keloutwest

All,

I purchased 2 of the following tickets and saved about $800 per ticket doing it this way. I know doing this is frowned upon, but anyways I took the risk and am willing to pay for trouble since I saved a whole lot. But now I have a problem...

LAX-PVG-DPS-PVG-LAX on China Eastern in discount Y purchased on Orbitz. Normally I book directly with the airline, but this fare wasn't available.

USA-LAX-USA on UA directly with UA.

I was notified by Orbitz of a schedule change on the DPS-PVG flight. Instead of leaving at 3:40am, it now leaves at 12:30am. Obviously it's in the right direction in terms of the connection in PVG, but that leaves a 7 hour layover (arrival at 6:10 am, next flight at 1:10pm).

I'm told by Orbitz that the 3:40am flight was moved to 12:30am. However, when booking a few weeks ago, both a 3:40 and 12:30 flight option were offered. I selected the 3:40am flight to avoid the pain of a 7 hour layover. Now I'm told the 3:40am flight simply doesn't exist anymore (which seems to be true as I can't find it anymore).

Questions:

What to do in PVG for 7 hours? Is there a day hotel or something?

Can one leave the airport?

Can one get some kind of compensation for this?

MSPeconomist

If your nationality is eligible for transit without visa you can leave the airport and in fact spend up to 48 hour in Shanghai. Travel between the airport and downtown can easily take an hour, even more in bad traffic by taxi.

keloutwest

Looks like USA is eligible. For 7 hours and after a long flight, exploring the city isn't going to happen. Thoughts on a hotel nearby, perhaps one that does daytime stays?

Goldorak

What about the Maglev train : 7 min to downtown + a short metro ride to be on Nanjing rd ?

moondog

Longyang Rd is nowhere near "downtown". The taxi (all the way from the airport) is consistently the faster option.

irishguy28

I'm afraid not.

Chinatrvl

There are two hotels located between the two airport terminals at PVG, both offering day rooms and massage etc treatments. They are not fancy, but rather basic - ok for a couple of hours.
A Ramada is also there, but only within shuttle distance.

Going downtown is an option (that I would not consider after a Y night flight).

And of course there is no compensation due.

keloutwest

I have another wrinkle to report. My return flight has had yet ANOTHER schedule change (within 5 days of the last one). To recap, I was moved from the 3:40am DPS-PVG to the 12:30am flight. Makes my layover in PVG 7 hours, but I can deal with that.

Now, they have put me on the following:

7:30am DPS-PVG (i.e. 7 hours after the 12:30am flight). That flight arrives PVG at 1:10pm. The PVG-LAX flight leaves at 1:00pm. Here's the enraging part: "Time between flights: 0hr -10min".

Called China Eastern, have been on hold 1+ hours. Called Orbitz and they told me I have 2 choices: full refund, or I can stay the night in Shanghai and leave the next morning to LAX. Also not going to work given the extra UA leg I booked separately.

I'm thinking my only choice now is to leave DPS a day earlier, spend the night in PVG, and take my original flight to LAX the next day. [Updated: There are no flights the day before from DPS-PVG...]

Can anyone think of any options?

Also, the outbound flight leaves tomorrow.....

3Cforme

If these are regular schedule changes, not temporary flight disruptions, responsibility for changing your ticket rests with Orbitz.

keloutwest

They're saying it's China Eastern's fault, not theirs....

3Cforme

This isn't a matter of fault, it's an IATA convention agreed to by 200+ airlines. Advanced schedule changes are the problem of the ticket issuing party - the airline from which one bought the ticket directly, a travel agent, the other airline that issued the frequent flyer ticket, etc. Day of departure disruptions - mechanical, weather, air traffic control - are on the operating carrier.

moondog

Yes, while "passing the buck" is in the best interests of Orbitz, it has the responsibility to sort these matters out with MU on the OP's behalf; those are the rules to which they agreed. I would MUCH rather Orbitz sorted something like this out, even if I had to spend an hour on the phone with them going through various levels of management, then wasting a second of my time dealing with MU.

keloutwest

Here is the plan. They are going to take the same outbound flight today as scheduled. I will spend the next 2 weeks figuring this out with orbitz.

Last night, I spent 3+ hours on the phone with Orbitz and got nowhere. I was ping ponged to what seemed like every country besides an English speaking one. Perhaps I made it to both China and Indonesia last night! An Orbitz agent in one country even spent 5 minutes telling another Orbitz agent in anotger that she was from Orbitz transferring the call. Since neither spoke the same first language, it was quite an impressive feat.

Does anyone know how to reach a USA or Canada based Orbitz manager?

moondog

It's clearly time for you to start using words like "legal", "law suit", and "attorney general" during your next round of phone calls. Doing this will get them to pay attention to you. They might end up having to buy tickets on a different airline, but that's their problem, not yours.

If you stay the course, I'm 100% confident that things will work out in the end.

keloutwest

I'll give it a try later in the week and report back. Is there a specific rule/law I can cite that would mean something to them? Or should I just say 'It's an IATA convention that states It's the booking agent not the carrier that's responsible"?