Orbitz Frustration/Extra Guest Fee

[Dave P]

Hello Everyone,

Unfortunately this is another Orbitz complaint thread. I was looking into booking a short December trip and discovered that Orbitz is now charging for children again at Disney resorts, although it seems they only include the fee for certain resorts. I checked PO: Riverside, which included a fee, and AKL which did not. The fee disappeared with a child under 3. We just went in March and had no issue with this fee when we booked in January, but it seems to be back.

Anyways, the per night fee for a 3 year old was $54! I tried calling Orbitz customer service but I could not seem to get the lady to understand that Disney does not charge this fee, or that even for adults its not $54. I then called Disney directly and the guy at the help desk thinks that if I book with 2 adults and 1 child under 3 I will have no issue linking her MDE profile to the reservation (therefore getting around the Orbitz fee).

Anyone here have any experience with doing this? I know some people used to call after booking and add the kids on, but I have had serious frustration with Orbitz customer service reps not understanding questions. Last time I tried to call to get the actual Disney confirmation # and ended up calling Disney direct to get it after the guy gave me 2 incorrect numbers. My only concern is if the system gets confused and we have issues adding a ticket to her profile/Magic Band.

I would give up on Orbitz all together, but I have a ton of Orbucks as I book rooms on the App (5%) and use the rewards credit card (5%) for a total of 10% back on reservations. Add the 15%-20% off codes in and I save considerable amounts on rooms compared to Disney-discounted rates.

 

[mmouse09]

We have booked Disney resorts through Orbitz for our last 4 trips and I have never had an issue. We have 2 children. I always book for 2 adults and call in to add the kids. I've never had a problem. Easy and it saves a lot of $ with the extra discounts! Staying at the Wilderness Lodge for $250 this Fall!

 

[CoP Luv]

We haven't had an issue either. I usually use the chat function when contacting Orbitz so I can communicate as clear as possible.

 

[stinkpickle]

Yes, just book two adults and call in to add kids later.

 

[Dave P]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I'll try to add my daughter later as suggested. Hopefully they don't try to add the fee along with her.

 

[Kmygrl73]

I also am having problems with Orbitz. I booked a room only for a night just to save some money to add on to my Disney package and totally regret it! I called to add on the kids and she said the price would double just to add 2 kids on. She didn't understand at all what I was saying and had to call me back 30 minutes later after she said she was on the phone with Disney. I still didn't get it changed with the kids and she said I can't cancel because Disney is charging a cancellation fee... it really is different with Orbitz than it was before and just hoping when I get there , it should be fine! We don't need Magic bands or anything because we will already have them at the beginning of the week with the Disney package... I was just trying to do the right thing by having the right number of people on the reservation. I might call Disney myself before our vacation and just explain that I am getting nowhere with Orbitz and hope it will be ok!

 

[Dave P]

I also am having problems with Orbitz. I booked a room only for a night just to save some money to add on to my Disney package and totally regret it! I called to add on the kids and she said the price would double just to add 2 kids on. She didn't understand at all what I was saying and had to call me back 30 minutes later after she said she was on the phone with Disney. I still didn't get it changed with the kids and she said I can't cancel because Disney is charging a cancellation fee... it really is different with Orbitz than it was before and just hoping when I get there , it should be fine! We don't need Magic bands or anything because we will already have them at the beginning of the week with the Disney package... I was just trying to do the right thing by having the right number of people on the reservation. I might call Disney myself before our vacation and just explain that I am getting nowhere with Orbitz and hope it will be ok!

This is what I experienced when I called the other day. I told the rep I didn't need to book and that I just had a simple question. She took all my info on the hypothetical trip, quoted me a price with the $54/child/night fee and proceeded to ask me repeatedly if I wanted to book. I could not get her to understand that the fee was not only against Disney policy but also more than double the fee for an adult.

Then I proceeded to call Disney. I told the rep there the same thing; that I did not need to actually book but I had some questions. I asked her if they started charging for children (they haven't) and asked what the normal fee was for an adult ($25). She then insisted she put in my info for an exact price and then asked me if I'd like to book! At this point I was getting annoyed as I told both reps I would not be booking that day. I went on to tell her about the Orbitz situation and asked her what I could do about it. I asked if I could book with a child under 3 on Orbitz to get around the fee and then link on MDE with my daughter's profile (which has her actual age). She told me it would create an error, so I asked to be transferred to the online help desk.

The rep there told me to do as I suggested and book with an infant, and that he was pretty sure everything would be fine when I link the MDE guest profiles to the room. He said if I do have any issues to call back to the help desk. The only issue I can see happening is that Orbitz will submit to Disney a reservation with 2 adults and 1 infant, or in other words an occupancy of 2 as the infant does not count toward max occupancy. Its possible that MDE wont let a profile link to the infant if the profile is for a child that should count toward the occupancy.

We have used Orbitz a lot before and have saved considerable amounts of money, but between the hassles of fees for children, cancellation fees that shouldn't exist, terrible customer service, etc. we are thinking about going another route. We rented DVC points for the second resort of our split stay for this trip but availability can be an issue renting and the no cancellations part is inconvenient. We are actually considering buying into DVC on the resale market to alleviate all of the above and save some money in the process.

 

[Dave P]

Quick update:

I checked many of the resorts for the week before Christmas 2017. None of the deluxe resorts had an extra guest fee for a child. In the moderates, only Port Orleans Riverside and Caribbean Beach had the fee; Coronado/French Quarter did not. All of the Value resorts had the fee.

I checked a few of the fee-charging resorts for a random week next year (January 2018) and none of them had the fee.

 

[Monykalyn]

Quick update:

I checked many of the resorts for the week before Christmas 2017. None of the deluxe resorts had an extra guest fee for a child. In the moderates, only Port Orleans Riverside and Caribbean Beach had the fee; Coronado/French Quarter did not. All of the Value resorts had the fee.

I checked a few of the fee-charging resorts for a random week next year (January 2018) and none of them had the fee.

Anyone here have any experience with doing this? I know some people used to call after booking and add the kids on, but I have had serious frustration with Orbitz customer service reps not understanding questions. Last time I tried to call to get the actual Disney confirmation # and ended up calling Disney direct to get it after the guy gave me 2 incorrect numbers. My only concern is if the system gets confused and we have issues adding a ticket to her profile/Magic Band.

Sometimes you have to literally tell them step by step what to do. Had to do this with my CSR reservation for the first part of our august trip. Frustrating for sure.

Disney is charging a cancellation fee...

Nope not for a room only-and Disney customer service needs everyone who gets charged this to forward to them to get Orbitz to stop this LIE.

I am a longtime orbitz CC holder and frequent booker using Orbitz. I sent an email to them about my dissatisfaction with the dishonest fees and declining customer service (since expedia took over really). Generic email back but I notice whenever I go to look on the site now a chat box pops up pretty frequently asking to help lol!

And it would be a shame to have to give up Orbitz-with the stacking disney resort discounts, 15% off codes and the extra cash back through ebates I can actually get Disney resorts at a somewhat reasonable price. But the frustration led me to book with Disney direct for my October trip...