Orbitz couldn't handle a simple one-way off-airport car rental itinerary in Italy
Written: Jul 28 '04 (Updated Aug 14 '04)
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There are already many comprehensive reviews of Orbitz. Therefore, this review addresses only one specialized aspect of the web site: based on my recent experences, it appears that Orbitz is unable to make one-way rental car reservations involving non-airport pick up or drop off locations. If this is relevant to you, read on...
I don't use rental cars very often, especially on international trips, but in June 2004, I needed to book a car to be picked up at the main train station (Stazione Termini) in Rome, Italy and dropped off at the airport in Pisa, Italy a week later. This seems like a fairly standard kind of request, one that rental car companies deal with thousands of times every week, but none of the major internet travel agents (Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz) were able to handle it.
Travelocity allowed me to specify the desired pick up and drop off locations, but the search always ended with the error message "Sorry, we could not complete your request at this time." Or any other time, for that matter.
Expedia was a bit more forthcoming. It gave a clear statement that it could not handle one-way rentals unless both the pick up and drop off location were airports. Seems kind of limiting when there are dozens of rental car agencies in Rome.
Orbitz response was a bit more convoluted. It was easy to request a one-way rental from Rome to Pisa. Orbitz then offered a choice of pick up locations in Rome, including the train station, which I chose. Unfortunately, the subsequent search ended with the message "We couldn't find cars that meet your request," masking the fact that it just couldn't handle off-airport one-way itineraries. Of course, when I changed the pick up location to the Rome airport, it was able to find plenty of cars.
For the Rome airport to Pisa airport itinerary, Orbitz did give a nice table showing the price charged by five or six companies for four or five types of vehicles. Unfortunately, because of some ambiguities in the presentation, it wasn't clear that the figures were actually useful for price comparison purposes. Some boxes included a "base price" and a "total price" while others just quoted a figure without telling if it was the total price.
So, I wasn't able to use Orbitz to book the car or even to get a reliable price comparison. After some investigation of prices, I was able to make the exact reservation I wanted at the Avis web site, www.avis.com . Using the Orbitz price table as a rough guide, I went to the individual rental car agencies' web sites to get real prices and book the car. Avis's site was very well organized and much more user friendly than Orbitz. For my review of Avis.com, click here.
Related Links
Click on the following to find out...
-- why you shouldn’t use the most popular airline miles credit card to pay for car rental in foreign countries
-- how to save 2 to 3 per cent on every foreign credit card transaction
-- everything you need to know about dealing with money on your vacation in Europe
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Car rental from Rome, Italy train station to Pisa, Italy airport
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Member: Jim J
Location: Santa Cruz, California
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