My nightmare trying to cancel an Orbitz travel booking

January 11, 2017

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The Orbitz cancellation policy has got to be one of the worst out there. Have you ever tried to cancel a ticket with Orbitz? It’s an interesting experience. Last month, I was in the midst of booking a group trip involving paid fares and award bookings. It was quite challenging, but what really helped was being able to put paid fares on hold via Orbitz while finalizing award bookings.

Orbitz cancellation policy

Orbitz has a 24-hour cancellation policy on travel bookings. However, this policy is a bit misleading. Due to their technical issues, I was unable to cancel the ticket and mayhem ensued. If you’re considering using Orbitz to book travel that you may end up cancelling, you’ll want to read on.

Why I used Orbitz to book flights

I know what some of you are thinking: Why purchase via Orbitz if you can just do it directly with the airline? In my case, I found Eithad fares listed for around $2,000 on Orbitz that were selling for twice that amount on the airline website.

Google Flights had these fares listed cheaper through American Airlines, but clicking on the AA.com link took me to an error page. Even trying to replicate the itinerary through AA.com’s search tool turned up nothing.

I had no choice but to purchase/hold the ticket through Orbitz. I thought this would work out nicely because Orbitz offers travel credits for bookings made through the site. Also, the cancellation deadline for a flight booked around 5 PM was 11:59 PM the next day, giving me more than 24 hours to change my mind.

I took a screenshot of it just in case. The following day, I found a better flight, so I tried to cancel this itinerary at 10:30 PM. I received an error message, directing me to call Orbitz customer service.

Orbitz cancellation policy in action

When I called the number, it ended up being Expedia’s customer service line. The agent put me on an excruciatingly long hold before transferring me around and dropping the call. I finally got through to an agent who said he couldn’t do anything for me because Orbitz’s customer service center was closed. However, he would put in a cancellation request with “corporate” and I should hear back in an hour. As expected, I didn’t hear back in an hour.

The myth of Orbitz 24-hour phone support

I tried to reach Orbitz via Twitter and they didn’t respond until the next morning. Apparently they also have limited customer service hours. They informed me that Orbitz offers 24-hour phone support. That’s a complete lie because when I called their number, I got a message saying they were closed. Even the Expedia agent informed me Orbitz’s customer service center closed at 6 PM (PT).

What ensued was a 4-hour hold to get someone on the line who could cancel a flight past the deadline. At one point they tried to impose airline cancellation fees on me, but I wasn’t having that. It was very clear they were at fault for not allowing me to cancel my booking online before the deadline, and then not providing an alternate option to do it via phone.

Round two

After over four hours, the nightmare was over and Orbitz issued me a refund. Then I made the mistake of trying to cancel another booking. This time it was well before the cancellation deadline,but after Orbitz’s customers service center closed…and it happened again! When Orbitz customer service was being a pain again, I called American Express to take care of it and they did.

The lesson I want you to take away from this is that if you book travel via Orbitz and need to cancel, do it before their customer service center closes at 6 PM (PT). Their web cancellation portal is synced up with their customer service center hours. So if you try to cancel after 6, you’ll be instructed to call the Expedia customer service line.

Only, the Expedia customer service agents can’t cancel your booking even though they’re affiliated with Orbitz. So save yourself the headache and cancel not just well in advance of the 24-hour cancellation deadline, but before the Orbitz call center closes at 6 PM (PT).

Have you had a similar experience trying to cancel travel bookings on Orbitz? Please share your feedback in the comment section.

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28 responses to “My nightmare trying to cancel an Orbitz travel booking”

Sergei

January 11, 2017

In my experience Expedia.com is much better. In most cases you can cancel online before 11.59 pm (PT) next day. Moreover, if you book your flight on Friday or Sat., you have extra time as courtesy cancellation is extended to Mon., 11.59 pm.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 11, 2017
  
  Orbitz is also supposed to let you cancel online but it won’t, after 6 PM (PT). I’ll give Expedia a try next time, since they at least have call center hours past that time.
  
