Will Orbitz Rise To The Occasion? Is This A Great Twitter Success Story?

by Paul Colligan on August 18, 2008

Update #6: The rest went so bad, it gets a special blog post accordingly.

Update #5: First half of flight completed. Only one of the two seats was in position promised (although both were certainly in the up front / window/aisle category). In a totally unrelated issue, missed connection in Pheonix and had to be rebooked on later flight. Orbitz did that automatically. Here at hotel, gift card for local steak house (and it looks like a good one) was waiting for me. Thanks Carly. Next report, the flight home …

Update #4: Finished call with Carly At Orbitz. I’m still on the US Airways flight but they promise seats near front with window or aisle. Not reflected at site yet but we know how reservation systems are. I will arrive at airport tomorrow expecting good seat. They also promised a $100 credit with Orbitz (I don’t see that in the system either – but, again, computers). They seems a bit surprised that I was already booked on this flight (did I note make that clear in the blog post below) but the better seats and $100 credit is a good thing. Think they did enough? I’d love to hear in the comments below. For the record, I got #2, not #1, and #3 – do you think they made it right? I would love to hear you thoughts?

Update #3: Carly At Orbitz promises to call at 3p with the details for the fix. Will report here.

Update #2: Carly At Orbitz has contacted me via direct Twitter message. We’ll see what happens here. 40 minutes before I was going to do web check and see about paying for a better seat too. Will this end well?

Update #1: John Jaworski suggests we follow Carly At Orbitz to see how this ends up. Great idea. Carly, make this great please.

Read this one all the way through – it is going to get interesting.

I fly to Atlanta Wednesday for Stomper 6. I’m looking forward to it on multiple levels.

I booked this flight on Orbitz for some reason. The reservation was Santa Barbara to Vegas to Atlanta. Not bad. Delta too for the biggest part. I’ve got miles with them and my relationship with Stomper has had me slowly moving from a United Premier flyer to whatever they call the Delta guys.

I checked my flight this morning with Orbitz to make sure all was well.

This is what I got:

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Flight #1
US Airways #2922
Depart: 9:40am
morning Santa Barbara, CA
Santa Barbara Municipal (SBA)
Arrive: 11:15am
morning Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (PHX)

PHEONIX? HUH? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Flight #2
US Airways #4
Depart: 1:34pm
afternoon Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (PHX)
Arrive: 2:43pm
afternoon Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Mccarran Intl (LAS)

THEY ACTUALLY ADDED A FLIGHT TO PHEONIX ON MY ITINERARY. DON’T WORRY – IT GETS BETTER

Delta Air Lines #1080
Depart: 9:44am
morning Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Mccarran Intl (LAS)
Arrive: 4:54pm
afternoon Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson ATL (ATL)

YES, THAT’S RIGHT, THEY ACTUALLY HAVE ME OVERNIGHTING IN VEGAS (NOTICE THIS FLIGHT IS THE NEXT DAY) AND DIDN’T THINK TO TELL ME

The flight back …

Sunday, August 24, 2008 Flight #3
Delta Air Lines #1091
Depart: 6:50pm
evening Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson ATL (ATL)
Arrive: 8:08pm
evening Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Mccarran Intl (LAS)

THAT ONE WAS ALMOST WHAT I ORDERED. DON’T WORRY … KEEP READING

Sunday, August 24, 2008 Flight #4
US Airways #605
Depart: 6:10pm
evening Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Mccarran Intl (LAS)
Arrive: 7:23pm
evening Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (PHX)

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT, THEY ACTUALLY HAVE ME DEPARTING LAS VEGAS TWO HOURS BEFORE I ARRIVE

Sunday, August 24, 2008 Flight #5
US Airways #2725
Depart: 8:00pm
evening Phoenix, AZ

BACK TO PHEONIX??????

Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (PHX)
Arrive: 10:17pm
evening Santa Barbara, CA
Santa Barbara Municipal (SBA)

AND I’M HOME. I WONDER IF THE RIP IN THE SPACE TIME FABRIC THIS FLIGHT REQUIRES WILL HURT

——–

So, I get on the phone with Orbitz.

While the gal on the phone is trying to make things right, I tweeted the following:

Tweet #1 – http://twitter.com/colligan/statuses/891503352

Tweet #2 – http://twitter.com/colligan/statuses/891511056

And more … you can read them all here.

After a long chunk of time on the phone I was rebooked with lousy seats on a US Airways Flight, (yes, the airline who charges you $2 for a soda and threw out the inflight entertainment machines because they weigh too much) I tweeted the following:

So, one more time, Orbitz, you lost this customer – and my thousands of blog readers, Twitter followers and online friends will know why.

Yes, I was trolling for someone at Orbitz to respond. You bet I did. The gal on the phone I think did the best she could (and got me to Atlanta on time) but this kind of customer service is simply unacceptable.

This came back in the Twittosphere …

@colligan I read your tweets about Orbitz and I’m listening. How can I help make this right?

