Mary Anna and I need to go to NYC for the Edgar Awards (!) in late April. We'd booked planes, but, because I had a feeling we might change our plans, we booked fully refundable fares.

And yeah, we needed to change our plans. So we sought to get a refund for our "fully refundable" fares.

At which point, we found out, Orbitz doesn't mean "fully refundable". What they mean is, "we'll refund the amount we pay to the airline, but we're keeping our fees and the taxes, sucker". Which came to almost half of the price. (And why would they need to keep taxes??? Maybe taxes on their fees, I guess.)

Mary Anna handed the phone to me, and I got a bit angry at the poor phone rep. Not his fault, but ... he's the one on the other end of the phone. I told them, among other things, I would be calling my credit card company to dispute the charge, since Orbitz's clear statement that the fare would be "fully refundable" was fraudulent and misleading.

I also asked to speak to a supervisor, and clearly he was using a script that tried to prevent that option. "Why do you need to speak to a supervisor?" Because you're giving me a bad answer and I want to speak to someone else. That went on for a bit, until I finally said, I've asked three times to speak to a supervisor, how many times do I need to tell you that I want to speak to a supervisor?

He put me on hold, and then the call dropped. But, amazingly, he called back. And then, after about an hour of holding on and off, they finally agreed to give us a "one-time exception" and to refund our fully refundable tickets.

So, the moral of the story is, if you want fully refundable tickets, don't book through Orbitz. They don't mean fully refundable, at all. Use Orbitz or Expedia (they are owned by the same owners) to research and then book with the airline directly.

(And next I suppose I will learn that airline websites don't mean "fully refundable" either. We shall see.)

I usually book directly with the airlines. A few months ago I canceled an American Airlines flight booked using frequent flyer miles and AA refunded all the miles and all the nominal handling/processing fees. Further back I have also canceled refundable tickets bought with credit cards, no problem getting full refund. I suppose this is one aspect AA plays fair and gets right.

But I also wonder if your state’s consumer protection law might play a role. I am under the impression that these consumer facing ticketing websites have to ascertain your state of residence and adjust their policies according to your state of residence.

Al those places are shady. I rented a luxury level vehicle - Chrysler 300, Cadillac XTC or the like, through Priceline. When I got to the Hertz counter at Lauderdale, "Oh, we don't have any of those, but we'll give you a FREE UPGRADE!", which ended up being a Hyundai Sonata or the like. Some upgrade. I ended up making Priceline refund about 1/4 of what I paid. If you don't press for what's right they will continue to do wrong.

I've also had a bad hotel experience related to Orbitz. When driving cross-country, I often make reservations at the last minute, when I feel like stopping. I used to use Orbitz or Booking.com for that.

One night, when I booked a hotel on my phone (or maybe Mary Anna did it for me) and went there an hour later, there were no rooms available. The front desk said, oh, you booked through (whichever website). We don't guarantee that there are rooms available for those. They luckily found another nearby hotel and sent me there, under the same reservation.

But, ever since then, I only book last-minute hotel rooms directly from the hotel's website, or by calling them.

Yeap, wherever possible, I also book rooms directly with the hotels rather than using any third party website. Ditto rental cars.

Outside the USA, some regions have their "go to" websites for hotel bookings. I use those when the hotel's own website points me to such a 3rd party website.

Generally I find fewer and fewer reasons to use third party "aggregator" sites more and more hotels/airlines/rental car companies operate decent e-commerce websites of their own.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
I've also had a bad hotel experience related to Orbitz. When driving cross-country, I often make reservations at the last minute, when I feel like stopping. I used to use Orbitz or Booking.com for that.

One night, when I booked a hotel on my phone (or maybe Mary Anna did it for me) and went there an hour later, there were no rooms available. The front desk said, oh, you booked through (whichever website). We don't guarantee that there are rooms available for those. They luckily found another nearby hotel and sent me there, under the same reservation.

But, ever since then, I only book last-minute hotel rooms directly from the hotel's website, or by calling them.

I’ve had the same thing happen with Booking.com.

quote:

(And next I suppose I will learn that airline websites don't mean "fully refundable" either. We shall see.)

They don't! They will give you a credit good for one year. I went through this with Delta when we cancelled our flights to NC last year. Like you, we purposely bought refundable tickets, but directly from the airline.

You have to read the fine print. And you have to dig through a few layers in the website to even find that fine print.

In my case, I told Delta that "refund" meant the money is in *my* bank account, not theirs.

We are talking about $2,500 here. No way was I going to accept that as a one=year credit, basially extorting me into going on another expensive trip.

When I bought our tickets for Costa Rica at the end of last year, I read the fine print very, very carefully and found that if you pay enough money, the ticket is refundable. However, the first option you will be given is to receive a credit good for a year. You have to really dig deep to find the option to get the money credited back to your card.

This type of experience has made me a very loyal Amex customer. And often I don't have to even file a dispute. Merchants don't like charge-backs, so you can threaten them with one and usually they will capitulate.

I use Travelocity or Orbitz to research, and then book directly. Always.

Absolutely. I've also found that if you want any help on anything booked through Orbitz, Travelocity, etc., no one will help at the local level. You paid for a king bed but don't have one? too bad. You reserved a "guaranteed" midsize car? too bad. That fully refundable airfare? well, yeah, but it will take 90 days to get the money back to you. (I've not encountered the situation Quirt is talking about, which would drive me insane.)

Whereas if you book directly with the hotel, car agency, etc., they will usually try to help you out.