Orbitz Flight Nightmare Chicago Illinois

We recently completed a trip that was booked through Orbitz, and it was a most unsatisfactory and unethical booking experience.  

On March 12, 2013, we booked flights for a summer vacation that included Kahului, Maui; Kona, Hawaii; and Sacramento, CA.   We paid Orbitz $2,573.28 for these flights.

On May 20, 2013, we received an email asking us to call Orbitz due to a major change in our itinerary.  When we called, they stated that our flight between Maui and Kona had been cancelled so we would need to reschedule.  We spoke with numerous customer service agents because this change was costing us additional money.  We wanted to reschedule the flight at the same cost, but they insisted that we must accept a refund from Pacific Wings and reschedule.   We agreed to do this if Orbitz would refund us the difference in the flight price.  We were finally assured that Orbitz would refund the $88.00 so we rebooked on Mokulele Airlines for $320.48. 

In June, we noticed the refund from Pacific Wings for  $236.32 and a refund from Orbitz for $88.00. 

On June 15, 2013, we traveled to Maui with no problems; on June 22, 2013, we traveled from Maui to Kona with no problems; and on June 29, 2013, we traveled from Kona to Maui with no problems. 

However, on June 29, 2013, when we started to board the flight from Maui to San Francisco, we were unable to board our United Airlines flight because no eticket number had been issued.  The customer service supervisor for United assisted us to try to rectify this problem, speaking with your representatives from 9:30 p.m. until 3:30 a.m.  We were often placed on hold for more than 30 minutes at a time and also were disconnected. 

Each time we were disconnected or moved to a supervisor, we had to restate our entire problem because the communication between customer service agents appeared to be nonexistent.  Orbitz claimed the reservation was in the hands of United, and United claimed that Orbitz needed to issue the number.  

We contacted Orbitz again, and they stated that United still had control of the flight so they could not book us a flight.  Many times, we were placed on hold for lengthy times.  After requesting that they call us back so we could save our phone’s battery, we waited and received no call back.  

After many hours, we were informed us that the end of our trip had all been canceled when they refunded the Pacific Wings portion of the trip.  We did NOT request this cancellation, and we have still NOT received this refund.  This was an Orbitz error.  We were told that the reason the entire trip was cancelled was because of the $88.00 that was refunded.  However, for the entire end portion of our trip, we should have received in excess of $1300.00, and we have not seen any other refunds processed.  

Even though this was an Orbitz error, Orbitz would not rebook us a flight without additional payment. We were forced to rebook the rest of our flights at a cost of  $1188.08.

Orbitz did not provide the services paid for on March 12, 2013.  Because of the incompetence of their personnel and the poor customer service rendered, we spent a total of 20 unnecessary hours in the Maui airport.  We received approximately 4 hours of sleep in a 48-hour time period because of this issue.  We experienced an unbelievable amount of stress because of not knowing when we would be able to finish our trip.  We lost one entire day with our family in Sacramento.  We had to pay additional funds even though we have not seen the supposed “refund” when the flights were cancelled.  Our family had to drive us the additional distance into San Francisco and experience the additional traffic and frustration because the flights out of Sacramento were so expensive when we booked at such a late date.

We requested financial payment of the $1188.08 on July 10, 2013 in writing.  We were told on July 18th, that they needed 7-14 days to contact the airlines.  We are still waiting.  No refund,  no contact.

Do not book with this company!