Jaimito Cartero

Please provide documentation that all online travel agents charge service fees.

StanleyWester

Those who do, mention it in their in their terms and conditions or terms of service.
That simple. So if you do not like the listed all inclusive price, buy it elsewhere. It is pointless to complain that Orbitz or whatever travel website charged xx dollars when it was part of the all inclusive price. Now if the charge is more than the all inclusive price, then, I can understand the issue. Other than that, there is no argument.

cbn42

1) It is not Orbitz's problem what you are "accsutomed" to.

2) Announcements from 2009 are not binding.

3) The disclosure you quoted clearly says that there "may" be a fee.

Alpha Golf

It looks like they're charging on almost everything.

I got hit with 21.99 for a jetblue ticket, even though the website said that they don't charge on single-carrier itineraries. (Now removed, but I have a screenshot).

Guess the thing to do is use them to look, but not to book.

janetdoe

Right, but how can I tell if there 'is' a fee, other than booking with Orbitz and filing a BRG claim?

Clincher

I am reviving this thread to get further thoughts on what janetdoe suggested to possibly involving DOT. To be honest I don't mind paying a service fee to an agency. However, I would like to know what that fee is upfront.
Over the last two weeks I purchased eight one-way tickets where I was provided a 'final' cost. It was not until I received my credit card bill at the end of the month did I notice a separate service fee charge in addition to the airline charge. These were one-way non-stop tickets on one airline and the fee was $21.98 per person. That is $175.84 more than if I had purchased directly with the airline or other OTA.
Yes I do realize that had I gone straight to the airline and compared I would have noticed the difference in costs. However, I did not compare since I trusted the final purchase price was the airfare. Since it was not disclosed on the final purchase page I did not know until my credit card indicated the service fee charges (totaling $175.84 for 8 tickets) and by then it's too late to make a different decision.
I have asked Orbitz customer relations about this before and was told it only confuses the buyer when there is more than one line outlining the charges. I find it more confusing to see an unknown and unexpected charge on my credit card.

cbn42

You were charged the amount listed. That's all that matters.

When you go to the grocery store and buy something, you are charged the price on the tag. The store does not tell you how much they are paying the manufacturer for the product and how much their commission is. It's not your concern at all. I'm not sure why you think Orbitz should be any different.

Clincher

When you have between 200-300 airline transactions a month it is not always easy to discern which 6.99, 21.98 or anything between $7-$25 fees, etc. goes with which transaction. Also, if you know anything about reconciling a credit card or audit, you understand that writing in the math on a receipt is not always acceptable.
Maybe most do not deal with the above description, so your analogy may work. However, even as you stated this is not a perfect analogy.
I have spoken to Orbitz and they state, "totally understand where you’re coming from" however "Most customers do not request this functionality, so that’s why we haven’t built it out". So for my accounting purposes, if I need to use and OTA I will stick with an OTA that provides a line by line description of costs such as Expedia.

My question about involving DOT concerns the Orbitz 'airfare+agency fee' that is being presented as the cost of the airfare.

EDIT: My question becomes irrelevant according to the month old news that expedia is acquiring Orbitz.
Of course, this raise other questions

cestmoi123

To be clear, was this a case where your checkout page showed $1400, and your credit card statement said "airline tickets - $1246.14 / OTA fees - $175.84," or did the checkout page show $1246.14 and your credit card "airline tickets - $1246.14 / OTA fees - $175.84"?

If the latter (i.e. you were charged more than you expected), you've got a 100% legit complaint. If the latter, it's dicier.

Clincher

Thank you for your reply.
When purchasing the ticket the final purchasing page shows $1400 on OTA.
On the final purchase page there is no line by line description of the actual cost of airline ticket and what OTA is charging as a fee. The only way to know fee is:

1) cross check with airline website to see actual ticket price ($1246.14), subtract that from OTA purchase page price ($1400).

2) wait a few days for charges to appear on credit card statement. There will be two transaction lines per OTA transaction; ticket cost ($1246.14) and the OTA fee ($175.84). Add transaction lines together until they match the OTA receipt ($1400). Write your math on OTA receipt so accounting understands there is one receipt two transactions. Repeat process for each single OTA transaction until your credit card is reconciled.

I understand what they are doing and why. It's just not convenient for this consumer. And a consumer should know up front what the OTA fee is without having to do the math a few days later.

Carl

Hadn't run into this issue with them since probably last fall. Without providing any disclosure, Orbitz is adding $27.99 to the price of all the US Airways itineraries I've considered. After I booked one yesterday, my credit card showed an authorization for the actual airfare and then a separate one for the fee. When I view my reservation on the US site, the price paid (listed at the bottom) excludes the fee.

After previously having good luck always getting the fee (+ $150) credited in Orbucks after filing a Best Price Guarantee claim, my last experience was quite unpleasant. After multiple runarounds, they finally agreed to refund the fee to my credit card. No bonus Orbucks. They acted like they were doing me a big favor and stopped responding to my emails altogether.

When I cancelled yesterday's booking, the service fee was clearly displayed as a separate line item on the confirmation screen. It does not appear anywhere else. The cancellation email, like the regular website, shows only the total price with no way to see the breakdown.

I wish someone would take legal action on their pricing. I'm just not up for it.

bryanvp

If the problem you are having is with the non-disclosure of a fee, then that is certainly understandable. Transparency is always desirable when spending money.

But if you have a problem with them charging a fee, then I say c'mon people. There are no free lunches...we all should have learned this in economics. If you don't want to pay for something then you have every right not to pay...simply don't use Orbitz, and you will not have to pay their fee. Feel free to use a competitor or call the Airline yourself. However, I personally feel that a $20 fee is more than worth it. I don't think I would be able to call every single airline (I don't even know who all the airlines are), find a flight for my date and time frame, price and compare these flights, and then keep track of my itinerary and get emailed about updates on the flights, etc. in a reasonable amount of time. I'd be happy to pay someone $20 to do this for me because it would probably take me hours to organize as well as the way that Orbitz does it. Plus by the time I have it all written down and compared and I am ready to book my flight on the cheapest airline I found, it might be too late and that price might have gone up or some else (willing to pay a fee) took the last seat on that flight.

People get so used to everything being free on the internet that when a private company starts to charge for a service they offer, that they clearly find valuable, they get upset; it makes no sense. Don't expect a private company to offer services for free- period. If they are being compensated by the Airline and not that compensation is gone or not enough then they will charge however they feel is necessary; we have to accept that or we'll never have a free market. We have to remember that there is always the right to say "no" and use an alternative. This right protects the consumer from paying too high a price because private companies would eventually lose if they kept "overcharging" for their services. The market will determine what the right price is in a free market, and the market WILL punish those companies that try to charge a higher price than consumers are willing to accept; we don't need to involve the government or lawyers; this will only end up costing EVERYONE more than the initial $20 service fee.