So now this gets good.

I tweeted three simple requests, you can read them here, here and here. I asked for decent seats on an airline I trust and something for my time. Reasonable I think …

I also Tweeted

@CarlyAtOrbitz Finally, please do something. I want this story to end well for Orbitz. Right now, … not a chance. You have the power.

It’s funny, I’ve already had one run-in with a Twittered customer support rep who promised me the world and delivered squat.

There is something about the embracing of New Media by some companies that says this is a two step process – A) use New Media to promise and B) DELIVER.

So, I’ve put this online hoping Orbitz will deliver.

I’ll will report everything – you know me …

And I’m taking bets on the final outcome in the comments. Please predict how you think this will end.

This should be fun.

  • I would love to see this end really well... But I have seen too many "Big Dumb Companies" with INCREDIBLE Pro Customer Service Marketing Messages do abso-frickin-lutely nothin!
    Sad... this is an economy where you NEED to do the little things right and this incident is by no means a little incident. In this mass communication - Instant communication world , one little thing - like taking care of this problem and making you happy - can make the difference in what hundreds or thousands of people think of you. Already my impression of Orbitz is being changed. I believe if they treat you like crap and do nothing, I''ll likely get the same treatment.

    Airlines and Customer centric businesses like them are not heroes when they do the job they are paid to do, that makes them a business that may earn the right to charge your credit card again. Rather it's how they react and what they do when things go wrong that will make them a hero, and often cements them in your spending space.

    Good luck Paul. I hope they make this right - I truly do!
    John
  • Oh - and by the way - they should make this right because they screwed up, cost you valuable time and a whole lot of anguish and headache - not because you can spread the word to the masses.

    The real secret to maintaining the place in the market is not doing what's right when your caught - it's just plain doing what's right!

    John Jaworski
  • I've stopped using Expedia after similar screw-ups (they "forgot" to issue a ticket for a flight, so I got to the airport & did not have a ticket, hum).

    Here's the thing -- I always can get the same price directly from the airline website. At least this works for American Airlines (yuck, but they fly direct SFO to STL) and Frontier Airlines (bankrupt, but nice people and hub in Denver).

    Oh, and I also fly Southwest Airlines ... yes, it's a cattle-call, but they don't charge extra for stuff, still have pillows/blankets, and generally the flight attendants are encouraged to be nice. :) And for those guys, you also just buy direct.
  • Some things Stomper 6 / New Media Expo etc "are" still worth traveling for .... but increasingly through the rise of Audio + Video + Internet - there are less and less reasons for travel

    ... and it seems to only get worse ...

    New Media - keep on coming ....
  • Paul,

    I love the documentation. We had a piece on the local news about how big biz are embracing New Media, but embracing it to look cool is not the same thing as embracing it effectively.

    I agree with John, they should make this right, not just to fix the "public embarrassement" but because it's the right thing to do. Especially if you have given them several opportunities to make it right.

    We are all human, but to make screw ups that big must have taken a really big computer.
  • This may be why there is such a push to do away with social media. http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2 It's impact is too significant for businesses to learn how to use it effectively. Instead of learning to use it right, business looks for a cheap way around it. Unless you hit their bottom line hard it's just a numbers game to them. It's sad but true. It's easier for them to make profits on new customers than win loyalty of old ones. Go figure...they must have missed business 101. All research shows it's more profitable to keep old clients happy so they continue to use the service and be a loyal fan to win more customers over to you than it is to get a new customer. Well in your Orbitz case my guess is they will have to learn the hard way. Rebuke the wise and they will treasure it, rebuke the foolish and they will hate you. Orbitz is not positioning itself to be wise.
  • Well... I think they are making an attempt. The right thing to do is bump you to first class if the seats are available. Hey.let's face it.. when that cabin door closes they'll need about 20 gallons of Marinara to choke down the empty first class seats, they may as well use one of them to earn good will!

    Will they - won't they? The questions that trouble us so!

    Here's another cool idea airlines - if you have first class or business seats available and see a big guy in Coach - why not bring him to the front - you don't have to give us the food and booze treatment if you don't want to, but make us and the folks we are sitting next to more comfortable. It's a good thing and the right thing to do. I'm not saying make it a rigid policy that we should expect, but for Gods sake make it a Flight Attendant practice - they make the call.

    And Flight Attendants - for heavens sake please smile and laugh. I know your busy but it takes so little effort and makes a WHOLE LOT of difference in the Customer experience. You are the face of the airlines. Let's face it you have a pretty nice job, your not busting big stones into small ones, or cleaning septic tanks... give us a smile - especially when we are frustrated. In case ya didn't know the experience of Air Travel has gotten to be one butt ugly experience for the traveler, and yeah you get us when we are kind of frustrated - but the way you respond to us can be the key factor in whether I am loyal to you or some other airline...

    I'm just sayin'...

    John Jaworski
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