The Site: Orbitz.com
- Orbitz “Deal Detector” allows you to set your own price for your vacation. Orbitz.com will email you if they meet or beat your price for airfare or hotels
- Orbitz Hotel Rewards Now program
- 24 hour live Orbitz customer service
- Orbitz Eco-Friendly Vacations Home Page
- Price Assurance: If you book a flight and someone else books the exact same flight for less, you get a refund check of the difference
- Free “Orbitz TLC Traveler Update”. An online tool that you can use to exchange up-to-the-minute facts with other travelers about travel conditions, along with FAA postings, right from your cell phone. You can exchange information, such as how long the security line is, or where the good parking is located at the airport.
- Easily find cheap airfare with the Orbitz Multi-City Air Tab
- Catagorized Travel Blog: The Orbitz Travel Blog: Insider Tips & Expertise
- Orbitz Hotel Low Price Guarantee
- Orbitz TLC Insider Podcasts, which are destination guides that you can listen to from your computer or download on your iPod
- Lists of top family travel destinations and activities: Family Travel: Hotels and Packages.
The Good:
We love the destination guides on Orbitz, such as “Taste the Good Life…Your Guide to Food & Wine Vacations at Orbitz“. This is one of the great benefits of a large travel site, like Orbitz. The Orbitz Insider Podcasts are pretty awesome too. Currently, you can choose from about 16 major cites, but we hope they add more. They will tell you “how to glide past the bouncer at the hottest industry night in Vegas (without tipping)”, where to find a “Seattle hangout where beer is often cheaper than water“, and “the only place on earth to taste Twinkie Tiramisu“. Check this out before you hit your destination!
Orbitz has one of the best price guarantees in the travel business, with their “Hotel Price Assurance”. Simply put, if any Orbitz customer ends up booking the exact same hotel night for less, they will send you a check for the difference. Plus, if you go out on your own and find a lower priced hotel on a competitors website, Orbitz will refund you the difference and throw in an extra $50. Does anyone else do that?
The Bad:
The Orbitz “Beach Finder” was a little odd. This is an interactive page where you get to select what you like to do, and then it is supposed to spit out the perfect beach hotels for you. Well, we specified on the first page that we were a “FAMILY WITH CHILDREN”, then it brought up a second page for “interests” (of which included such family-friendly activities as gambling)!? We chose SHOPPING, DINING, and CULTURE. Finally, it asked us what our “hotel preferences” were, among which we found “Adult Only”…..what?
The Fees*:
$25 Orbitz fee to cancel a hotel booked with a “Orbitz Hotel Low Price Guarantee”, and $50 Orbitz fee to cancel a package (airfare is not refunded). All cancellations on Orbitz must take place more than 24 hours prior beginning of trip. Flights are not refundable, but you may be able to obtain a credit and this varies per airline. In lieu of online booking fees, Orbitz will add a $25.00 USD (non-refundable) fee to each air ticket purchased by phone. On changes to previously issued tickets that require new tickets to be issued, a $30.00 service fee will be charged by Orbitz.com. A refund from Orbitz can take about 60-90 days.
*Based solely on research done by TravelSiteCritic.com, these figures may be inaccurate and are subject to change.Verify policies with the website before you book. Please be aware of airfare taxes & fees, applicable to any booking that includes airfare.
The Deals:
PROMO Hotel Sale – Save up to 40% – Save up to 40% on participating hotels during this sale on Orbitz
________________________________________________
Orbitz.
I Tried to cancel a flight 30 days before departure.
- No refund possible
- No reschedule possible
- No alternate destination possible
- and my favorite – I could get a voucher for later travel that must be used for a domestic flight, it was an international flight on a carrier that *does not have* domestic flights. Go figure.
Orbitz online wouldn’t let me book. it wound up deactivating my credit card but not before charging me $1400. I called the representative who proceeded to tell me i had to upgrade rooms if i wanted to take this trip and i couldn’t book a package deal. So i couldn’t use my coupon, i had to pay for a more expensive room, and i didn’t get the package discount. He then charged a different card $1400 not once but TWICE. This was after two and a half hours on the phone. My brother in law was booking the same trip not five minutes later and had no problems. Additional calls (with someone calling me at 11 pm) and headaches later, i was told that i can cancel or that i can accept a $50 voucher for a future reservation. Expedia can thank Orbitz for the new customers.
I want to thank Orbits because me and husband always find cheaper flights!!! We’ve never had any problem with the purchase, flight or whatever issue you can have buying a ticket and we have traveled very often.
