Caveat passenger - my descent into Orbitz Hell on the way to Hawaii

[raviepoo]

I bought a ticket to Hawaii on Orbitz. Because of a technicality I was forced to use paper tickets instead of E tickets. The tickets arrived promptly. Before the flight I received several notifications that my itinerary had changed. I looked at the altered flight times and went about my business. A day before the trip I got an email from Orbitz confirming my flights.

On the day of the trip I got to the airport a little more than 90 minutes before take off. I brought my paper tickets with me. I did not bring the emailed confirmation of mye itinerary, as I had the paper tickets. This turned out to be a BIG mistake.

At the ticket counter the Continental ticket agent gave my ticket a funny look and said, "Oh you have a connecting flight? I don't see that in here."

Quiet panic ensued.

After quite a long time and quite a few phone calls, I was left with this situation:

The Hawaiian Airlines flight printed on my ticket did not exist, due to a schedule change.
The flight I had been switched to was an "illegal connection" (not enough time to get to the gate) so I had been dumped from it.
No other flight was available that evening.
The next flight to my destination was at 7:40 the next morning.
No, the airline could not help me out with a hotel in Honolulu, despite the fact that I was not going to be able to use my pre-paid hotel room in Kona.
Time had passed during the transaction so I had better run to the gate and get right on the plane.

What a way to start a vacation!

The Continental agent was very nice and tried to be helpful. Just the same, there was no getting around the economic loss of paying for a hotel room in a city that I could not get to. I suppose I should have called the airlines before my trip to confirm my flights, but I trusted the email that Orbitz sent me.

When I got home after the trip, things became even uglier. The Hawaiian Airlines flight that was on my paper ticket did not exist, sure enough. But the really bizarre part was that my itinerary, and all of the subsequent emails from Orbitz noting time changes of flights, listed that connecting flight as a flight on Aloha Airlines. The itinerary and the tickets that Orbitz issued did not use the same carrier for the second leg of the trip! How the heck did that happen? Maybe I should have taken the emailed itinerary but I assumed that the itinerary on the fromt page of the ticket package would be enough to allow the ticket agent to pull my flights out of the computer.

For all I know, there might have been an empty seat on an Aloha Airlines flight that evening with my name on it. All the sturm und drang at the airport and the scramble to find a place to overnight in Honolulu might have been completely unnecessary.

This has left me with an extremely bad taste in my mouth. I will never take a flight again without calling the airline to confirm first. And I will probably not buy any more tickets from Orbitz unless I can convince them to compensate me for the unused hotel room.

[norcaldiver]

That's a bummer, but you made it home eventually. I swear every time I take America's Worst thru Phoenix, I miss my connection because we're late getting in.

[chepar]

raviepoo once bubbled...
But the really bizarre part was that my itinerary, and all of the subsequent emails from Orbitz noting time changes of flights, listed that connecting flight as a flight on Aloha Airlines. The itinerary and the tickets that Orbitz issued did not use the same carrier for the second leg of the trip! How the heck did that happen?

For all I know, there might have been an empty seat on an Aloha Airlines flight that evening with my name on it. All the sturm und drang at the airport and the scramble to find a place to overnight in Honolulu might have been completely unnecessary.

Sorry to hear about the snafu with your tickets.

I may be able to offer a partial explanation on the switch between Hawaiian and Aloha, though. Just recently, in an effort to keep both airlines operational, they came to some kind of agreement together (the details of which I have not been following in the news) that essentially cut down on the total number of scheduled flights for each airline going to the various neighbor islands (which would eliminate in theory a half full Hawaiian flight and a half full Aloha flight both going to the same destination at the same time).

A schedule was made and possibly your switch between Hawaiian and Aloha was a result of the agreement. In all probability if this was the case, there was a seat available on Aloha with your name on it.

[AliKat]

It is not all that uncommon to be booked on different airlines for different legs, or return flights. Especially when booking over the internet, sometimes there are much better rates that way.

I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but sounds like you "assumed" you be on the same airline and didn't look at the e-mails all that close. Just a lesson learned, I guess.

[detroit diver]

Raviepoo,

I had a very similar experience last October. I booked a flight on Orbitz from St. Maartin to Saba in the morning so that I could make an 8:30am departure from the boat dock to go diving. When I had received confirmartion from Orbitz, like you, and proceeded to the airport (another long story-I wasn't staying on St. Maartin). Upon arrival at the ticket counter to get my boarding pass, the agent told me that this flight didn't exist! I told her that she must be mistaken, and she told me that the flight in question had been cancelled 2 months previously.

They put me on the next flight out, arriving at 8:30am. After a lot of frantic phone calls, and incredible help from Sea Saba (they held the boat for over 1/2 hour waiting for me), I finally got to do the dives that I had dreamed about.

Needless to say, I've never booked with Orbitz again. I only use them for comparison prices. If they've done this to you and me, I wonder how many others got messed up from them?

[raviepoo]

I am used to being booked on different airlines for different legs of the journey. I know how Orbitz works. I fly a lot. Up until now I've neve had this type of problem. I've had airline schedule changes make me run from one end of an airport to another to make 15 minute connections, but I have never encountered this particular mistake on Orbitz part. I guess previous experiences had lulled me into a false sense of security. I trusted that my ticket had been printed correctly.

On the day that I booked my flight Orbitz sent me a confirmation that I was on Aloha Airlines for leg # 2. I kept getting their confirmation emails for the next 2 months all the way up to the day before the flight and thinking, "Gee, I'm on Aloha Airlines for flight #2 even though I'm on Hawaiian for flight #3." In fact, when the ticket agent at the airport said "You have no connecting flight" I said, "Yes I do. Isn't it on Aloha?"

However, Orbitz sent me a printed ticket with a Hawaiian Airlines flight in leg # 2.

In other words:

Oct 29 Orbitz confirmation = Aloha Airlines
Nov 4 printed ticket = Hawaiian Airlines
3 schedule change emails in Nov and Dec = Aloha Airlines

I think Orbitz just screwed up printing the ticket. My mistake was that I just assumed Orbitz had issued me a ticket fot the flight I had actually bought. I didn't catch the error before I left the house to go to the airport. I didn't bother to bring my itinerary confirmation emailed to me the day before the flight. I assumed that the itinerary on the front page of the ticket package reflected what I actually bought from Orbitz, even if the flight times had changed. My bad. Won't do it again.

I also won't use printed tickets if I can avoid it. And I won't use Orbitz for anything other than price comarison. Their mistake caused me a lot of stress and wasted a good chunk of my money.

Orbitz used to be the lowest priced source for tickets most of the time. But last week I bought a ticket to Grand Cayman from Travelocity for $566. Orbitz wanted over $800 for the very same flights!

AliKat once bubbled...
It is not all that uncommon to be booked on different airlines for different legs, or return flights. Especially when booking over the internet, sometimes there are much better rates that way.

I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but sounds like you "assumed" you be on the same airline and didn't look at the e-mails all that close. Just a lesson learned, I guess.

[bridgenet]

When I get tickets from Travelocity, Orbitz, or Expedia, I've gotten into the habit of confirming everything with the airlines directly, been burned before myself but still can't beat their price. Just assume they might have screwed up and things will work out OK