Why does Orbitz continually show flights that don't exist?
I'm looking for a flight from Cape Town (CPT) to Atlanta (ATL), and I see some I like on both Matrix Airfare Search and Orbitz (thanks to answers on my other question:
But when I try to book the flight on Orbitz, I'm told the flight is no longer available:
I would assume this means the last flight at that price was just recently booked, and I'm out of luck.
Immediately after selecting a flight, and being shown the yellow banner above, if I do another identical search, the missing flight is removed from the list.
If I come back an hour later (as confirmed just now, for the flight above), the phantom flight has returned. I have experienced this behavior consistently now over the last week or more.
It's not just a problem with a single airline, either. When I'm returned to the list of results at Orbitz, the top 4-6 cheapest flights do the same thing, from a variety of airlines. And it happens on all dates (I've tried Dec 2013, Jan 2014 and even as far out as March 2014).
What gives? Where are these phantom flights?
Best Answer
Adding on to HaLaBi's comments. I see that as the only possible reason. A parallel to this scenario would be booking movie tickets. Imagine only 5 tickets are available/left for a show and say 20 people are at that moment online trying to book a ticket each. Now the system has to be able to sell to at least 5 of those customers, the other 15 will be shown a sorry message. But which 5 of these 20 customers will be sold a ticket ? It all depends on which level the website decides to apply the lock on. Some websites will give you one minute to complete the transaction (mostly when you are selecting a seat as a part of the booking process), others may wait for ever and lock the transaction only when you are at the payment page. Some websites wont bother as they are just acting as an interface between the customer and the theater's website/API and it is the theaters website which will ensure a valid ticket is sold.
Travel websites inherently have to give you a longer window (time required to enter passenger details/use a profile) before you hit the 'pay money' button.I don't work with Orbitz, so I dont know at which level this lock is applied. As you can see there are only 5 tickets left from the flight you want to select. The only reason I see is multiple people trying to go for those seats. A few things I suggest : Try using the innuendo mode of your browser and see what happens. If not, how about making an itinerary at Qatar's website ? HTH.
Pictures about "Why does Orbitz continually show flights that don't exist?"
What is a ghost flight booking?
"Unnecessary flights are not empty or 'ghost' flights," a spokesman for the airline told CNN. "They are scheduled flights that are poorly booked due to the pandemic. Despite poor demand, Lufthansa Group Airlines must operate these flights to continue securing takeoff and landing rights at hubs and major EU airports."Do flights go up if you keep searching?
However, airlines say prices change not because of a consumer's search history on a website, or their cookies, but because of inventory updates or glitches on the website, FareCompare's Rick Seaney said in an email.Is Orbitz a trusted site?
Re: Is Orbitz trustworthy for international travel plans? Very large company and reliable. However, you can probably find the same total price on the airlines own websites. Check the routing,flights and fare basis Orbitz is providing and see if you can match it.What are unpublished flights?
Published airfares are fares that can be bought by anyone. On the other hand, unpublished airfares are \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 unpublished. They do not appear in advertising, and if you rang the airline they would not be able to tell you about the rules.No American Airlines on Orbitz
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