I’ve read these reviews about Orbitz; I don’t understand them or else I have been very lucky. I have used Orbitz 3 times..all 3 times no problems. Once we were flying to Hawaii, plane got delayed at stopover for a complete day weather delay). Contact Orbitz CS, they rebooked us and extended out Hawaii hotel stay (to make up for lost day) at no extra charge. We have recently used them to book a Aruba trip..hopefully will be just as happy.
I booked flight tickets through Orbitz for travel during the holidays of Dec. 2011. The day before my return, the flight was cancelled and I contacted Orbitz about rebooking me on a new return flight. My travelling partner had just done this and I asked to be booked on the same flight. Orbitz then informed me that they had booked my departure and return flights with two different, and unassociated airlines, which for some reason meant the couldn’t book me on a different flight. The incompetent customer service rep couldn’t even book me on any flight and instead told me to call the airlines (why am I using Orbitz then?). Both airlines refused responsibility for my flight and after 5.5 hours on the phone I still had no return flight. Left with no other option, I booked the last seat on the return flight Orbitz had put my travelling partner on. Upon my return home I contacted Orbitz about a reimbursement for the flight. To this day I have not received any compensation for it, and Orbitz refuses to communicate with me on the matter. Orbitz has terrible customer service, is an awful company and not worth dealing with in the least.
I recently booked a car rental through orbitz.com and was given an all inclusive quote of $52 with thrifty rent a car in puerto vallarta. The trouble began when I arrived at the thrifty counter and was told the real cost was $141. I think a major site like orbitz should give accurate prices.
Yes, as indicated in the comment below, Orbitz does charge service/booking fees on several of their travel bookings. Back when we researched the Orbitz policy, it stated they charge a “variable” service fee for hotels and also fees for multi-carrier flights and flights that don’t originate in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, or Caribbean. Apparently this has not changed. For a further explanation of Orbitz booking fees, you may find this article on the Examiner helpful:
http://www.examiner.com/travel-deals-in-seattle/the-truth-about-airfare-booking-fees-part-one-did-orbitz-really-do-away-with-booking-fees
Also, you may be interested in this article which explains how to avoid booking fees in most instances by booking directly on the hotel’s own website:
http://travelsitecritic.com/reviews/articles/book-hotel-direct/
BUYER BEWARE – ORBITZ CHARGES SERVICE FEES !!!
Just received my credit card statement and was surprised to see a separate line item charge of $13.98 from Orbitz. Called their Customer Service and was told Orbitz charges a service fee on top of the airline price listed.
Supposedly there was somewhere in the booking process that indicated Orbitz charges a service fee, but not anywhere that I saw. I was certain their advertising states that no service fees, but can’t find anywhere on their web site whether they charge or not.
I certainly won’t be using Orbitz ever again.
Not real pleased with Orbitz & figure from now on I will return to Expedia.com for my travel needs. Have a package reservation–hotel & car. My plans changed & I was now considering traveling 2 days earlier–which basically means MORE money for Orbitz–right?!?! The run-around I got on trying to work this out was unreal. A $25 cxl fee–wait, I’m giving you MORE business! Then the rate the “agent” quoted me was much higher than what I was looking at on the computer. When I questioned the $25 cxl rate when I am giving them additional business, the “agent” (perhaps in India–very hard to understand) hung up on me!!! NOT calling back–takes forever to reach anyone &, for that matter, will just NEVER call back….. period! Goodbye Orbitz!!!
Want a rental car? Great low prices BUT they don’t tell you that the insurance you buy isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. It isn’t the same insurance you get from the car rental company. Oh, book a hotel — great ! But wait, we’ll tell you the room has A/C — surprise, it doesn’t. We’ll tell you it has complimentary WI FI internet access — ooopps, it doesn’t. Go ahead and call Orbitz to make a change — good luck. I was on hold at the rental car pick up location for 1.5 hours and never talked to an agent. I was on hold for 2 hours at the hotel room that didn’t have A/C — and never talked to a customer service person. I paid over $1500 for a room and car and DID NOT GET WHAT I WAS PROMISED ! Oh, and don’t bother talking to the rental car company — they point the finger at Orbitz and do NOTHING to help. Don’t talk to the hotel operator — they point the finger and ORBITZ and do NOTHING to help ! If you want to get ripped off — do business with Orbitz. If you want to get what you are promised — deal directly with the car company and the hotel operator. I will NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH ORBITZ AGAIN !
