Orbitz Vacation Packages Consumer Reviews

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- Never Again! Booked our European vacation through Orbitz. Could not check-in on-line for any of the segments. Arrived at the airport and our family of three were assigned seats scattered around the plane. Segment #2: without any notice, we arrived at Gatwick for our flight to Lisbon only to find out it had been cancelled. Flight had been re-booked for 30 hours later on a 2-segment 6.5 hour airtime path vs. the 2.5 hours originally booked. Over two hours in line at customer service and arranged a flight the same day (but at night, so transfer to Heathrow and sit around for 6 hours). Arrived at our flat at 1:00am.

Note: called Orbitz customer service and were told they couldn't help with any flights within 24 hours of scheduled time! That was a wasted phone call. Segment #3: arrived at Lisbon to return home only to find our booking had been blocked (not deleted or cancelled, only blocked) because of the Segment #2 fiasco. 1.5 hours with customer service to get unblocked. Barely made the flight and only thanks to help from the local American Airlines agent. Certainly not worth the few dollars we saved.

CHICAGO, NORTH CAROLINA -- I was accidentally called this 800 number, thinking it is a cruise line number. Only after the whole booking, I realized it is Orbitz, but it was too late. The services from Orbitz is horrible, everything for a small info, you have to spend hours and hours on the phone. The communication between Princess and Orbitz are so poor, one always blame the other side made the mistakes.

We spend a lot of money for the 7-8 Alaska Cruise, but we have to spend so many hours on the phone with Orbitz and Princess just to get the right cabin. After the Cabin, they did not tell me that my paid excursion count not be transferred to the new cabin number. Only after 30 days I realize that our excursion bookings were cancelled.

Also if you book your cruise by Orbitz, Princess would make your check-in another nightmare. My info were lost a few times. I had to reenter them, them my login would not work any more... you call Orbitz, they say it is Princess issue, when you call Princess, they we have to call Orbitz for any issue. Oh my God, what a mess! We would never ever book any trips by Orbitz!

CALIFORNIA -- A few weeks back, I booked 4 vacation packages with Orbitz because a friend had suggested that they are a big company and it is safer to go through them. After looking through my email to check my itinerary, I found that the sales agent who took my order over the phone had spelled my name wrong as well as one of the other passenger's. I immediately called Orbitz and was put on hold for more than one hour before I got a response from their package department's customer service. The guy who was helping me said that he had to resolve it with the airlines first and would give me a call back the next day.

I waited three days before I called back and when I did, I was placed on hold for about 45 minutes before I could speak to someone. I eventually asked to speak with the supervisor since the second customer service person didn't have any authority to make any changes. I was placed on hold another 15 minutes before a supervisor came on to speak with me. He was rude and didn't want to help me at all, although it was their mistake. He said that there was no notes in the system that verified that I had placed the order on the phone, so they will not waive the $100 fee to change the name on my airline tickets.

I argued that it was not my mistake and that they had to take care of that fee with Alaska Airlines. He said he would contact the corporate office because it was out of his hands and would get back to me the next afternoon. I waited and still there was no phone call so I called them back. After being put on hold for about 45 minutes, they hung up on me. I called back, was on hold for another 30 minutes, got transferred 3 times (this is normal for them... they transferred me all over the place each time I called). Finally, he got on the phone and told me that the corporate office had not gotten back to him and that he would call me back the next day.

I decided to give him another chance. I finally had to call my credit card to dispute it because he never called me back. I decided to call him just to see if he did anything at all. I ended up speaking with very nice lady (who shouldn't even be working for a ridiculous company like Orbitz) and she was able to help me in 15 minutes. She researched and found that I did placed the order over the phone with them and that they did screw up on my name and one of the other passenger's names.

She advised me to call Alaska Airlines myself (which was another nightmare because I was on the phone with them for another 1 1/2 hours because of a 45 minute hold and 20 minute name change process per name) and that they will reimburse me the $100 as soon as I fax them the receipt. This whole process has been a nightmare. I will never book through them again.

I am in the military and have just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. My family and I had been planning on taking a vacation when I returned and we decided to go through Orbitz.com. Everything went fairly smooth until I attempted to actually purchase my vacation. I received an error message stating that my card was not being accepted and my information was not correct. I immediately checked my bank account balance to make sure nothing had gone wrong.

