My story is a long one! An ongoing customer service nightmare, to be more specific. But the basic situation is that I have never booked airfare before, I thought using Orbitz was "Smarter" then trying to find international tickets from San Diego to Athens, Greece alone. I had an issue understanding the webpage, which ended up costing my the price of my ticket (which was $1200 including $100 towards the joke they call "Insurance") AND when it was all said and done, my tickets where unusable, I wasn't able to go on my trip, which I had planned on and saved for over 6 months! I lost out on meeting up with a very close friend, as well as lost out on all the things I planned to do there and had already paid for (Concert tickets, etc). I spent well over 10 hours on my CELL PHONE struggling with Orbitz useless (mis) representatives, who told me confusing things, telling me "yes we can do that" and getting my hopes up that they would remedy my situation, only to put me on hold for 30 minutes at a time and come back to tell me "no we cant help you". Representatives who kept directing me to speak with the airline. I did that, and the airline (who were infinity more polite and knowledgeable, by the way) said they authorized the changes I needed in order to make my flight. It was ORBITZ who failed to make those changes, and even suggested at one point that I go ahead and attempt to board my international flight with my ticket not matching my passport information, because they obviously care about my well-fare and safety, uhmmm, NOT AT ALL! They probably hoped I would get detained in a foreign country so they wouldn't have to speak to me on the customer support phone line! I am very disappointed that the refund amount I have received so far is only a very small fraction of the refunded amount that the airline said they authorized. And I am BEYOND DISAPPOINTED with missing out on a once in a lifetime trip. My friend over there was equally disappointed. All around a miserable experience. To top it off, every time Orbitz reps read one of my online or BBB complaints (And trust me there will be many) they email me a generic "Please accept this $100 voucher for FUTURE BOOKINGS" message! What a slap in the face! I learned my lesson, NEVER USER ORBITZ, Book directly with the airline. Numerous people I worked with at the airline and at the airport where I was unable to board my flight echoed that sentiment. They all gave me this sad look, like I should have known better then to trust Orbitz and book with them. Don't make the same mistake that I did. Whatever you do, DON'T BOOK WITH ORBITZ!!!
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