First booking was supposed to be a hotel with a pool. The guy on the phone at Orbitz messed that up. It was fixed and we were supposed to be staying at Holiday Inn in Jackson, Tn. We get there and their pool is broke. Orbitz would not fix the problem with our promised hotel with a indoor pool and we had to find one ourselves. He had also promised us that we would have two conjoining rooms which Holiday Inn does not even have. Orbitz will tell you anything to get you to book with them. Don’t waste your time or money.
Okay, had two bad experiences out of two chances with them.
First time using Orbitz, it was for hotel only in Niagara Falls. We booked a room with a jacuzzi for my girlfriend and I to have a romantic weekend at Sterling Inn and Spas. She was so excited and couldn’t wait to get their and soak in the jacuzzi. We check in, get to our room and low and behold, NO jacuzzi. We went to the desk and they told us that Orbitz booked us a steam shower room. The hotel tried to accommodate us, but there were no rooms available. We chose that hotel specifically for this feature. Trip not totally ruined, but was a major downer. Orbitz offered us a discount to use in the next 60 days for a hotel. Who goes on vacation every 60 days?? WTF? We vowed NEVER to use Orbitz again.
Fast forward to Nov 2010(trip from 2/23-2/27). We book flight + Hotel to Las Vegas through cheaptickets.com(did not know they were owned by Orbitz or would NEVER have used them). 4 people, 2 rooms. Paid extra for a Deluxe Strip View room. This was to be on the 23rd or 24th floor with a panoramic view of the strip with a larger sq footage and upgraded amenities. Paid $19 extra per person, per night for this. We get to the airport and our seats were split up, 2 and 2. No biggie. Would rather be together, but I’m pretty easy going, so it’s acceptable. We get to the Stratosphere and check in. They gave us rooms on the 8th floor that looked like a room at a Super 8. We immediately went downstairs and spoke with the manager of the hotel. She reviewed our paperwork we had printed when ordering and low and behold, we were right and ORBITZ booked the wrong room. Unfortunately there were NO rooms available to correct the error. We went into the managers office to call to see what Orbitz wanted to do to correct this issue. They said WE made a mistake in booking the room, not them. Guess they didn’t expect us to bring a copy of the order confirmation with us. We explained that the hotel manager is in agreement with us that they made a mistake. We offered them her # and name if they’d like to call the hotel and see what can be done to fix the issue. They refused. I told Orbitz that I wanted a room at a comparable hotel with a comparable room that I had paid for. They refused and gave me a “you are SOL” attitude. I spoke with the manager of the manager of the phone rep. They treated me like dirt on the phone and didn’t seem to care that they ruined my trip, AGAIN. The hotel manager knew we were wronged. The hotel gave us rooms on the 23rd floor, but they were the same rooms as the ones on the 8th floor. She also comped us 4 buffets valued at about $110 total. Point being that the hotel knew we got screwed and did what they could to help us feel better, but it should have been Orbitz fixing the situation, NOT the hotel.
I have never booked a flight/hotel package through Orbitz.com, but was recommended by friends. However, my experience was not the best as the company put through two transactions on my credit/debit card for the same package. The original package from Newark, NJ to Toronto, Canada cost me $519.12 and they put that amount through twice – totaling over a thousand bucks.
I am not sure if this is a new policy, but I was told by the Orbitz customer service rep that they put the transaction through once as a hold or pre-authorization, when you purchase the ticket to be sure the monies are available, and then again as the full debit. You have to then wait for your bank to return the held monies in 3 to 5 business days.
My issue was that I was traveling on the next day and needed my money available to me NOW! Thank God, between my bank and a faxed letter from an Orbitz supervisor, the problem was successfully solved on that day – but BUYER BEWARE!
So you paid $130 to cancel an $84 ticket? Maybe you should have just left it and bought the new one? But I feel your pain: cancellations are costly!
Thanks for you comment, Nancy, about the Orbitz flight cancellation and change fee policy. This is really good to know. It does seem to be the standard nowadays to pay about $100 plus the change in fare price to change the date on ticket. Jet Blue does have a “refundable fare” option if you book directly with them. Our review of JetBlue.com has more details: http://travelsitecritic.com/reviews/1/jet-blue/
I recently booked a flight on Orbitz to fly my 17 year old daughter from Burbank to Las Vegas, but had mistakenly booked the wrong date. The ticket was $84.00. I contacted Orbitz and was told they charge $100.00 cancellation fee, plus a $30.00 processing fee, then the cost of a new ticket.
Over all, it cost $234.00 to fly her one way from Burbank to Las Vegas. OUCH.