Orbitz booking beware

[ellie05]

So I have booked through orbitz without an issue until today. We had a reservation and need to add and extra night. While I was booking and even when I pull out the hotel it said free cancellation all over the place (we are about 2 months out/hotel only). They charge me $25 to cancel it or modified it (aka add an extra day). I been with orbitz on the phone for an hour and a half trying to deal with this. Even when I try to make a new reservation it says free cancellation until April 13th now. I am not sure what is going on. Just wanted to make sure people are aware that this can be a possibility when booking through orbitz.

 

[JenzyHP]

Why don't you just make a separate booking for the extra day?

 

[ellie05]

Why don't you just make a separate booking for the extra day?

Because I don't want to risk having to move rooms. Finally got it sort it out after 2 hours on the phone. They went ahead and refunded the whole amount and the new reservation was made.

 

[hsmamato2]

interesting... I'd heard this was happening, and now even on bookings that say free cancel.... I would have just booked an extra day,and then called Disney after to link them to save the hassle....

 

[ellie05]

interesting... I'd heard this was happening, and now even on bookings that say free cancel.... I would have just booked an extra day,and then called Disney after to link them to save the hassle....

Even if they link the reservations that doesn't guarantee I won't be moved because technically they are two separate reservations. I don't know what it's going on with the website is super inconsistent right now. They were able to cancel the reservation with no penalty and they have me made the new one (they couldn't use the code on the phone). They said orbitz won't charge me anything it is the hotel. Well the new reservation is free to cancel which makes no sense. Even now when I look at pricing sometimes I see the free cancellation and sometimes there is the penalty if you read further into, even though every Disney hotel had the free cancel when they list the hotels.

 

[EpcotGuy]

moral of the story, don't book through Orbitz. Use them to price out things and then go to the airline/hotel site directly. Often it is even cheaper there. Had a big issue using Orbitz for a trip to Cancun. NEVER again!

 

[ellie05]

moral of the story, don't book through Orbitz. Use them to price out things and then go to the airline/hotel site directly. Often it is even cheaper there. Had a big issue using Orbitz for a trip to Cancun. NEVER again!

We usually don't use third party but there was a $200 price difference than booking through Disney.

 

[Hisgirl]

One thing I have found is....do most all transactions with a reputable credit card. Any time...EVERY TIME...I have had an issue with a retailer, I call my card company. Last time it was a store issue and I called American Express. I explain the situation, and they say, "We are so very sorry you had to deal with that Mrs. Wonderful Client of Ours. We will take care of it right away! We are crediting your account right this very second. Do not give this one more thought."

I'm not exaggerating. That was just about word for word the exact conversation. Try it with this and don't waste your time with customer no service.

 

[hsmamato2]

Well, I will still use Orbitz when the deal is worth it.... I needed 2 nites at a value, got it on sale and using some orbucks for 158 for 2 nites... best deal I could find,even tho I saw on the fine print the 25 cancel fee...(but I am 100% sure I am going)

 

[DisMommyTX]

I search Orbitz frequently to see if I can get a better deal than I have already booked. I think the 'free cancellation' may be based on the type of rate being booked. For example, POR shows free cancellation, but POFQ (which is exempted from current offers on the Disney site) does not. All Stars Music has the green "Free cancellation" check but not All Star Sports or Movies. Just check carefully and be aware of the conditions on your booking.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree with PP, I think it is linked with how Disney is doing their offers. I booked a trip through Orbitz last May, found a better price for a different resort a little later on Orbitz, cancelled my first reservation and booked my second. I got my refund for my first before the charge for the second even hit my cc and there was not cancellation charge. I have a split stay coming up next week, booked the first part through Orbitz and the second part (at the Dolphin) directly through the Dolphin. You just need to be real careful to read the fine print and to compare apples to apples when looking at prices.

 

[ellie05]

One thing I have found is....do most all transactions with a reputable credit card. Any time...EVERY TIME...I have had an issue with a retailer, I call my card company. Last time it was a store issue and I called American Express. I explain the situation, and they say, "We are so very sorry you had to deal with that Mrs. Wonderful Client of Ours. We will take care of it right away! We are crediting your account right this very second. Do not give this one more thought."

I'm not exaggerating. That was just about word for word the exact conversation. Try it with this and don't waste your time with customer no service.

This was my next move. I just didn'T want to risk orbitz canceling the whole reservation.

