got the hotel clerk to provide me with a room after assuring him the billing matter would be resolved the next day.

The next day I was placed on hold for 20 minutes waiting for the Orbitiz hotel specialist. After waiting 20 minutes I hung up, called back again, and asked to be warm transferred to the hotel specialist. The CSR did not understand what warm transfer is and again I was placed on hold for what I believe is to be an excessive amount of time. Eventually my problem was resolved but the time it took was excessive and very frustrating.

My second concern with the value Orbitz is providing. The hotels that were booked through Orbits were overpriced compared to what I was able to negotiate on my own.

The first hotel I booked through Orbitz, Alexis Park in Las Vegas, did not have a working shower, a working coffee pot and the quality and service of the hotel staff was inadequate. Though the size of the room was adequate the door to my room looked, like it had been kicked and the room faced an alley.

The second hotel that I booked through Orbits was Harrah’s, in Las Vegas. The room was small and the window overlooked the complex mechanical system.

When I booked the Luxor hotel myself through their website and was able to receive a room for $75.00 a room on a Monday night. Not only was the room larger but also had a Jacuzzi tub, and it overlooked the strip.

Orbits Bookings
Alexis Park – Friday Night-$144.57
Harrah – Tuesday Night – $122.30


I have booked several hotels using Orbitiz and am becoming concerned about the value that I am getting. Does anyone else have similar experiences?

Sites like Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia are "premium" travel sites that one can use to book air, travel, cars all from one website. Some people are lazy and don't want to shop around. That's what the main purpose of them are.

Now, Orbitz does have one advantage. It's one of the better sites to book complicated international airline tickets that involve more than one airline. For example, a year ago, I booked a mixed Continental/Cathay Pacific itinerary to Hong Kong from them, which I'm not able to on other websites or continental.com.

[Not about Orbitz, but I've found that Travelocity does sometimes offer better prepaid hotel rates than the hotel's own website or other travel sites.]

But overall, I think I probably use Orbitz <2-3% for my travel needs.

Putting the annoying issue of not being able to reach a live person aside (since I have never tried to on any site), you got me thinking about Orbitz.

Whenever I book hotel or air, I look at Orbitz, Travelcity, Expedia plus individual company's website and book thru whatever is cheapest. I have found no consistent best deal site - but I can't recall ever booking thru Orbitz - so their prices must be higher.

Five years ago or so there always seemed to be deals on these sites - now as often as not I get a better price on individual airline or hotel sites. And for my purposes, the highest rates usually seem to be on hotels.com, despite their ads.

There is absolutely nothing "premium" about any site that requires three phone calls to reach customer service.

Thank you, Intrepid. I wish I'd said that.

((D))8-)

That's why I put the word - premium - in quotes in my original reply. Not bold, but quotes. :)

FYI- a number of the internet travel sites (hotel.com, expedia, etc) are owned by the same parent company.

I always check those type sites to get ideas & check flights, then I go to the individual (airline or hotel) & book them myself. Plus you have to pay upfront...it has been my experience, once they have your $$$, the service levels decrease dramatically.

cnn - I'll bite. What's a "warm transfer"?

I've never heard of the term either. I can guess what it is, but it clearly isn't a common term.

Exactly - if you think about it you know what it is - but have never heard anyone say "warm transfer" - and I suggest most phone systems aren;t set up to allow it - or even know if you're doing it.

I always check the flights and hotel on both Orbitz and Expedia but I almost never book on them. I do find better deals with the hotel when I call or book on the hotel web-site directly. I don't like the idea of paying for my hotel up front because sometime I have to cancel and I have up to 6pm the day of check-in to cancel if I book the hotel myself. When I find a cheap flight, I save the booking fee that Expedia charges and book directly with the airline's website.

Also I belong to Marriott and Hilton programs and I was told that I could not get credit for my stay if I book through these travel sites since I have a special negotiated rate. How is it a special rate if the rates the same or often higher than I could get elsewhere?

Orbitz is also prone to human error misbookings... when our Air carrier changed a flight connector, the agent at orbitz mistakenly rebooked us on that flight 1 MONTH later... we then were the proud ticket holders of our return flight before our flight out!... When I called to correct, they blamed the airline for the mistake...

It was only after a three way call with the Airline that Orbitz admitted their error... because it was eastertime, they had NO ALTERNATE flights... The United Customer service rep bailed them out and wedged us onto another flight...

Don't put too much faith in Orbitz!!!

