Air Travel

Question:

> Are tickets purchased through Orbitz like regular tickets i.e. can > they be exchanged for credit etc like regular restricted tickets — > or are they like priceline tickets, worthless except for the trip > specified.  It is not made very clear on their web site.

Orbitz is a travel agent.  The tickets you buy from them are normal tickets just like the tickets you’d buy from any other agent. As an example, earlier today I had to cancel a trip for which I bought tickets from Orbitz, so I called them up and did so.  Since the fare happened to be refundable, they refunded it to my credit card. — John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail

Response:

If you’ve seen Orbitz, you should be sure to take a look at SideStep. It’s a low fare search tool that you can download for free from their Web site (sidestep.com). You can use SideStep to comparison shop against Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and the other popular sites. Have often found better fares through SideStep than through Orbitz and the rest of the lot.

Response:

> If you’ve seen Orbitz, you should be sure to take a look at SideStep. > It’s a low fare search tool that you can download for free from their > Web site (sidestep.com). You can use SideStep to comparison shop > against Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and the other popular sites. > Have often found better fares through SideStep than through Orbitz and > the rest of the lot.

Just 15 minutes ago I bought someone a ticket from DCA to Madrid, Dec 29 – Jan 14. Orbitz had it for $400 (including taxes etc.). Sidestep and the others wanted $440 for an identical flight. So the lesson is, continue to check all the sites you have time for. miguel — Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

Response:

> If you’ve seen Orbitz, you should be sure to take a look at SideStep. > It’s a low fare search tool that you can download for free from their > Web site (sidestep.com). You can use SideStep to comparison shop > against Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and the other popular sites. > Have often found better fares through SideStep than through Orbitz and > the rest of the lot.

What is your affiliation with SideStep?? You appear to be posting from the same subnet as the website. M

Response:

Are tickets purchased through Orbitz like regular tickets i.e. can they be exchanged for credit etc like regular restricted tickets — or are they like priceline tickets, worthless except for the trip specified.  It is not made very clear on their web site.

Response:

I have used Orbits a few time in the past.  There fares are usually very close to the advertized fares by the airlines.  Not this time.  I searched the site for travelling to China in August, EWR to BJS outbound, PVG to EAR inbound for the five of us in the family.  Got fares as low as $824 which seem incredibly low.  But it says to contact the airlines to purchase. It is incredible because when I call the airlines, the announced fare is much, much higher.  What’s up with that?

Response:

Try using other sites or phone a travel agent to see if you can duplicate the fare. It might not be possible, though. Orbitz often makes "mistakes" with these low fares and gets people’s hopes up. Traveler

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I have used Orbits a few time in the past.  There fares are usually > very close to the advertized fares by the airlines.  Not this time.  I > searched the site for travelling to China in August, EWR to BJS > outbound, PVG to EAR inbound for the five of us in the family.  Got > fares as low as $824 which seem incredibly low.  But it says to > contact the airlines to purchase. > It is incredible because when I call the airlines, the announced fare > is much, much higher.  What’s up with that?

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > Try using other sites or phone a travel agent to see if you can duplicate > the fare. It might not be possible, though. Orbitz often makes "mistakes" > with these low fares and gets people’s hopes up. > Traveler > I have used Orbits a few time in the past.  There fares are usually > very close to the advertized fares by the airlines.  Not this time.  I > searched the site for travelling to China in August, EWR to BJS > outbound, PVG to EAR inbound for the five of us in the family.  Got > fares as low as $824 which seem incredibly low.  But it says to > contact the airlines to purchase. > It is incredible because when I call the airlines, the announced fare > is much, much higher.  What’s up with that?

