Q. I recently found a round-trip flight on Orbitz from OAK to IAD for about $400. The outbound trip was listed as first class on US Airways and my inbound was in economy with United. Thinking this wasn't bad for one-way of first class, I went ahead and booked it. Three days before I was scheduled to fly, Orbitz notified me that there had been some sort of computer malfunction and they could only offer the economy ticket on US Airways.
The whole reason I purchased the $400 ticket was for the first class segment. Otherwise I would have gone with a lower fare in economy, which is where I ended up flying anyway. Is this a bait and switch tactic? Orbitz said there was nothing they could do aside from offer me a $50 credit. Anything I can do?
A. Orbitz should
definitely honor the ticket. What happened to their customer care commitment? If you bought an HDTV online and they switched it to a regular TV at the last minute, would that be acceptable? We're going to call Orbitz and see if they'll fix this. So stay tuned!