I did not get Southwest Rapid Reward Airline credits when I booked a hotel room through Orbitz, even though the hotel and Southwest advertised these credits widely. I was never informed by Orbitz when booking online that I may not qualify for airline miles, and when I called Orbitz and directly asked if I would get these credits, I was told I would. When I checked out of the hotel, I found out that because Orbitz buys these hotel rooms in bulk and at rock bottom prices, the hotel refuses to grant Orbitz any airline credits. Orbitz makes an incredible profit on the rates they pay, and what you and I pay Orbitz for the room.

Orbitz should have informed me at the time of booking the hotel room that I may not get credits. They mislead and deceive customers in order to get more business and profit. I would have done better going to the hotel's own web site and booking myself: I would have gotten just as good of a rental price, in addition to the airline miles. I have asked Orbitz to either credit me with airline credits or refund my hotel costs. They have refused. They should be held accountable for their poor business practices.

After may days of thoughts, last night I decided to buy a round-trip ticket from Portugal to New Zealand. Orbitz, showing its "assured price" tag had really the best deal and thus I bought it. The price stated everywhere, including my e-ticket/receipt was $2, 031.30 USD. The big problems is that when I see my bank account there has been issued an authorization of $2, 782, 00 USD. I was charged $750.70 USD above the shown price. I called Orbitz which assured me that the price charged was $2, 031.30 USD, and I called the bank that assured me that the requested amount was $2, 782, 00 USD. I called Orbitz again and I talked with Diana (very professional attitude and willing to talk to my bank), which established a conference call with my bank. My bank and Diana were talking and exchanging information about authorization numbers and amounts. None of these 2 things was the same, weird! After, I contact the bank and they told me that maybe there was a mistake in the acquirer (I think that's how they called the intermediate between Orbitz and my bank). From bank side, they were going to talk to the intermediate, though they told me that Orbitz was the entity entitled to solve the problem because they were the ones issuing the authorization. In Orbitz side the case was escalated. However, I still have no solution and $750.70 EUR less in my credit card!!! Apart from that, I just saw that I've also lost the deal with the car company because the deal was until yesterday and now I'll have extra costs.
I'm really upset with this situation and I think it is completely unacceptable that this kind of mistakes happen in such an advanced world of billing and banking. Whoever is the fault, Orbitz or the intermediate entity, Orbitz must assure the honesty in the business. Not sure what will happen, but the fact is that I'm still the one penalized and I don't know if my vacation will still happen... :(

In 11/9 I booked a business trip through ORBITZ I did not end up needing to take. In 7/9 I tried to use the credit but was told it had to be same itinerary. That was about a 30min frustrating conversation. In 12/10 I tried to use credit again but after navigating voicemail and being on hold for 18 min I was disconnected. I tried again 1/11 and was told my money was gone. Over a year, no credit, no tickets too bad. How can they just take my $910 with no compensation? I strongly advise not using ORBITZ or only using them to check prices then book through the airline. At least if your plans change you'll still have something.

I booked a non-stop flight to London, UK for my wife, daughter, son and I online on 1/9 for a flight in April and my mother, who lives in the United Kingdom, paid for it (she has a United Kingdom credit card that she used). The amount that was stated on the website and on the receipt I received (including taxes and paper ticket processing fee for my son's ticket)was $3251.85, but when American Express (my Mom's credit card)authorized the amount, they said it was $4987!! This was charged directly by the airline (Delta)and when my father and I questioned Orbitz about this, they denied that this was charged, they kept insisting that the charge was what THEY stated. We had them call American Express in the UK and they confirmed the higher amount, which Orbitz said they accepted, but then they called Delta, who also denied that they had charged $4987! We spent over 2h 30mins on the phone to Orbitz and spoke with a supervisor in the end (Lauren), but she would not agree that we were charged the higher amount even though Orbitz had been told by AMEX!! Orbitz told us that this extra amount ($1735.15) was a pending amount that would 'drop off' within 24-48 hours, but AMEX confirmed that they authorized the entire amount of money and there was only one transaction and authorization code, but this was never mentioned anywhere on their website. In the meantime, my Mom's credit card went over limit because of this additional charge and in the end we had no choice but to report this as a fraudulent transaction to AMEX! At this point we don't even know whether out airline tickets will still be confirmed once the fraud report is completed by AMEX, so we may not be going on vacation to see my family in London

I was trying to book a flight + hotel from ND to Cairns, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. After multiple error messages I called and spent 1 1/2 hrs on the phone with a rep that hardly spoke english. He said one of the airlines or hotels didn't accept Discover which is why I couldnt process it online. I finally booked a trip and the next day discovered it was the longest possible trip duration--almost 10 hrs longer than the one I originally tried to book. I called and spent another hour on the phone with the DUMBEST people I've ever spoken to, who eventually cancelled the trip without fees. For some reason you can't package flight and hotel for multi city destinations, so I decided to cut out New Zealand and tried to rebook online. I finally got it to go through but when I looked at the trip details the price was over $600 more than I had just booked it for. I called again and was told the prices are constantly changing--how could the trip increase that much in the two second period it took to click 'confirm'? Orbitz has to notify someone if the price has changed and give them the option to look for other trips, not just say "you got the trip but we're going to charge you $600 more than you were expecting." Once you click confirm its like a contract, that's the agreed price at that point. I understand prices are constantly changing but it should have asked me to reconfirm at the new price.

I ended up cancelling the trip for a third time, said screw Orbitz, and booked through Expedia and the hotel directly. I was able to email a competent supervisor who gave me a $50 travel voucher for my horrible experience, but I doubt I'll ever use it.