When I checked my account over 2,000 dollars had been deducted from my account. I called their customer service number and was, after 15 minutes of waiting, connected to a non English speaking customer service representative who could do nothing more than transfer me to another non English speaking, computer illiterate customer service representative.

After 30 minutes I was finally connected to someone who could understand what I was saying and could look up my information on their computer system. During the 30 minute wait to talk to the "helpful" customer service representative, I was charged an additional processing fee because the previous customer service moron tried to rebook my vacation package after I told her I was just looking to refund my money.

After about 45 minutes I was finally able to get the customer service guy to understand that all I wanted was a refund of my money so I could make vacation reservations somewhere else. He tried to tell me that my bank was holding my money and there was nothing Orbtiz could do.

I attempted to explain to him that the bank was in fact not holding my money, Orbitz was but he refused to accept that. I then gave him the number to my bank. He came back on the line about 10 minutes later and said that my bank was closed and I would have to call back some other time. I informed him that my bank was not closed, as they are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and I had just spoken to them on the phone. I then gave him the instructions of what he had to do to have Orbitz release my money and return it to the bank. He did not understand a word I was saying. He was definitely speaking English, he was just a complete retard.

I asked him to connect me with his supervisor because I was about nearing my breaking point. He then became very short with me and told me that there was nothing more he could do for me and put me on hold. I'm not really sure why he put me on hold or if he had in fact attempted to connect me with his supervisor. I'm not even sure he had a supervisor.

I'm beginning to think that Orbitz.com is run out of a guy's van and there has yet to be a satisfied customer. In the morning I intend on filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. After reading the posts on this website it is apparent that something more than blogging needs to be done to get the attention of someone who has the authority to "fix" the Orbitz.com organization.

VIRGINIA -- When we tried to cancel the hotel component of our hotel/airfare/car package (which totaled over $4,000), we learned that we would only be refunded $100. We were prepared to pay a cancellation penalty (even up to 50%), but nowhere in the terms and conditions was it clear that the penalty would amount to 99.975% of the cost of the package. Unconscionable. Unscrupulous. NEVER, NEVER AGAIN will I book with this company.

I just booked a Carnival cruise with Orbitz for a first time and have to tell you that Orbitz offer of "free shore excursion" is completely misleading to the customers. I've been on many cruises before and booked several excursions but with other agencies and had NEVER been tricked like this.

First of all, the list of excursions is very different than Carnival offers. I found out it ONLY after booking a cruise with Orbitz, booking agent clearly told me to go on Carnival website (my reservation email clearly says the same) and pick a excursion I want and I did and it wasn't included in this offer... Second of all, it is not "free" it's $70.00 off, so if the excursion costs more than $70 you would have to pay extra. That I found out AFTER booking the cruise as well.

And after I finally booked the excursion I wasn't really interested in because Orbitz didn't have any similar to what I've seen on Carnival: the ride to the place was NOT included. YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME! You couldn't organize a ride for $70 excursion? I go on the cruise by myself and I simply don't feel safe to get a taxi in a foreign county I don't speak the language. And you call it "free" excursion? Who knows how much more taxi ride is going to cost? It makes me wonder: if I get to the place who knows what other "surprises" I might experience? So I have to make a decision not to go at all.

Like I said I've booked several excursion with Carnival before: everything was VERY well organized, from the start to finish, no gimmicks, no hidden costs, to tricks and transportation was ALWAYS included in the cost of excursion!

If someone new will have this experience he/she might think that all cruises are so poorly organized but that's so not true. I wouldn't be coming back! No wonder Orbitz advertise that their excursions are less crowed. Who wants to experience this? Keep finding out what is not included as you go and you can't do anything about it?! Thank God I haven't actually paid that $70 dollars, but I'm sure I'll NEVER book a cruise with Orbitz again! I have been completely fooled! This is how I feel about this experience!

I booked a vacation to the Dominican Republic several months ago with Orbitz because they had the best rates. Definitely not worth it. Upon reviewing my itinerary recently online (Orbitz did NOT contact me), I saw that my flights had been changed so drastically that the connecting flights did not even match up. Our flight out of New Jersey was 8 hours BEFORE our flight even left TO New Jersey. Also, they changed our return flight and shorted us a day of our vacation and it was now going to take 3 days to get home, with one 12 hour layover and one 28 hour layover. This was obviously not acceptable, let alone possible.