Well, I will still use Orbitz when the deal is worth it.... I needed 2 nites at a value, got it on sale and using some orbucks for 158 for 2 nites... best deal I could find,even tho I saw on the fine print the 25 cancel fee...(but I am 100% sure I am going)

I agree I will still use orbitz when they offer a better price I just wanted to make sure people are aware.

I search Orbitz frequently to see if I can get a better deal than I have already booked. I think the 'free cancellation' may be based on the type of rate being booked. For example, POR shows free cancellation, but POFQ (which is exempted from current offers on the Disney site) does not. All Stars Music has the green "Free cancellation" check but not All Star Sports or Movies. Just check carefully and be aware of the conditions on your booking.

That is why I was so upset because when I pulled up the list of hotels it had the free cancel on it and they were still trying to charge me for it!

See here is what happended. DH family does a yearly Florida trip. This year MIL and FIL told us they weren't going to be able to go because the airfare was $1000 from NH. So DH and I decided we still will go down and just spend time with his grandparents and will do a couple days at Disney. So I booked the hotel for 2 ( free cancel green letters on it). Two weeks go by and MIL calls and says she found flights. I explain what our plan was and she wanted to join is, so now we needed to add 2 people to the reservation. So I cancelled the reservation and made a new one, no fee was charged (free cancel letters on the new one). MIL starts looking at ticket prices and it is just a better deal to buy the military salute tickets, so now that she has a 4 day ticket she thinks we should add the extra night and that is where the problem started. The same day I called they had me made a new reservation; same rate, same everything except we added and extra night and it is free to cancel. Even when I try to make a new reservation that same day for two nights it gave me free cancellation. It made no sense why they would charge me. The "manager" at orbitz told me it seems to be a glitch between mobile and regular website. Who knows but I just wanted to make sure people here know that and double check even when it says free cancel to avoid fees.

I agree with PP, I think it is linked with how Disney is doing their offers. I booked a trip through Orbitz last May, found a better price for a different resort a little later on Orbitz, cancelled my first reservation and booked my second. I got my refund for my first before the charge for the second even hit my cc and there was not cancellation charge. I have a split stay coming up next week, booked the first part through Orbitz and the second part (at the Dolphin) directly through the Dolphin. You just need to be real careful to read the fine print and to compare apples to apples when looking at prices.

I don't think in this case it was, you can read what I told PP. The orbitz people try to tell me that free cancel means orbitz won't charge me anything and that the $25 fee was a charge from Disney and that is why it said free cancel.

 

[JenzyHP]

moral of the story, don't book through Orbitz. Use them to price out things and then go to the airline/hotel site directly. Often it is even cheaper there. Had a big issue using Orbitz for a trip to Cancun. NEVER again!

Disney was $50 more for my 3 night trip.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thanks for the heads up on things to look out for

I had read about using Orbitz on other threads..well I had just checked and the difference between Disney direct and Orbitz is $10.94 TOTAL for 2 rooms at All-Star Movies for mid-to-late Sep 2016 (to get an idea for our 2017 trip). For that small of a difference I would rather book through Disney (I don't use Orbitz that much at all so not too concerned about the Orbucks). I will however keep an eye out and see what the prices for the resorts are for 2017 in case it's more significant of a savings.

 

[ellie05]

Thanks for the heads up on things to look out for

I had read about using Orbitz on other threads..well I had just checked and the difference between Disney direct and Orbitz is $10.94 TOTAL for 2 rooms at All-Star Movies for mid-to-late Sep 2016 (to get an idea for our 2017 trip). For that small of a difference I would rather book through Disney (I don't use Orbitz that much at all so not too concerned about the Orbucks). I will however keep an eye out and see what the prices for the resorts are for 2017 in case it's more significant of a savings.

Make sure you look for coupon codes usually 15%. Try cheap tickets too sometimes they have a better coupon.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Make sure you look for coupon codes usually 15%. Try cheap tickets too sometimes they have a better coupon.

Thank you for that information

 

[JenzyHP]

Definitely look out for a coupon and shop through ebates/swagbucks. Disney's price is way higher than that. Orbitz had the sale price Disney listed then it was 15% off.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Wow. I have booked a few times through Orbitz and have never seen it say there's a cancellation fee.
What I like about them is that they dedect the 15% promo code discount from whatever discount Disney is currently offering. Plus you get some Orbucks to use the next time. Dh likes deluxe so even on a short stay the discount is a decent amount of $.