  Reply
Pam

January 11, 2017

Had a similar issue cancelling a hotel at the last minute while in Italy, and thinking the online cancellation had worked, but then never receiving an email to confirm. I was charged for this entire 4 day hotel stay as a no show. Customer service would not even reply to me after the fact.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 11, 2017
  
  That’s awful. Their customer service is one of the worst.
  
  Reply
Holly Johnson

January 11, 2017

I’ve had similar experiences with Expedia. Their customer service is the worst as well. You have to really push to get them to take you seriously. To get a call back, you have to become their worst nightmare.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 11, 2017
  
  That’s essentially what I became. Because clearly they hadn’t submitted my request to corporate and failed to call me back an hour later, as promised. Why can’t cs reps just do what they say they’re going to?
  
  Reply
IslandTraveler.com

January 11, 2017

Thanks for sharing Ariana. What a nightmare!!! AMEX to the rescue!

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 11, 2017
  
  Yes, gotta love Amex. With my Barclay Arrival gone, I’m charging most of my travel to the Amex Platinum card going forward.
  
  Reply
  1. Mark O
    
    January 11, 2017
    
    Did you Barclay get shut down?
    
    Reply
tom m

January 11, 2017

thanks Ariana, good to know.
Also I ran into a snag of trying to cancel a booking with in the 24 hour threshold that had a departure date within 7 days of the booking.
“The US Department of Transportation requires airlines operating flights within or to the US to give customers a refund in the original form of payment if a cancellation is made within 24 hours of booking and the reservation is made more than seven days in advance of departure.”

The Point Guy has some good information, here is a handy trick.
Pay with Cash Trick

Sometimes we need more than 24 hours to decide on a trip because of a wishy-washy travel companion or a boss who won’t approve vacation time right away. I don’t want to pay a fee to use FareLock, so I use another trick with United to get up to 48 hours to change my mind. On the payment screen, select cash as the form of payment and then select Airpot Ticket Office. After selecting to proceed, your reservation will be on hold and you will have until midnight CT the following day to pay for the ticket.
By initially selecting pay with cash, you can have up to 48 hours to make up your mind on United tickets.
By initially selecting pay with cash, you can have up to 48 hours to make up your mind on United tickets.

I took the above screen shot at 2am EST on Jan 17, giving me 46 hours to make up my mind. Regardless of whether you want to pay for the ticket or cancel it, all you have to do is log in to your account before midnight the following day and either select cancel or select a credit card payment option and pay as usual.

Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2016/02/airline-hold-and-cancellation-policies/#ixzz4VTTTi1Zf

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 12, 2017
  
  Thanks for sharing this Tom! That’s definitely good to know for future bookings.
  
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SexyKitten7

January 11, 2017

Hi Ariana! Sorry that happened to you. Always a risk with frickin-frackin OTAs as you know 😉

What do you mean by Amex took care of it? You initiated a dispute/chargeback I presume.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 12, 2017
  
  Yes, I initiated a dispute. They’re really great about handling this type of stuff. Luckily, I had screenshots showing my attempts to cancel before the deadline, so that definitely helped.
  
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Dumammy

January 13, 2017

Orbitz Customer service has always been terrible. Years ago I booked 2 business class tickets to NZ, I also purchased their offered trip insurance. They called and said that it was a mistake and would not honor. Disappointing, they reimbursed the tickets but said they couldn’t do anything about the insurance, nor even tell me where else to go. Had to go way up the chain just to get their third party insurance contact info. Never again.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 14, 2017
  
  Yep, that sounds like them.
  
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Jeremy

March 5, 2017

We just booked through them a couple hours ago, I was napping, woke up to find out we booked through them and I made her cancel. Everything was done online up to the canceling part where we couldnt figure out how to. So we called and we were on and off the phone in under 5 minutes with everything cancelled. Phone call was just now made at 7pm pst. Only writing this to say maybe things have changed since this post was made… or maybe when we dont get our money back on the card I will have something to add.

