Orbitz questions.

"mrtravelkay" wrote in message
. com...


John R. Levine wrote:

I am in the process of arranging a flight for my friend to come and
visit me

from the US to here in the UK. ...

What is Orbitz like? Do you guys recommend it?

The last time I asked, Orbitz didn't accept credit cards from outside
for U.S. for anti-fraud reasons.

because only US cards are fraud proof..........LOL

No, because US companies cannot easily use the legal system to go after
fraud conducted outside the country. Especially if the purchase is just a
couple hundred bucks. It is simply not cost effective, and it IS a problem.
This is the same reason my company only accepts US and Canadian credit
cards.

If you are a business owner and want to accept the risk, knock yourself out.

"mrtravelkay" wrote in message
. com...


John R. Levine wrote:
I think that they simply have more access to information to check on
the
validity of transactions on US cards.

Are you suggesting that the info on whether the non US account is valid
or not is not retreivable by computer as easily as it is for US
accounts?


Yup.

Dealing with different formats for mailing addresses, phone numbers,
and other info used for verification is different. Laws about
trans-border dataflows are different. These are all soluble problems,
but they do need to be solved.

They have apparently have been solved by the many places online,
including travel sites, where you can use a credit card no matter where
it was issued.

No, the problems haven't been "solved". The credit transactions are either
conducted elsewhere, or the business made a decision to accept the increased
risk of fraud.

Quantum Foam Guy wrote:

No, the problems haven't been "solved". The credit transactions are either
conducted elsewhere, or the business made a decision to accept the increased
risk of fraud.


I see, they haven't been "solved", but other businesses have found
"solutions".

"mrtravelkay" wrote in message
om...
Quantum Foam Guy wrote:

No, the problems haven't been "solved". The credit transactions are
either
conducted elsewhere, or the business made a decision to accept the
increased
risk of fraud.

I see, they haven't been "solved", but other businesses have found
"solutions".

Again, no. Certain industries experience more online fraud than
others. But no matter the industry, fraud still exists. Companies
that accept international credit cards typically do so only when
the order is small, limiting their potential losses, or when the order
is from a genuine company that the seller already knows.

The airline industry is rife with credit card fraud. In fact,
an online credit card sale is one of the riskiest transactions
for an airline (as well as the banks involved) to undertake.
In the US and Canada, Orbitz stands a much greater chance of
recouping a portion of their loss or at least getting local
law enforcement to prosecute the scammers.

Why are you mystified by this? If international credit card
transactions were as safe as you like to believe, why would
Orbitz turn down the business? Businesses don't make a habit
of turning down good money unless there was a very good
reason. The answer: It's too damn risky. Don't believe me? Then
try to purchase a new computer from Best Buy using an international
credit card with the product shipping to an address outside of North
America. Try to purchase a ticket on Continental.com with a credit
card anywhere outside the US, Canada or UK.

This is a problem with airlines worldwide. See Air France's
"Conditions of Sale" in Singapore - if you are booking for
someone else, (relative, coworker, friend, etc.) they will
not deliver the tickets to that person. You will have to
physically travel to their office to pay for the tickets.

That works for Air France, which has storefronts. What does Orbitz
do? It doesn't have such locations.

(Yaofeng) wrote in message . com...
"IceC" icecATdsl.pipex.com wrote in message ...
Hi all,

I am in the process of arranging a flight for my friend to come and visit me
from the US to here in the UK.

I am looking at different reasonably priced ways of purchasing tickets for
her.

What is Orbitz like? Do you guys recommend it?

Also, is it possible for me to buy the tickets on my credit card (uk) for
her and then she receives the tickets or can't that be no these days?

I think I only ever did that once and that was before 9/11.

All comments and recommendations are welcomed!

Gavin.

I found Orbitz does a very good job searching a wide spectrum of
carriers to give you a cheap fare, better than most other sites. But
you could still beat it if you know a particular carrier is having a
fare sale sometimes.

Agreed!

I have never found it worth the trouble involved for me to use Orbitz.
The trouble involved -- like the OP I am in the UK. However, you can
easily get round the "no foreign credit card" rule by changing your
billing address to that of your friend in the USA, completing the
purchase, and then changing it back again.

Since I have worked that out (and have done so to buy a ticket from
the US Travelocity site) any fraudster could as well. So I don't
think the rule has much to do with fraud prevention, but rather
relates to market segmentation.

david extrapolated from data available...



Since I have worked that out (and have done so to buy a ticket from
the US Travelocity site) any fraudster could as well. So I don't
think the rule has much to do with fraud prevention, but rather
relates to market segmentation.


Rumor has it that any fare displayed on Orbitz will be "matched"(and with
no ticketing fee, plus plus FF booking points) by several airlines to a
phone caller who uses the same flight numbers which were displayed on
Orbitz. Of course, this also eliminates the CC problem.

I've had several occasions in which the claim seems to be true, all
involving AA and once actually having to "quote" the Orbitz fare, but no
examples of it not working. Others' experience....

TMO