How to Plan Travel on Orbitz

The Orbitz website might be the easiest place in the world to book travel. No matter where you want to go, Orbitz shows you exactly how much it costs on various airlines so you can compare prices and make an informed decision. It's a great system and, more importantly, it is very safe and secure. So here is how to plan travel on Orbitz.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A computer
• Internet connection
• Credit card

Planning Travel on Orbitz,com

1. Get to the homepage.Have a place to travel to? Get out your computer and point your web browser to Orbitz.com. When the homepage loads, it will do so on the Quick Search window in the upper left corner. This is really all you need to book travel. You'll see that on the top of the page are some tabs with categories such as Hotels, Flights, Cruises, etc. These can be helpful for those types of travel, but so can the quick search window. If you know where you want to go, when you want to go and who is going, just use the quick search feature that comes up. It gives you the exact same results and you can book your travel right there.

2. Type in your information.You can enter a variety of information in the fields. For the "From" and "To" fields, you can enter the city names or the airport code if you know the specific airport you want to fly in to. Airport codes can be tricky. Some are exactly what you think they might be (San Diego: SAN) and some seem to make little sense (Chicago O'Hare: ORD). So if you don't know or aren't sure what your code is, just click on the "airport" link. This will bring up a new window where you can search for the airport codes alphabetically.Also enter your date or departure and your return date. If you click in either of the date fields, it will bring up a small calendar to help you.If the time of your flight matters, then enter a time. From the drop-down menu you can choose an exact time (6 p.m.) or a window (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.). Then enter the amount of travelers.If you prefer non-stop flights, click that button at the bottom of the box and that is all you will see.

3. Look over your options carefully.After you click the search button, a new screen will appear as Orbitz finds all of the flights that match your criteria. When the window pops up, you will see their display.It's pretty easy to read. The top row is non-stop flights, the second row is one-stop and the bottom row is two-or-more-stop flights. On top of the screen, you will see the various airlines that offer the flights. And inside the squares are the prices.If you do not click any buttons, the flights will be listed in ascending order beginning with the least expensive flight. If you click on a price at the top, Orbitz will show you all of the flights that have that same price. You can also click on an airline or a flight type.If you don't like your options or want to change a flight specification, along the left side of the page you will see that same quick search box with your information in it. Change it around and resubmit everything to see if other flights will appear. Maybe another airport in the same city has cheaper flights or non-stops from your area.

4. Make your own flight plan.Obviously you can only fly when the airlines has available departure times, but you don't necessarily have to choose the exact flight plan that Orbitz first provides for you.One of the websites best features (and possibly most under-used feature) if the ability to choose either a departing or arrival flight by itself. If you find one leg of a flight at the exact time you need to leave, you can click on the link to the right that reads "choose this departure/return". Orbitz will then lock in that flight leg for you and show you all of the options for the other portion of your flight.With this feature, you can choose exactly which departure and arrival flight you want without being limited to what flight plans the website brings up for you.

5. Enter all of your personal information to book your ticket.After you have chosen your flight plan, go through the next few pages entering all of your personal information. It will ask for various things like full name, address, email, telephone, etc. Enter all of that in the appropriate fields.It will then ask for your credit card information. Enter all of that as well, including the billing address, name on the card and three-digit security code on the back.After all of that, review the information when it all appears on the screen. Confirm that it is correct and click "Purchase". You have now booked your travel on Orbitz.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that since Orbitz allows you to pick and choose your arrival and departure flights, it is possible to book them with different airlines. So if one airline does not have the departure time you are looking for, maybe another will. Make sure you check before you give up on it. Sometimes booking travel on different airlines can be more expensive, so make sure you aren't paying too much for this feature.
• Book your travel well in advance. Flights offered through Orbitz have a funny way of filling up in the last few days before a flight. The website is not given access to all of the available seats for a plane, so the choices they have can run out before the plane is actually sold out. So get on early and book it in advance.
• Flights get more expensive the longer you wait. Orbitz works just like the airlines do: the closer to the travel day you book your flight, generally the more expensive it is going to be. So get on early and book your flight well in advance to get a better fare. The schedules for the flights are on the website far ahead (like months) of their departure date, so there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to book it on time.

[yomamma94]

on 9/20/2009 Orbitz is a ripoff!! The charge for changing a reservation is more than purchasing new tickets outright. So they advise you to toss old tickets and purchase new ones. That's criminal!!