I booked a $1000 hotel and car package yesterday through Orbitz.com combined with Hertz.

At no stage during the on line booking process was I asked where I wanted to pick up the car. On receiving the confirmation, I noted that the car from Hertz had been designated as collected from Fortlauderdale Airport. I was flying into Miami International.

No problem I thought, with 6 weeks to go until my trip, I can just call Orbitz and ask them to change the pick-up point as clearly Hertz have desks in MIA too – what could be more simple?

Well apparently, it is not simple at all. After finally being put through to a call centre in India, I held for about 20 minutes (you cannot change your reservation on line) and was finally informed that even though there are indeed telephone lines connected between Fort Lauderdale and Miami International Airport AND even, I hear, high speed internet is available too, no-one could make this call or email happen to have the car ready at MIA and instead, I had to cancel my entire reservation at an extra cost of $25 and start all over again.

How ridiculous.

It was my first experience with Orbitz and it will be my last.

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