Orbitz continues to list trip itineraries that can not be purchased and flights which have been sold out for days. When you try to select this bogus low fare itinerary, it says to book it yourself with the airlines and the price changes! Orbitz customer service can not tell you how to purchase these bogus fares.
Their scripted excuses are:
1. Flight departs in less than 6 hours.
2. Flight requires paper tickets and there's insufficient time to process/ship the tickets before departure.
3. The airlines do not have ticketing agreements with each other.
4. The airline requires that reservations be made directly with its agents.
5. The U.S. Government prohibits Orbitz.com from selling flights to that destination country.
The first 1st, 2nd, and 4th items did not apply in my case.in the 3rd case, if the airlines do not have ticketing agreements with each other, then where did this itinerary come from? How can it be purchased? If it can not be purchased then this is false advertising.in the 5th case, why would you advertise flights that you are prohibited by law from selling? It just makes no sense.
Orbitz is using these low fare itineraries that can not be purchased (often containing flights which are already full and have been for days) to entice unsuspecting consumers to their travel service intending to sell them higher prices itineraries which actually can be purchased. Often Orbitz charges additional fees for customer service "assisting" with the reservation over the phone, because the phony itineraries can not be purchased online.
I actually contacted the airlines to see what Orbitz lowest fare itinerary would actually cost. The actual price was more than DOUBLE the Orbitz advertised price.
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