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Orbitz - Airline Reservations

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Steve of Norman OK (12/14/03):
I purchased a ticket on Orbitz, used the first leg, but needed to make a change on the return. The web site says you must call and make any changes with an Orbitz representative. I tried calling for TWO WEEKS. I could never get a person on the line. I waited at least 20 minutes each time, even as the website said the wait would be 10 minutes.

In the end, I had to get another ticket for the some route. Not only did I have to spend money on a new ticket, but my original Orbitz ticket -- for which I paid over $700 -- is now worthless. (I was ready to pay the penalty for changing flights and to pay for the difference in the cost of the flight. But because they never answered their phone, I lost the entire value of the ticket AND had to get a new one.) Their annoying and inaccurate phone recording, which I have now memorized, said that you were experiencing longer than usual delays because of bad weather. So I checked the national forecast and called on a day when there were no storms. No answer. The recording said to call early in the morning. So I called at 7:00 am est. Still no answer.

Damage Resulting: I lost the value of a $700 Orbitz ticket and had to pay for a new ticket for the same route.

Andrew of Flushing NY (12/5/03):
I'm really disappointed with orbitz. I searched for a flight on Iberia airline from NY to Rome because orbitz is offering a free companion flight for each ticket. My search came up as $336 for the flight from jan20 � jan27. But when I book it, it becomes $641.

This is a false advertisement! All their customer reps tell me was that they forgot to update the price. That�s bs! I got this price since yesterday, and check again today got the same price of $336. I think their promotions are a big fraud! What kind of website forgets to update its price. This is so misleading.

Julianne of Shrewbury MA (1/12/03):
I booked a trip for my mother-in-law using the orbitz website. The orbitz customer care representative told me that the ticket was refundable and that I could receive a credit voucher (in no particular name) to use at a later date if I had to cancel this flight which cost $600.

Customer service is telling me that the ticket is completely NON-refundable and my mother-in-law is the only one who can use the ticket within 1 year to travel to another destination. This was miscommunicated to me by Orbitz and American Airlines. My motherinlaw can not travel within a year due to her ecomonic situation. That is specifically why I asked the Orbitz representative the question about canceling if needed.

Lisa Fairfield CA (10/8/03):
My husband and I purchased an airline ticket from orbitz.com on OCT 1, 02. The ticket was 97.00 plus a 5.00 processing fee. We put the orbitz account in my name and the ticket in his. There was only one place to put the passengers name for the ticket, we only typed in his name once. We looked over the ticket and purchased it with our atm/debit card. About 20 minutes later I recieved the email with the confirmation, the ticket was now in my name.

I immediately check my account to see if it had been charged. There was a preautoriztion of 97.00 and the 5.00 fee, however directly below the charge was a credit for the 97.00 and the 5.00 fee. I immmediately called orbitz to tell them the ticket was incorrect and that the fees were already credited. They stated they didnt see any credit, but they would refund the ticket and I would have to repurchase it again to change the name.

So 30 minutes had passed since we got the ticket and we tried to repurchase it.... there were no longer any flights available. So we went to another sight and got a flight on the same plane in yahoo. Then on Oct.3 a two charges appeared, one for 5.00 and one for 97.00. We were once again charge for the ticket without our permission. We called the company and they stated they didnt recharge it. We faxed them page after page of our account info and we filled a fraudulent charge report at our bank.

We finally got the 97.00 fee refunded on Oct. 4th, however they said they will not refund our 5.00 or the 20.00 nsf fee we incurred. I find this outrageous. They said they would refund the 5.00 and the 97.00. Now they wont do the 5.00 and we now have a 20.00 fee. Upon filling the report with my bank they stated they have had alot of problems with this company charging people without permission.

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