Our local paper has a weekly Travel Ombudsman column. They should rename it the Orbitz column because every week someone writes in with a complaint similar to the one that the original poster cited. I don't know how they stay in business.

I have friends who booked a hotel through Orbitz over New Years Eve in Mexico-
when they arrived the hotel did not have a reservation for them and said they didnt even have a contract with Orbitz- it was New Years Eve and fortunately for my friends they happened to have friends living in that town who took them in
when my friends finally got through to customer service - they were given a $25 gift certificate good for their next booking through Orbitz and not even an apology - doesnt inspire confidence does it?

All,


A warm transfer means:

A warm transfer means the person stays on the phone with you when they transfer you to a different department to ensure you are connected to a live person and you don't get disconnected.

Orbitz is about convenience, not value. People who don't want to do as much legwork might find more use for the website than most of us addicted to travel planning....

Orbitz is my most-used travel site, but that doesn't mean I spend much money with them. I use them to check rates first, then buy direct with the airline or hotel (or as a reference for rates for a Priceline bid). Because Orbitz is owned by the major airlines anyway, I feel no guilt about using Orbitz to book with one of its parent companies.

Usually, you can book the same deal directly with the airline or hotel as you can find on Orbitz but not always. I have found a few cases where Orbitz was either cheaper or had better flight times and was not able to get them anywhere else. Last fall I booked a hotel through Orbitz in Budapest that was significantly cheaper than the hotel's website, for example. And I've gotten better flights in a few cases, like a better connection or earlier/later departure with Orbitz than I could get otherwise.

Orbitz has helped me many times do research and I do give them business here or there, but I prefer to book direct. There are hassles involved; besides a cheaper price/better itinerary, I don't see them adding ANY value and maybe reducing value. There are usually more restrictions when booking anything through Orbitz, especially airfares. Northwest for example offers a 24-hour free cancellation period right after you book any ticket but I don't think that applies if you book that NWA ticket with Orbitz. And I think if you make any changes to any ticket you pay more to change it on Orbitz, often, than if you had booked directly with the airline.

Andrew

I agree with previous assertions that value can vary. While Orbitz generally seems to offer pricing comparable to what is available elsewhere, just last week I found a rate at a Fairmont hotel for $50 cheaper than any other sites (and not prepaid). Just to make sure there would be no problems, I called Fairmont central reservations to make sure the reservation was there - and it was.

I also shop around comparing all the websites and calling hotels directly as well. I have booked with Orbitz once or twice because they had the best deal. But, as other's have said, there's no consistent site that always has the best deal. You must shop around, and always check with the source (the actual hotel or airline by phone and website).

As far as reaching an actual CSR, there's a website (www.gethuman.com) that gives shortcuts (what to say, or what to press) for getting a human on the phone when dealing with endless voice mail. I've tried some of their tricks and it has worked.

To follow up: last night I found another example of an airfare (or rather, flight selection) available only on Orbitz. This was not even listed as a special web fare. It was a United flight; the flights were available on United's own website but for anywhere from $50 to $100 more total. I prefer to use the airline website directly, but the flights offered were simply much better on Orbitz on the same airline. So I booked it.

Another interesting thing: the flight selection seemed to fluctuate quite a lot even within the same hour on Orbitz. I wanted certain flights on each leg of the trip; first time I checked, they were there; check a few things to confirm the dates work; check again, flights are now gone, only redeyes. Half an hour later they are back again. (Meanwhile, no fluctuation on United.com at all, I was checking both at the same time.)

So in this case, I did get real value from Orbitz. I could have gotten the same fare from United.com (and saved about a $6 service charge) but they would have been awful flights, one at 6:30AM, the other a red eye, both of which were basically impossible for me. It is frustrating that I had to play games to get the exact flights I wanted, though - they obviously aren't full as seats are still available on them.

Andrew

I also got a good airfare on Orbitz today. I have been checking flights for months on an open jaw ticket. I am flying to Kansas City, Denver and then back to Cleveland this August. I can't be flexible with my dates so the cost has been $500 to over $600 and the flights were not direct. I am flying direct on Continental and Frontier with great departure times for $404.

I was sure I could get it less that that but I have been checking for months. I have been checking Travelocity, Sidestep, Kayak and individual airlines.

I am still waiting for Columbus and Cleveland round trip flights to KC to drop so I can find flights for other members of my family going to the wedding in KC. They just haven't budged. Hoping for a SW Ding.