Orbitz Fee?

[inkkognito]

We have been using Orbitz for our Orlando trips for a while now. I'm watching like a hawk for a good fare on our April Disney cruise, so I've been pulling up fares every day...recently, I noticed a notation that there is a $10 service fee. I never noticed this before...I checked the paperwork for other flights we've book thru them for our upcoming trips in Jan., Feb., and March, and there is no reference to a fee. Anyone know if this is new? If so, they will definitely lose our business...if I find a good fare on their search engine, I'll just go to the airline's own website to do the actual booking. I don't mind paying a service fee for Hotwire.com or Priceline.com because their prices are ridiculously low, but why pay extra for a standard fare that you can get elsewhere?!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[lawgs]

think this is something new they have added .....now they have peopled "hooked" they can begin to recoup some "losses" .......just a theory .....

think i read in one of the travel mags or emails that orbitz was starting this in the new year....

 

[SleepyatDVC]

It's new. I think they waive it the first time you book through them since the change.

I recently used Orbitz.com for AA tickets for my Mom, my Aunt & Uncle. For some reason, the Orbitz price was cheaper than the AA.com price by a little over $10 per person. AA.com was giving 4000 bonus mileage for buying through them but Aunt & Uncle didn't have AAdvantage accounts and I wanted to lock in the fare for the direct flight.

I will continue to use Orbitz but will compare with the airlines' own website schedules and prices. So far, I've purchased 12 tickets through them with no problems. For some reason when I do purchase through them, they seemed to have either had a better price or schedule than what shows up in the airline website. Strange, shouldn't happen, who knows why. It seems to me that some of the time, the fare or schedule then shows up (opens up) a day or so after I purchse through Orbitz. Don't know this for a fact - just my impression.

They will lose customers with the new fee but I will still use them to check fares - love the format where you can see all available fares, connections, and schedules.

 

[inkkognito]

SleepyatDVC, I've had the same experience (cheaper flights on Orbitz than the airline's own website), and also the opposite (airline's website was cheaper). You never know!!! I'll continue using Orbitz to check on flights and I'll book through them if they are cheaper, even with the fee. One nice thing I've discovered is that, even if I've booked through Orbitz, I can make my own changes directly with the airlines. I just made some changes with our ATA flight in March, since the outbound flight was changed to a later, and very inconvenient time. Orbitz notified us via email, and I called ATA and was able to switch to an earlier flight just by talking to them.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[p2oh]

I bought tickets on Orbitz last week. All through the process it showed me a $10 service charge and then at the end it said waived and I didn't get charged for it. I checked the same tickets today on the USAirways site and they were almost $900! I paid $367. I was shocked. Even when I bought the tickets they were $100 cheaper than USAirways.

 

[flyingcircus]

Just bought tickets for my mom from Orbitz, and it was cheaper than delta.com. They waived the service fee, however I was charged $15 for paper tickets to be mailed to me. Some of the airline web sites ( like Delta) won't allow me to do a purchase for my mother, and then charge it to my credit card-I guess it's to prevent fraud, but it's a big pain. Then when you call Delta, to try to book it thru their reservations, they won't give you the online rate. Go figure!!!