Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Orbitz, You Suck!

Sorry - no other way to sugar coat it. Orbitz just plain sucks. Almost FIVE YEARS after I first reported this issue here on FT and complained to Orbitz management, the same phantom availability problem exists! Five Years! Simply inexcusable.

I should always remember never, ever search for air tickets on Orbitz.

I check SEA/OGG for Thanksgiving weekend - WOW, they quote me $380 per person! I'm going! Not so fast....

Click the link to book and we get "Because flight availability can change rapidly based on traveler demand, the flight you selected is no longer available. Please make another selection. (Message 100)"

Click another option to book - same message. Click another option - same. Keep going until every single NW flight option is gone.

What a stupid, stupid, useless website. Of course I call NW reservations and they tell me the flights Orbitz was quoting availabilty on were totally sold out - zero'd out - and not a single seat was open in any class or cabin.

Orbitz - I curse thee!

Please continue this discussion in the Online travel booking and bidding agencies. Thanks for your understanding.

Jouy31
TravelBuzz moderator

Sorry - no other way to sugar coat it. Orbitz just plain sucks. Almost FIVE YEARS after I first reported this issue here on FT and complained to Orbitz management, the same phantom availability problem exists! Five Years! Simply inexcusable.

I should always remember never, ever search for air tickets on Orbitz.

I check SEA/OGG for Thanksgiving weekend - WOW, they quote me $380 per person! I'm going! Not so fast....

Click the link to book and we get "Because flight availability can change rapidly based on traveler demand, the flight you selected is no longer available. Please make another selection. (Message 100)"

Click another option to book - same message. Click another option - same. Keep going until every single NW flight option is gone.

What a stupid, stupid, useless website. Of course I call NW reservations and they tell me the flights Orbitz was quoting availabilty on were totally sold out - zero'd out - and not a single seat was open in any class or cabin.

Orbitz - I curse thee!

Yes, I agree 100%. In 15 years of using websites to book all kinds of travel, Orbitz is the ONLY one to ever give me this type of response, and it happens more often than not. Totally useless website--how do they still have business???

It is certainly an annoying problem, but Orbitz let me cancel a non-refundable itinerary past the 24 hour cancel window a few weeks ago. I just asked and they said sure. Last time I checked, you can't cancel L-class domestic tickets on UA! Credit card has been credited.

My point: Orbitz sure made my life easier so I would amend the OP's post to say, "Orbitz, You suck sometimes!"

Orbitz is the only booking site I know that returns so many false price combos during search, then ratchets the bottom line upwards so sharply when you go to buy. It's unusable.

Orbitz is the only booking site I know that returns so many false price combos during search, then ratchets the bottom line upwards so sharply when you go to buy. It's unusable.

Either they're totally inept and incompetent or doing it deliberately. After all, they can't fix this problem after five years??

I had a similar experience with Travelocity. I booked a flight with them and a day later they called me and said that they could not follow through, and if I wanted that flight I would have to pay an extra $100. I thought it was a classic “bait & switch” but my complaints to Travelocity were completely ignored.