I’ve stopped using anyother sites than Orbitz.  Either that or buy directly from the carrier.  Some of the air travel sites are simply atrocious. I did contact a few travel agents.  A little over a thousand is the cheapest we can get, out of JFK.  Those fares with contact airline caveat attached are all associated with one particular carrier, Air China.  They don’t have English website.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Try using other sites or phone a travel agent to see if you can duplicate > the fare. It might not be possible, though. Orbitz often makes "mistakes" > with these low fares and gets people’s hopes up. > Traveler > > I have used Orbits a few time in the past.  There fares are usually > > very close to the advertized fares by the airlines.  Not this time.  I > > searched the site for travelling to China in August, EWR to BJS > > outbound, PVG to EAR inbound for the five of us in the family.  Got > > fares as low as $824 which seem incredibly low.  But it says to > > contact the airlines to purchase. > > It is incredible because when I call the airlines, the announced fare > > is much, much higher.  What’s up with that? >I’ve stopped using anyother sites than Orbitz.  Either that or buy >directly from the carrier.  Some of the air travel sites are simply >atrocious. >I did contact a few travel agents.  A little over a thousand is the >cheapest we can get, out of JFK.  Those fares with contact airline >caveat attached are all associated with one particular carrier, Air >China.  They don’t have English website.

They have a British one though: http://www.air-china.co.uk/ –==++AJC++==–

Response:

Has anyone had experience with Orbitz, the new internet ticketing service? N. Schwartz

Response:

> Has anyone had experience with Orbitz, the new internet ticketing service?

Well, seeing that it opened up for general business last month, i’m sure many have. I have used it about three times now, for flights to Jacksonville, New York, and Chicago, from Washington, D.C. and I was pretty impressed with them each time. I’d recommend trying them out once or twice, to get the feel for it.

Response:

> Has anyone had experience with Orbitz, the new internet ticketing service?

Sure. I used them for the first time 11 days ago. I found that I had to fly from Boston to Little Rock for a wedding (out on 7/3/01, back on 7/5/01), and decided to use Orbitz. I found flights on CO/CO Express BOS-IAH-LIT for $165 round trip, $330 for the two of us. No other service showed anything as good, and the whole e-transaction was very quick and convenient. It was a few years since my last CO trip (I usually fly UA), and I was very impressed. Self-service check-in, attentive staff, better than average food service for the duration of the flight, etc. The equipment was 737-700 & EMB-135 out, EMB-145 & MD-80 back. Each flight left on time, and arrived a few minutes early. What more do you want?

Response:

> I’m not a huge fan of the Orbitz concept, but I’m a big fan of the > radius feature.  I live about equal distance from both EWR and PHL; > so all I have to do is enter TTN and a 50 mile radius (conveniently > cuts out LGA and JFK, the former is often a longer drive than BWI > would be).  

The GDSes/CRSes have had radius capabilities in their travel agent interfaces for longer than I’ve been aware of those interfaces; it’s interesting to see things like that starting to trickle down to us consumers. -Dan — This address expires.  Take out the hostname if your reply bounces. You may transmit e-mail ads to this address, for US$50 per message. This address may not be distributed unless this notice is included. Visit http://dan.scream.org/pay4spam.html for complete information.

Response:

Orbitz uses the software developed by ITA (see their site at www.itasoftware.com).  It looks for good fares, including those needing weird connections – ie. Southwest to Southwest Love Field (the infamous "Wright" amendment).  I have found ITA Software’s engine very helpful and think Orbitz will be as well. Unfortunately, airline tickets are a maze these days – when was the last time anybody out there paid the same fare for two tickets in a row domestically (U.S.)?? Jeff

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I signed up for the Orbitz beta. I’m sure others here have as well. > My comment to them, which generated a flurry of form e-mails and puzzled > responses from customer service reps, was very direct: What is the value > proposition behind Orbitz? What differentiates Orbitz from the rest of > the sites that I can use for travel arrangements? > I just don’t see a compelling reason to use Orbitz, unless they force it > on me by removing sites like CO.O.L. > — > Mostly useless. > http://www.watchingyou.com

Response:

> – Provides fares in Canadian dollars (a minor reason, I admit, but > still)

Do they now allow canadians to register ? When I tried a few weeks ago, it was only for americans.

Response:

> > – Provides fares in Canadian dollars (a minor reason, I admit, but > still) > Do they now allow canadians to register ? When I tried a few weeks ago, it was > only for americans.

