This blog is dedicated to my ongoing struggle with Orbitz. I hope to document how unreasonable Orbitz has been after simply being asked to correct an error of their own making. Hopefully this blog will prevent others from doing business with Orbitz and subsequently being forced to deal with the feckless and incompetent individuals in the customer service department.
Background
After deciding on Istanbul as a Spring holiday destination, I spent a couple of days searching Kayak and ITA Matrix for the best Itinerary. Eventually, I decided upon an itinerary that had a 26 hour layover in Barcelona before continuing on to Istanbul. While normally this would have been a horrible itinerary, I was excited by the itinerary as it would give me the opportunity to be in Barcelona for the return leg of the Champions League football matchup between Barcelona and Arsenal.
Complications
Shortly after booking my flight, I noticed that I had not received a booking confirmation email. After registering my email address, I was able to access my itinerary using the "My Trips" section of the website. I only returned to my itinerary in the "My Trips" section after finding a hotel in Istanbul. I needed the exact departure date and decided that I would make my seat assignments on the carrier's (Spanair) website while I had the itinerary pulled up.
Once I confirmed the dates and retrieved the record locator for use on Spanair's website, I noticed an option to add my itinerary to my Mac's calendar (iCal). I downloaded itinerary and was given the first glimpse of what has proven to be a nightmarish situation. The itinerary that loaded on my computer's calendar had the correct departure date and time but was otherwise incorrect. More specifically, the itinerary provided for an arrival in Barcelona 10 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave the US.
I noted the irregularity in the itinerary that I downloaded to my calendar and proceeded to the Spanair website to see if their records reflected the correct itinerary. The Spanair website had all of the correct dates and times with one very important exception. Instead of departing from Barcelona on the 9th of March a full 26 hours after my arrival, I was booked on a flight that departed for Istanbul a mere 2 hours after my arrival in Barcelona.
After printing all of the itineraries and comparing them with the itinerary shown on the Orbitz website, I decided to call Orbitz to figure out the cause of the discrepancies. I had no idea that I would still not have a resolution almost three weeks later.
Correct Itinerary as shown currently on Orbitz website
Incorrect itinerary as shown on Spanair website
Incorrect iCal Itinerary from Orbitz
Frustration
My first attempts at contacting Orbitz were not very useful as the customer service agents seemed unable to fully understand what I was asking. Several agents "confirmed" that my Monday evening flight from New Jersey would indeed land in Barcelona Monday morning a full 10 hours before my departure time. Eventually, I was able to speak with an agent who understood my problem. The agent placed me on hold several times as he spoke with a supervisor concerning the booking error and eventually returned with the news that the issue would be investigated further. I was promised a call back from Orbitz within 2 business days.
After not receiving the promised call, I contacted Orbitz via email and live chat to follow up. I received confirmation that there was indeed a mistake and was instructed to contact Customer Support once again.
Eventually, I was able to speak with a manager in the Customer Service department who again acknowledged the mistake and spoke directly with Spanair in an attempt to find a resolution. After a couple of hours on the phone, the Spanair office closed (7 hour time difference). The manager said that he would fully document the situation and contact Spanair again the next day to resolve the situation.
After again not receiving any new information on the situation, I called Orbitz customer support. I was eventually put through to a manager who was immediately defensive when given the facts of the situation. To my surprise, the manager attempted to convince me that the 24 hour difference in time between the itinerary I booked and the one Orbitz submitted to Spanair was not something Orbitz was responsible for. Further, the manager posited that because the flight was not booked as a multi-segment flight, I couldn't have possibly expected that a 26 hour layover was in fact a 26 hour layover.
The manager eventually called Spanair again after I insisted that I was not a clairvoyant and that it was completely unreasonable for Orbitz to expect me to know that they intended 2 hours when they published 26 hours. After being placed on hold several times as she spoke with Spanair, the manager returned to say that Orbitz would take up to 10 business days to investigate the matter. When asked about her conversation with Spanair, she stated that there would be a change fee to correct the itinerary and that Orbitz would not cover the cost unless the results of their internal investigation justified it. At this point, I became very frustrated as it was very clear that Orbitz was doing everything possible to completely dismiss my very legitimate concern about my itinerary.
Email from Orbitz acknowledging issue
Escalation
Shortly after dealing with the second manager on the phone, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. The complaint contained all of the facts described above along with pdf files of the different itineraries. To my surprise, this is the response I received from Orbitz:
Orbitz's response to BBB complaint
Some of Orbitz's "proof"
Resolution
I don't want to charge back the flight but Orbitz is seemingly going out of their way to be unhelpful. How was I "advised" that they would book me on the wrong flight!? I fully appreciate that cheap, discounted fares can't be modified without the paying of change fees. However, in this instance where Orbitz has made a mistake with my itinerary I don't think it is unreasonable to expect for them to correct their mistake.
