Traveler’s Aide: Be Sure And Check Your Itinerary Even After Booking

Categories: Industry News | News

In December 2012, I bought Hawaiian Airlines tickets via Orbitz for a summer trip from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, connecting in Honolulu. Less than two weeks before my departure date, I reviewed my reservation online and discovered that Hawaiian changed the departure time of my San Francisco flight. The new departure time cut my connection time down to 35 minutes. Neither Hawaiian nor Orbitz notified me of this change.

I called Hawaiian and spoke with a customer service representative, who referred me back to Orbitz. Orbitz then asked me to give the travel site and Hawaiian time to “work things out.” I called Orbitz the next day as was told I had two options: change our current two-segment trip to a three-segment itinerary, or fly out one day earlier, with Hawaiian covering overnight accommodation costs. I am traveling with two children so I asked for option #2.

But the next day Orbitz told me that Hawaiian had retracted the offer, and we would need to pay for the hotel ourselves and apply for future reimbursement. The voucher offered previously was a verbal error, according to Hawaiian. I hung up with Orbitz and called Hawaiian directly, and was told the same thing.

As each hour goes by my chance of finding an alternative travel plan with a reasonable price diminishes. Can you help me resolve this problem?

— Bianca Wang, Sunnyvale Calif.

Answer: Wang meticulously planned her itinerary six months ahead of time, choosing flights for a very long journey that worked best for her family. Finding out it had all changed so close to her departure date was a nasty surprise—but it didn’t have to happen that way.

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