Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Hey, Orbitz, YOU SUCK!

This is topic Hey, Orbitz, YOU SUCK! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-02-2012, 02:15 PM:

Herewith a warning to anyone contemplating buying a plane ticket on this site.

I tried to book a $1,500, on Orbitz yesterday. After filling out everything and pressing the "go ahead and book" button, there was a long pause, followed by, "Sorry - there has been an error. The booking has not succeeded. Please try again later."

So I tried again later - today to be precise - and got the same result. So eventually I thought bugger this, and tried to book directly on KLM's site. They were a bit more expensive, but the cost of flights for July is starting to go up and I wanted the booking sorted. When I get to KLM's "click here to book", my credit card issuer rejected the transaction. I then rang the credit card people ... and guess what ... Orbitz has taken my money, twice, for those failed attempts to book, as a result of which I'm now over my credit limit.

After the best part of three hours on the phone, the bottom line is that my credit card issuer can't cancel the transactions without Orbitz's say-so: Orbitz is now telling me that they've said so, but that the credit will not be restored to my account for another week. By which time, of course, the price of tickets for mid-July will have gone up considerably, because we're in the peak booking season.

GRRRRRR!

To be fair, this is the first time I've had this problem in about two years of using Orbitz every now and again, but it's certainly going to be the last, period. The idea that their system can charge my card without confirming that the booking has gone through first scares me, especially given the relatively large amounts of money involved. I will not be booking with them again, however good a deal they're offering. Rant over!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-02-2012, 02:20 PM:

Yea, Wife and I had probs with Orbitz before .. we now use cheaptickets.com

Posted by Jake Spell (Member # 5294) on 05-02-2012, 05:30 PM:

This happens to our customers when using RTS to buy tickets online. If they enter say the wrong CCV code it will put a hold on the card but not process it. The hold will remain for about a week while the processor and bank process it and then be removed. Its easy to do and I have done it before. Iv even had someone call me stating that their child tried to buy tickets 8 times in a row and demanding I remove the charges. Needless to say I could not not could the processor.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-08-2012, 04:48 PM:

If that's the way the system works then I presume, that once you press the final "go ahead and book" button, then what happens is:

1. Orbitz asks your card issuer to put a hold on the total fare amount.
2. If successful, Orbitz then contacts the airline to make the actual booking.
3. If the airline's computer returns a "success" message, then the money is actually debited.
4. If the airline's computer fails to return a success message, no debit happens but the hold remains for several days until it eventually expires.

At the very least, Orbitz's system should warn you about the possibility of 4 before you press the button; and if 4 actually happens, tell you that funds may have been reserved and when the hold will drop off if so. Obviously this isn't likely to cause a problem with credit limits if we're talking about theatre tickets costing, say, $30, but on an airline booking site you're quite likely to be making a big ticket purchase that takes you close to your credit limit. I'm guessing that they don't tell you about this because they don't want to deter you from trying again and going somewhere else.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 05-08-2012, 05:14 PM:

How hard is it to increase your credit limit in the UK? I was wondering because in the US I think it is fairly easy if you have a good credit score.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-09-2012, 02:56 AM:

That is what she did in the end to get me through this week until the holds disappear.

The answer to your question is that consumer credit is nothing like as easy now as it was once. I had one credit card from 2003-08. At that point got rid of it and took out another one, because the monthly fee on the first one had just been jacked up and the second was offering loyalty points. The credit limit I was given on the second card was less than half that of the first, despite the fact that my salary had actually gone up during those five years. The limit on the first card was insane - if I'd actually borrowed up to it hadn't paid it off, it would have been costing me around 15% of my monthly take-home in interest alone. But of course a lot of people did max their cards out during the boom, which is one of the reasons why we've got such a big consumer debt problem.

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 05-10-2012, 12:54 AM:

This is not specific to Orbitz. As I understand it, any credit card transaction request from any vendor to any credit or debit card issuing bank automatically puts a hold on the requested amount, and the amount isn't sent from the bank to the vendor until the credit card batch is closed for the day/period. If the hold isn't claimed by the vendor after a specific amount of time (varies by bank), the hold is removed and the funds returned to the account.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 05-10-2012, 08:53 AM:

Having the funds on hold makes sense, but it sounds like Leo's card was actually charged, despite the transaction not processing.

Even if it was only a hold placed on the account, its still pretty shitty to have the hold placed before the transaction is even confirmed.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-11-2012, 07:39 AM:

quote: Edward Havens
This is not specific to Orbitz. As I understand it, any credit card transaction request from any vendor to any credit or debit card issuing bank automatically puts a hold on the requested amount, and the amount isn't sent from the bank to the vendor until the credit card batch is closed for the day/period. If the hold isn't claimed by the vendor after a specific amount of time (varies by bank), the hold is removed and the funds returned to the account.

It might not be unique to Orbitz, but this isn't what all online travel agents do.

The holds disappeared yesterday, at which point I tried to book again using KLM's site directly. Once again, I got "Sorry, the transaction hasn't worked - please try again later". Thinking that lightning may have struck twice, I waited ten minutes and then checked my online credit card statement - and no hold had been made. Same thing when I checked again six hours later. I then went to lastminute.com and third time lucky - the booking went through and was immediately followed by an auto-email from Delta with a confirmation number. I was begininng to think that I'd never get out of Britain this summer!

So it clearly is possible to set the system up in such a way that no hold is put on the card until the booking has gone through, because KLM have managed it.

Interestingly, Orbitz had the cheapest price on that ticket of about 6-7 sites I looked at: the nearest alternative is $70 more. I suspect that their system has a reputation for being so unreliable that they need to entice people with that sort of discount for them to be willing to take the risk of the hassle that I had.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 05-12-2012, 11:07 PM:

Just a thought, but could the error message be caused by the web browser in use?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-13-2012, 07:36 AM:

Hmmm ... good point. I was using Firefox, and have used the same computer with the same browser to do Orbitz bookings before, without a problem. However, given that Firefox seems to do a version update virtually every week, I would have been using a different version this time.

I'll probably calm down and try Orbitz again in a few months, as not only are their tickets for the route I fly 4-5 times a year (Teesside, England to Ontario, CA) a lot cheaper than anyone else's, but they seem to be the only airline booking site that offers the 10am flight out of Teesside rather than the 6am one, meaning that I can get to the airport by public transport and not have either to stay the previous night in the airport hotel (an overpriced hole that would make the Bates Motel seem five-star) or pay through the nose for airport parking.

When the time comes, I'll try Internet Exploder (©, TM) and see if that does the trick. If that is the problem, though, I'm still not impressed with Orbitz for failing to put a disclaimer on their front page about potentially incompatible browsers.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 05-13-2012, 06:28 PM:

I recommend using Skyscanner or Ita Matrix for searching for cheap flights.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-13-2012, 08:59 PM:

Never had a problem with CheapTickets. Louis

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-21-2012, 05:46 PM:

Many thanks - will try these two when next booking a ticket to or within the US.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 06-05-2012, 09:10 PM:

Cheaptickets is good too like Louis says... also try Ita Matrix, which is run by google.