Expert: Roberto Gomes - 4/8/2009

Question
I attempted to book a flight on Orbitz, with U.S. Airways, for a round trip ticket to Sarasota Florida. I made 4 attempts and each time the site rejected my submission, saying something to the effect that my password was not acceptable.  I even tried with a temporary password, which was e-mailed to me by Orbitz, following my initial rejections. However, my submission failed again, with the temporary password, and the Orbitz program once again rejected my submission. Frustrated I left the computer, and returned about 1 hour later and went to the Cheap Tickets website (ALSO owned by Orbitz, since I wanted the same tickes).  The Cheap Tickets site had the same departure on U.S. Airways, but a different return. Since it was only a few hours different, I booked the tickets. The bonus was that these tickets were even slightly cheaper, but for the same day, the same U.S. Airway departure etc.  I printed out my itinerary and that was that.  A few days before my intended departure date, to my surprise I received an ORBITZ notification confirming the flights, which to the best of my knowledge had never been submitted & even more perplexing - I NEVER received any information from Cheap Tickets regarding the flights, WHICH HAD BEEN SUBMITTED AND ACCEPTED.  Confused I contacted both Orbitz and U.S. Airways.

To my surprise. somehow Orbitz did accept my flight request, even though on my end it CLEARLY rejected the request AND U.S. Airways  - immediately recognizing the double booking - automatically cancelled the slightly cheaper ticket.

However, U.S. Airways NEVER notified me of the error and the double booking AND, it turns out Not only did they cancel the slightly cheaper flight and refuse to allow me to travel on that ticket, they ALSO still charged me for the 2nd set of tickets and TOLD me that if I wished to use them in the future that I would be charged an additional $150.00 to change the dates of the tickets. - REMEMBER, these are tickets that they REFUSED to let me use on the date for which they were booked.

So, now, I have been charged for two (2) sets of roundtrip tickets, 1 set which was issued due to an error in the ORBITZ computer program (WHICH clearly stated that my flight request was rejected due to a faulty password; and neither U.S. Airways, nor Orbitz will issue a refund.

As a customer, I find this to be at the very least professionally unethical and poor customer relations; and as a lawyer I believe that this MAY be in violation of contract law. (However, I am not a contract lawyer, and I have not completed research on this issue of contract law).  I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT A COMPANY CAN 1. DISREGARD A BILLING ERROR MADE BY ITS AGENT (WHICH THEY IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZED AS BEING AN ERROR, AS EVIDENCE BY THEIR IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF THE 2ND TICKET), BY NOT NOTIFYING THE CUSTOMER OF THE ERROR & 2. NOT ONLY UNDULY PROFIT BY THE BILLING ERROR, BUT IN ADDITION MANIPULATE AN ADDITIONAL PROFIT BY CHARGING THE CUSTOMER A PENALTY FEE OVER THE FEE FOR THE INCORRECTLY BILLED TICKETS.

I have spoken to Cheap Tickets, Orbitz, U.S. Airways, and even American Express, but to no avail.  If this is not resolved fairly and ethically, I intend to file a claim in small claims court against ALL 3 companies: Orbitz, Cheap Tickets, and U.S. Airways. They all recognized the error, did not notify the customer of the error, mitigated their lossed, and then unethically proceeded to profit from the agent error.  Do you have any suggestions, before I proceed with a small claims suit?  

I have copies of documents, a list of names of agents with whom I have spoken, and even a copy of the Orbitz e-mail, sending me the temporary password after the initial password failures.  However, I do not have a copy of the rejections because these were not e-mailed to me, only indicated to me, on the screen, each time, that I attempted to submit my reservations to Orbitz/U.S. Airways.  Thank you,

Answer
Dear Victoria,

Although your case is not within my area of expertise, I believe that you have significant evidence of the "bugs" of the sites that you used.

Since I am not familiar with the processes used by such websites it is my understanding that once you need to log in with your user and password, your "shopping items" are placed in some kind of basket (just like the process used by common retailers sites) and you can always check the "contents" in this case, your tickets.

For future reference, use airline websites only and always check the fare rules and conditions before concluding any transaction.

Best Regards,
R. Gomes