Originally Posted by JS
How is that possible? Orbitz does not manage the seat inventory.
The easiest explination is that they were probably using a 'buffer' or other setup to keep tabs on inventory but not know the exact count at that particular second.
To explain it: Think of all of the people that are trying to get tickets for various flights throught the world at this very second, that's alot of questions to ask the server, especially when more than one person might be looking to book seats on the exact smae flight on the exact same day.
(cutting to the chase) What orbitz might do is check the inventory for Person A on a flight and find out that there are 4 seats remaining, another person, Person B ask for the smae flight from orbitz a minute later and instead of re-checking the inventory it just says 'hey there are 4 seats' (hoping that there still are 4 seats).
At the same time Person C on Travelocity booked all 4 of the remaining seats and now there are actually none left.
Person A then goes ahead and books the 4 seats (not knowing that they're already gone).
Hopefully Orbitz would be smart enough to tell Person B that the 4 seats that he or she is looking for have been sold if they try to buy them, but maybe not, I don't know.
Now you've sold 8 seats when only 4 were left and you're overbooked.
I don't know for sure that this is how either Orbitz or Travelocity setup their software but I do know that other parts of the travel industry (i.e. hotels) do this all the time because it cuts down the cost of the server that they have to buy.
I hope that this makes sense.