I understand that errors can occur, but my major issue is not wIth the error, it is with the way Orbitz failed to assist us with this disaster that they created. I called to get this fixed and was on hold for 1 hour. I was then told that I would have to call back during business hours when the reservation desks are open. Hello! I have a job, who has hours and hours to spend on the phone during business hours?! Anyway, we called back at 5 pm because we were later told that the desks are open until 8 pm. Another 2 hour phone call presented itself.

My husband was the victim this time. He called and was eventually told that Orbitz could change our dates and we could fly out one day early and come back one day earlier. Fine. When we agreed to the change Orbitz told us that we would be paying a fee to change the dates!!! EXCUSE ME? The airlines changed our flights and basically cancelled the trip that Orbitz sold us and then we were expected to pay for a change? I don't think so.

After we were given this information and refused to pay any fees, my husband was told that we would have to call back, yet again, the next day because the reservation desks were closing... it was 7 pm. We then asked for our entire vacation to be refunded.

We will see if they give us all of our money back. How disappointing. To have an error made on someone elses part and for us to be expected to pay for it. Disgusting. I will never use Orbitz again. It should also be noted that we asked twice if Orbitz could look into the matter and call us back so we did not have to wait on the phone for hours on end due to their error. This was denied and we were told that this was not possible because they would have to assist other customers. Nice customer service.

I have never experienced such terrible customer service in my life. I don't know how this company is still in business. I went to the website and planned my whole vacation. I had everything we wanted right in front of me, including flight numbers and everything. I called to book it because it's cheaper when you call and I spent LITERALLY 43 minutes with a representative that booked our hotel and charged my credit card before getting my flight info and activities that we wanting to add to the package. It's obviously less expensive to book the hotel and flight together so he had to cancel the reservation and left me on hold for about 10 mins.

I finally hung up and spoke with another representative that got all of our info correct and ready to book in 5 minutes but the funds were not available on my credit card because even though the reservation was cancelled immediately after it was booked, it takes 5-7 days to process a refund. I called my bank and they informed me that a supervisor had to call and 'delete the authorization.' So I called Orbitz and spoke with a supervisor that said he couldn't do anything about it. He was rude, didn't apologize for the complete waste of time or inconvenience. So I spoke with another supervisor and our call was disconnected.

So I called again, my husband spoke with a supervisor that put us on hold and transferred us to a representative that answered "thank you for calling Orbitz, how can I help you?" And we were right back where we started. Then she told me she couldn't hear me and we were disconnected. At this point, my husband and I were laughing because we couldn't even believe the incompetence. Then I spoke with another representative that could help me and was able to contact the bank and have my funds released immediately. This entire process took 4 hours of my evening... and I still haven't even booked a vacation!

Tried to book car, air and hotel together. Gave one price and when I chose everything, price rose by 40$ Tried again an hour later. Same thing happened. Lured with one price, then swiftly, not seconds had gone by, I again got an "alert" that the price rose by 40$ due to a change in availability. BS!!!

Tried the next day, and AGAIN the same thing happened. Package lured with the same EXACT price. Seconds later when I chose to book the trip, price went up by $40 to the same EXACT price it was twice yesterday. I then chose the option for a $21 less expensive car, but guess what? Again, price alert, price jumped to the same price it was before I chose a $21 less expensive car. If they were hell-bent on the fixed price, I wouldn't have settled for the economy since I had to pay the same price no matter which car I chose. Very unsettling and I believe I had.

?, ILLINOIS -- I pre-booked my family a trip to Orlando only to be stuck at the airport with my wonderful kids. After a while when we were told we could not retrieve our car because my bank Visa with well over enough money on it did not qualify - even with round trip tickets. Which made no sense since I have traveled and rented well over enough cars to know the requirements. Was told to call Orbitz.

Long story short my kids became tired, hungry and crabby. After 4 hours of being put on hold I spent triple paying for a car I already paid for. You know what Orbitz said when I finally got in contact? "We're sorry to hear that." No compensation offered! Bad business tactics. Bad customer service! Read all fine print and that might not be enough to keep your trip hassle free or destroyed!