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Marilee Griswold

March 14, 2018

FYI, Expedia is a travel company that owns all of the following websites: Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, trivago, Venere.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, and HomeAway. So Expedia and Orbitz are the SAME. I just tried to cancel an itinerary within the period of time AND during customer service hours and got the error message you did. When I called, they had to send me to “one of our partners”. After being on hold there, they were having an “issue” with the cancellation, but said I was well within the time frame to cancel. Eventually, I was told they would “call me back” when the cancellation is complete. He had “no phone number” to call if I didn’t hear from him. I am to “be assured” he will call me. I wait still. . .

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H Hall

June 30, 2018

Upon cancellation, even within a few minutes, refunds take up to 10 business days (14 calendar days) to be processed. This is ridiculous! It takes 2 seconds for the charge. It is my understanding that a cancellation should void the charge. This is the way it is done by other merchants,

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MeToo

May 10, 2019

Orbitz is substandard to zero integrity and customer service. I booked and paid for a car rental , my address was listed at 8203 Georgia Street, Silver Spring in a not so upscale area. Arrived with my Lyft driver Del , the place was out of business and had a lease sign posted
Orbitz accused the myself and driver of inability to locate the place
After 5 hours, 4am, Orbitz conceede the place move to 8000 Georgia.
I am out of 200.00 plus dollars, the Lyft driver stayed with me because of the unsafe area and the time.
Orbitz lied and denied any accountability, I was in harm’s way ,yet trying to get a man from the Philippines understand, third world country ,think 4 th world .Same on Orbitz , the epitome of 4 the world service. Ruined my vacation.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  May 10, 2019
  
  I’m sorry to hear that. Orbitz really is terrible and I hope they get it together.
  
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Svetlosar Dimitrov

May 21, 2019

I Spend 14 hours on hold and they told me that the airline company can’t fix the misspelling of my name and I need to buy a new ticket and after that to fill up some documents and wait for return that’s meant that you will never get your money back .I call the company and they say that there is no problem with that and I use the same ticket without problem. Will never use Orbitz again.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  May 21, 2019
  
  Orbitz is awful. Sorry you had to deal with that.
  
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Kevin B Bentz

June 13, 2019

Were dealing with the same thing now! I’ll NEVER use Orbitz again !

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  June 13, 2019
  
  Sorry to hear it, Kevin. They are terrible and I hope they get it together.
  
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Edvina Colonna

February 3, 2020

I had similar experience when I book the Hotel for one night and trying to cancel prior the due date. Orbitz site did not have any phone number that you can call only the hotel number and a fax number.the first one had a busy signal so I faxed the cancellation with all the info.
The Hotel left a message on my answering machine that they receive my fax ,so I thought it was OK but that was the case. they billed me for the night
.I dispute the charge .I have the FAX with proof that it was received by the hotel which is connected to Orbitz .So Orbitz site gives you 2 phone numbers to call/fax to call because you may concurred
additional tax charges, and not one of there owned?(“.c’e’ del losco”. italian)
.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  That sucks!
  
  Reply
tom mccall

February 10, 2020

I am assuming everyone knows Expedia orbits and travelocity are all the same company. so their policies are the same.I only use their sites to get a general idea on fares and rates. What I have been using for years is Agoda.com, They have been great with cancellations and refunds. Just recently I had to cancel a prepaid hotel in Chiang Mia Thailand. the hotel said no because the reservation was no refundable. But Agoda customer care said they would give me credit on my next reservation ( i would to use it with 4 months ) when I explained I wouldn’t be able to do that she went to her supervisor and said no problem we will refund your credit card. I have had other situations with them where they were just terrific to deal with. The other reason is they often beat the prices of other sites and the hotels.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  February 11, 2020
  
  I’ve had a great experience with Agoda too. Plus, I find their hotel rates tend to be lower than the other booking sites.
  
  Reply