Orbitz, is it reliable?

Question

Has anyone else every used an online airline ticket store such as orbitz? Is as reliable as actually going to the air port to get your ticket?

Answer 1

most definitely orbitz is reliable!!!! BUT they are NOT alwyas the cheapest by far!  soo u should ONLY go to the airport and buy your ticket if u are going to pay cash, need to book a ticket same day, or if u are already perhaps at the airport that day and buying one for another airport... otherwise, id never go to the airport  to buy your ticket. a total waste of driving and time. buy it online for sure.

other great sites:  vayama.com    kayak.com    sidestep.com   farecompare.com

Answer 2

You don't want to buy your ticket at the airport. Airlines now charge extra fees to buy tickets in person. Plus, you have to pay for parking and possibly stand in long lines. (They also charge extra to buy over the phone.) That makes airports among the most expensive and least convenient ways of buying a ticket.  

Orbitz is very reliable, as are Expedia, Travelocity, and some other major websites. I would have no hesitation about buying tickets from any of these three websites. Plus, they let you shop many different airlines. Airline websites only have their own fares.

Keep in mind that no website always has the cheapest fare for every trip. Expedia, Orbitz, etc. sometimes have special web fares that the airlnes themselves don't offer. The airlines sometimes have special web fares that they don't give to non-airline websites. A few airlines, such as Southwest, do not sell tickets on any airline other than their own. You'll need to do some shopping if lowest price is important.

KTMS 1589 is absolutely wrong about non-airline websites routinely adding $200 or more in fees. I formerly worked for Expedia. We added one fee on airline tickets- a $5 ticketing fee because airlines don't pay commissions anymore and we had to make a profit somehow. That was it. Our major competitors did the same. We would have been out of business in five minutes if we added "a million different fees and taxes and at the end its usually $200> than the much cheaper ticket on the airline's website" [sic].

I'm not saying that he didn't find a lower fare on another website. As I said, no website, including the airline websites, has the lowest fare 100% of the time. I'm just saying that his comment that non-airline websites are always higher and have hundreds of dollars in extra fees is incorrect.

Answer 3

Yes, many times - also Expedia is good.

Answer 4

It is much better to buy a ticket form the Airline's own website than go to orbitz, expedia, or travelocity. they say that the ticket is cheap, but then they add a million different fees and taxes and at the end its usually $200> than the much cheaper ticket on the airline's website. so, waht I am saying is that ..it's not reliable at all....

Answer 5

The disadvantage of buying through these sites is they will ONLY sell you your ticket.  There is zero service after that.  If you need to change your ticket, assign a seat, whatever, they will tell you to call the airlines.  Most airlines charge service fees for for everything, especially if the ticket wasn't booked with them.  Also, a "consolidator" or "bulk" ticket cannot be changed by the airline until travel begins.  It is the travel agent's responsibility, and online travel agencies take responsibility for nothing once they have your money.