Orbitz Travel

I was posted to the USA for 3 weeks last November. Besides working, I planned to travel to a few places, and one of them included visiting my brother in Lynchburg, Virginia. Prior leaving for the States, everyday I have been searching the net for good deals such a cheap hotels and car rental.

After surveying, I decided to use Orbitz. No doubt, their prices were the cheapest, but I didnt have a good experience.

This is not a paid post. I am sharing my purchase experience which left me very disappointed.

If you play around the Orbitz portal, you will realized that if you go for "package", the price is lower (example: Hotel + Car Rental). If you click "hotel" alone, the price difference is USD2-3. You should say, its only USD2-3? But I wanted to spend wisely. USD2-3 is our money RM10 and RM10, I can buy 2 meals!!! right???

So I decided to use the "package" function, however the function is not very smart. Because I wanted 3 nights of hotel stay, but car usage for 2 days. This was NOT allowed online. Hence, I decided, why not call them for this special customization? GUESS WHAT? The customer service cannot perform the task. Then why do you have customer service? Is Customer Service for those who dont have online access or who wants to make changes?? The customer service said, purchase under package for hotel and car rental for 2 nights and a separate hotel charge just for 1 night... and with that, I paid USD10 more!!!!

Secondly, under Car Rental Tab, If you purchase Car Rental only, the web will prompt you to buy insurance at a low price like USD9/day (all inclusive insurance coverage). Again, there was NO option for insurance when you buy under package. Hence, I told the customer service on phone to include the insurance, and she again, cannot perform the task. She asked me to buy over the counter when collecting the car. Now, do you know, at the end of the day, I paid USD120 (in total) for insurance for 2 days usage whereby car rental was USD30/day? I could have paid USD18 for the special insurance offered by Orbitz.

As such, for my future travels, I will be more diligent. Will I use Orbitz again? Probably no.