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I was traveling to Washington DC for a meeting and needed an airline ticket. I went online as I always do when I'm shopping for a good price. I entered the date of my trip (June 1st through the 7th ) and up popped a some prices for different airlines. I picked the one that fit my needs ad was sent to a page with all the flights for those dates to select the time of day I wanted to fly. I knew there was a chance my appointment could be canceled so I purchased flight insurance figuring the loss of the fee was far better than the loss of the fare. After entering all my information I carefully reviewed all the details, date, time, credit card info and purchased my ticket. I printed off the receipt and forgot about it.

A couple days later my appointment was in fact cancelled. I went and got my receipt only to discover I was booked on a flight for June 28th and July 5th. I was upset but was cancelling anyway so I had gotten very lucky. I couldn't even imagine what it would have cost to try to fix this a day or two before I left. Which is when I probably would have discovered the mistake. And I doubt either the airline or ORBITZ would have taken responsibility. More likely blaming a computer glitch.

So I called ORBITZ to cancel and file my claim for my refund. The woman I spoke with struggled with English, and I struggled to understand her.

After 50 minutes of my life that I can never get back I was told my ticket was non refundable. That is why I bought insurance. "Flight Cancellation" insurance is only good in an emergency. However, the airline policy is to issue a voucher worth the value of my ticket, good for one year. Except I can not get any written confirmation for the voucher if it exists. Further more, in order to redeem my voucher I must do so through ORBITZ. I was also given phone numbers to contact the insurance company and try to get a refund for my useless insurance.

Besides the fact that all of this smells like a very expensive scam, my statement that my entire transaction was conducted on the ORBITZ site and there fore the failure by them,to make clear that the insurance was not your usual or even real flight cancellation insurance fell on deaf ears. I don't travel often and do not have the money for hotels and other travel expenses just to use this maybe voucher so I am probably out the $200. I will be advising the BBB and my Illinois States Attorney of my awful experience. Save yourself the grief. I recommend Trip Adviser but Expedia isn't too bad either. Just DON'T trust ORBITZ because almost anything can go wrong.

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