Jaunted

As soon as our email confirmation came in, though, we found out that we’d been assigned middle seats on the long-haul flight portion of the itinerary from Minneapolis to Paris and back. A quick check of the Northwest site revealed why this had happened.

Though Orbitz listed plenty of empty seats, it turns out their seat selection info was not being transmitted to them by the airline in real-time, so there can be a big lag between what Orbitz says is available, and what is actually available.

Compounding the problem is the fact that many airlines are now setting aside huge blocs of seats as “select,” “preferred” or “premium” coach options for loyalty program members, and people who are willing to shell out an extra fee to get their seat of choice the day before the flight.

Our disgruntled calls to Northwest and Orbitz did not yield much satisfaction. The airline told us that we could either pay for an upgrade, or wait to purchase a “Coach Choice” seat 24 hours before the flight for about $50. The truth is, the airline could not have cared less about our seat selection since we hadn’t booked the ticket through them.

In all fairness, Northwest’s customer service did feel our pain and were very polite. As was Orbitz’s customer service. They understood the problem, but refused to refund the ticket, even when we explained that we never would have booked it if we’d known the seating situation, and the engine had told us we could choose our seats before confirming the booking, which was a flat-out lie. (See the FAQs on seating for more info on their policy.)The best we could get out of them was a $50 credit for future use on the site. Awesome, just what we want: another great experience with Orbitz. Well, at least that $50 got us a Coach Choice seat on the flight when we called Northwest again (more on that, and whether it was worth it tomorrow).

So what can you do to avoid this situation? It takes a little internet ingenuity. When you find the flight you like on a search engine, go to the web site of the airline you will be traveling on, and enter the same information there as though you are creating a new reservation with them. Then, when the itinerary comes up, click to view the seat map and see whether there are any good old-fashioned normal coach seats available without special requirements.

If you find some that you like, immediately book your ticket with the booking engine and select the seats you saw that were available on the airline site. Is it a perfect system? No, and it requires a bit of extra leg work on your part, but the savings can be big, and it’s a better way to ensure you don’t get booked out of the seat you want. Take that, Orbitz!

Got an Orbitz travel booking gripe? Share it with us in comments below.

Related Stories:
· Seating preferences [Orbitz]
· Anatomy of a Recent Bidding Adventure on Priceline [Jaunted]

[Photo: MikeMurry]