Beware Orbitz

[Kauai Kid]

Checked coach prices on US Airways flights from Austin to Lihue for December using Orbitz and booking directly on US Airways web site.

US Airways web site was $115 less for the same flights on the same days.

Pele must like me,

Sterling

[philemer]

Sterling,
Orbitz is a great site for checking prices on multiple sites at one time. They don't always show the lowest prices. Always check providers website. They are pretty accurate most of the time. Can I hide in your suitcase on your way to Lihue? BTW, I have a friend moving to Austin pretty soon.

Phil

[camachinist]

Often, certain fare buckets and their availability never make it (on purpose) to the wider GDS. Airlines reserve them for their own use, for the travel industry and to drive customers to their own sites.

As an example, you'll likely never see UA's "E-fares" that are published every Tuesday morning on any online site because they're only accessible through UA's web site. I see the fares on the GDS, but they restrict availability so you can't purchase the fare except through UA.

If you wish to use the engine which powers Orbitz, but without the glitz, try ITA:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego

Free registration is required. Once you learn the fairly technical coding language to mine fares and routes on this tool, you can make it sit up and bark like a dog It's one of the essential tools I use for mileage running. It also has excellent, easy-to-read data on fare rules. It's invaluable for constructing complex, multi-carrier routings.

I've only booked travel on Orbitz once:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=508092

With over 1200 posts, it was quite a ride. Almost as much fun as whipping that gnome

Pat

[EvelynK72]

Originally Posted by camachinist

Often, certain fare buckets and their availability never make it (on purpose) to the wider GDS. Airlines reserve them for their own use, for the travel industry and to drive customers to their own sites.

As an example, you'll likely never see UA's "E-fares" that are published every Tuesday morning on any online site because they're only accessible through UA's web site. I see the fares on the GDS, but they restrict availability so you can't purchase the fare except through UA.

If you wish to use the engine which powers Orbitz, but without the glitz, try ITA:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego

Free registration is required.
Pat

Pat

You can also use this site as a guest. Do you see different things if you are a guest vs if you are signed in?

Evelyn

[camachinist]

My brief perusal of functionality appears to be the same for guests and registered members, but the queue seems to be longer as a guest. Truthfully, I haven't not been auto-logged into the site for years and didn't even notice they had added guest access. Sorry about that

If I note any differences using the coding language, I'll update. The relatively simple parameters I used for test (single airline/single fare bucket) appeared as normal.

Pat

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I use Orbitz only to check prices - I always try to book directly with the vendor to save the Orbitz fee and to avoid pre-paying for car rentals and hotels. Actually, I've stopped using Orbitz and switched to Kayak.

It definitely pays to check around, though. One time I was flying from Raleigh-Durham to Seattle, and Orbitz turned up a routing on American via JFK that was not offered at American's web site and that was $100 less. I called a reservation agent at American, who booked that itinerary for me.

*****

A few weeks ago, I was booking a rental car in Puerto Vallarta, and Sunterra Travel gave me a rate from Thrifty that was one-half of the rate shown at either Kayak or Thrifty's web sites.

[Jim Bryan]

Thanks for the info.

[Tania]

I booked with Orbitz once. Their fare on SpiritAir was cheaper than it was on the Spirit website. The Spirit fare never became lower.

I suspect that Orbitz contracts out a certain number of seats to be able to do this.

I noticed recently the very same thing on cheapair.com with a NWA flight to LAX from DTW. The website had the fare at 323 yet the best fare NWA posted was 362.

Go figure!!

[btcctomtb]

Originally Posted by camachinist

If you wish to use the engine which powers Orbitz, but without the glitz, try ITA:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego


Pat

Nice site I hadn't found this one yet... As far as orbitz or any other search engine. Remeber many sites do give online low price guarantee. My Personal favorite before this http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego was Kayak.com and this is the search engine that drives that site.

[Kay H]

I have used Orbitz several times for air tickets and found that they notify you if the flight is changed, which the airlines don't. I forget which airline it was but I had tickets and the airline went out of business, Orbitz notified me and told me exactly how to get my refund. I have no complaints with them.

[baz48]

I got frustrated with Orbitz because several times I found a great fare, but when I clicked on the booking button, they came back and said that the great fare was not available to purchase. This happened on several airlines and on several different itineraries. It seemed like the old bait and switch to me so I no longer use them to check airfares, only car rentals.

[camachinist]

That's not uncommon, since the last click is when they actually query the system in real time, which costs them money. As loads and pricing are fluid, what's there when the database loads is often gone when it goes to pricing.

We experience this all the time with mileage running and mistake fares. There are tricks, but, well, we don't like to talk about them

Pat

["Roger"]

I've experienced exactly the same phenomena with Expedia and wondered what was going on. Thanks for the explanation Pat.

[ladycody]

I know someone that uses kayak.com and likes it. She just found a great fare to Cabo this winter....

[UWSurfer]

I too am utilizing Kayak now thanks to those here at TUG, but it's interesting that one of the places I see it check is Orbitz.

[blr666]

There's a new website (well, new to me) called www.yapta.com You can enter the exact flights you want and it will keep checking fares for you. When the fare hits your target, it will email you.

[m61376]

Originally Posted by blr666

There's a new website (well, new to me) called www.yapta.com You can enter the exact flights you want and it will keep checking fares for you. When the fare hits your target, it will email you.

Intersting concept- anyone else familiar with it? I was concerned that it would just be some more spyware ....

[camachinist]

Been around awhile......

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=695839

I have similar functionality with my GDS access, so haven't used it.

Pat

[m61376]

Originally Posted by camachinist

Been around awhile......

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=695839

I have similar functionality with my GDS access, so haven't used it.

Pat

Thanks Pat!!

[Bill4728]

Since this thread is about the travel booking websites and not about Hawaii, I moving this to the travel boartd.