Orbitz responds!

Thanks to all of the publicity in such a short period of time, I have just received a response from Orbitz. They heard about my letter at a website called Information Liberation.

Here's the letter from Orbitz:

Dear Mrs. Muratore,

Orbitz has seen a copy of the letter that was posted to US Airways, via the Information Liberation website.  On behalf of my colleagues at Orbitz, we sincerely apologize for your disappointing experience.  We are positive that US Airways will address your concerns, as well.

Please understand that the airports are not required to advise travel agents as to what type of screening procedures they use.   As I am sure you are aware, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has jurisdiction over airport security operations.

The tickets that you purchased to travel from Baltimore to San Luis Obispo in December are non-refundable.  As a travel agency, Orbitz is required by the airline to process all penalty fees should you wish to voluntarily make a change to your existing reservation.  As a gesture of our goodwill, Orbitz is willing to waive our exchange fee, but without the consent from the airline, we are not in a position to waive any mandated airline exchange fees or absorb any additional costs should you wish to voluntarily change your flight to depart from another airport.

Here at Orbitz, we appreciate your concern for privacy.  In this post 9-11 world, we are also equally committed to helping the US government maintain a safe and secure air space.  We will, as a part of our follow up, address your privacy concerns within our industry association in Washington, DC.  Through our trade group, we can address this issue directly with the TSA so we can identify ways to better maintain that balance between customer privacy and our nation's security.

With kind regards,

Lisa Diehl

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Lisa Diehl

Manager - Customer Relations 

500 West Madison Street, Suite 1000

Chicago, IL 60661

Office: 312 894-4689

BlackBerry: 312 479-4736

Fax:  800 520-0459

And here's my immediate response:

Ms. Diehl-

Thank you very much for your response. I did send a letter directly to Orbitz that I had hoped you received before I made the letters public online. I was unaware that Information Liberation had picked up my post but was surprised to find out that there were over 3000 hits to my blog so far this weekend. I will be making your response below public on my blog as well. I am very happy to hear that you will work with me on changing my travel plans and will also pursue action via your trade group. I sincerely hope that real changes are made in the name of freedom.

-Kathryn