I have never registered. I use the ITA site as a guest user. Gilbert

Response:

I’m not a huge fan of the Orbitz concept, but I’m a big fan of the radius feature.  I live about equal distance from both EWR and PHL; so all I have to do is enter TTN and a 50 mile radius (conveniently cuts out LGA and JFK, the former is often a longer drive than BWI would be).  The only problem is that it sometimes returns a trip that departs from one, and arrives back at the other; a problem if I’m driving. Matthew [too bad it's still US only] – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > One is that its search engine is somewhat more flexible than the the > other ones, at least the other ones I’ve looked at.  Orbitz lets you > look at multiple airports within a given radius (50 or 100 miles) to > get the best fare.  Travelocity has a feature that tells you when it > sees a cheaper fare at another nearby airport, but I’ve found it to be > flaky.  I live in central New York where fares from my local airport, > Ithaca, tend to be very high, so I end up driving to Syracuse, > Rochester, Buffalo or even Toronto to get reasonable fares.

Response:

As conventional travel agency websites go, Orbitz is good, but they clearly are not some panacea to always finding the best deal. In addition to *many* of the fares currently available on the airlines’ own websites not currently available on Orbitz (I know, because I check every single day and I’ve documented a number of them), specially negotiated fares that are available on Expedia, Travelocity and consolidator websites are not available on Orbitz. As I have maintained all along, if you depend solely on Orbitz, there is definitely a chance you will pay more than you have to for an airline ticket. It is my view that Orbitz’s success will lie in their marketability and their ability to convince the public that they are the best, regardless of whether that is factual or not. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> What differentiates Orbitz from the rest of the sites that I can use > for travel arrangements? > One is that its search engine is somewhat more flexible than the the > other ones, at least the other ones I’ve looked at.  Orbitz lets you > look at multiple airports within a given radius (50 or 100 miles) to > get the best fare.  Travelocity has a feature that tells you when it > sees a cheaper fare at another nearby airport, but I’ve found it to be > flaky.  I live in central New York where fares from my local airport, > Ithaca, tend to be very high, so I end up driving to Syracuse, > Rochester, Buffalo or even Toronto to get reasonable fares. > More important, all the participating airlines have agreed to list all > of their fares on Orbitz, including web specials and the like, so when > you look up fares in Orbitz, you see every airline’s best fares.  For > example, USAirways is running a trans-con fare sale that they > announced in their e-mail newsletter.  Those fares are available on > the usairways.com web site and Orbitz, but not Travelocity or Expedia. > I imagine that other web sites will beef up their search engines to do > better searches, since they’ve done so before, but I don’t know of any > that list as many fares as Orbitz.  Even Sidestep, which is supposed > to go and search 12 airlines’ web sites doesn’t find as much. > (Disclaimer: I’m on the Orbitz Consumer Advisory Panel, but they don’t > tell me any secrets.) > — > John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869

http://iecc.com/johnl, – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail

Response:

  Even Sidestep, which is supposed > to go and search 12 airlines’ web sites doesn’t find as much.

I have used side step and it is useless compared to Orbitz. As a former travel agency owner, I hate the idea but love the product. > (Disclaimer: I’m on the Orbitz Consumer Advisory Panel, but they don’t > tell me any secrets.) > — > John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869

http://iecc.com/johnl, – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail

Response:

they show the special fares that other sites can’t I use the site and can get quotes on international.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I signed up for the Orbitz beta. I’m sure others here have as well. > My comment to them, which generated a flurry of form e-mails and puzzled > responses from customer service reps, was very direct: What is the value > proposition behind Orbitz? What differentiates Orbitz from the rest of > the sites that I can use for travel arrangements? > I just don’t see a compelling reason to use Orbitz, unless they force it > on me by removing sites like CO.O.L. > I am as puzzled as they are by your comment. There are three reasons > that make this my system of choice: > – Excellent user interface > – Provides a lot more alternatives than any other system I have tried. > – Provides fares in Canadian dollars (a minor reason, I admit, but > still) > Once they have international pricing, I will never use anything else. > Gilbert Beno