Government Vacation Rewards
reviews and complaints

Omar will not verify my account because I will not give him my address. But I have already gave him my account number and email. I asked for a supervisor and he refused to connect me to one. I called earlier and verified the same way. Name, account number and email. This process is getting lengthy and I just need to make a change in my account. This is unacceptable!

Have been trying to reverse $1,699 membership charge since February 2022. Got final resolution letter in my favor in May and 15 days later they (GVR) charged my account again, saying no proper proof of cancellation had been received by them.

The CC company ALREADY has proof of my proper TOS-correct cancellation. Still fighting. What a waste of precious time.

A scam of the highest order.

After signing up for government vacation rewards I was unable to find a use for it, no benefit for our family. So I called to cancel and the rep only wanted to sell more, I said I needed to cancel since I had it for six months with no benefit found for our use. Rep claimed ok I will refund May payment, I will change your prior payments into points so you can use product. I never asked for more points since I found no value. YOU MUST BE FIRM WITH THESE PEOPLE! Representative never canceled any payments, MAY,JUNE and now JULY. I am filing criminal complaint thru local police office. Also American Express has been notified.

My wife and I booked a cruise utilizing your agency to the Western Carribean, initially everything went smooth as silk until after you processed the cruise. We were upgraded from our original room plans, however that was by the cruise line and at no fault of your company. My wife was a past cruiser on Princess and received an email for the Princess Plus package offered at $50 a day per person and when we attempted to accept the offer that's when the issues began. Initially I attempted to contact my booking agent and it is like he has ceased to exist.

Each time I attempt to reach his extension I receive a recording stating it is not available and to dial "0" for an operator and again I receive a voice message stating your hours and to call back during normal business hours even though I was calling during normal business hours. I have tried to speak with numerous customer service agents who proceed to "listen" to my issue but never actually "assist me". I was told on several occasions that a supervisor would contact me and as of 1000 pm on Friday June 17th that has yet to happen. The most recent phone call episode occurred on the same date, I was driving and was on hold with an agent for over 45 minutes and when I reached home it was as if he somehow developed turrets syndrome and couldn't speak, so I proceeded to try and dial the same number again from another extension and got a recording while still on hold with the other agent that stated the number was not in service. How I was on one call that was working and another that would not go through is beyond me. I was briefly able to ask the agent if he would call me back on another number and he assured me he would and of course never did, several minutes later I attempted to call back and to my surprise received yet another recording stating the office was closed, so I am assuming the agent was aware of the time and never intended to phone me back. Now the issue is we were offered a package that was apparently fraudulent due to the fact your agency refused to honor it stating IT HAD EXPIRED, although there was not any type of expiration date on the email. I confirmed with the cruise line that the package was indeed available AND STILL IS, but they are unable to add it to my cruise because I had booked with your agency. Now if the cruise line is stating the package is available my only assumption is your agency perpetrated a fraud and are only concerned with me purchasing a promotion that is more than double what was offered. I intend to file a formal complaint with the Department of Defense since you are promoting your agency for military veterans and with Princess Cruise Lines and have your access revoked preventing your agency from doing business with them.

I was tricked, by a Joshua, into purchasing a so-called Government Vacation Rewards Benefit plan for $1,675.00 back in November 2021. I was assured I would have all kinds of benefits and that I would have lots of options towards future travel, and that I would have $400 to apply to future trips if used in less than a year for air travel, resorts, rental, and hotel. I was told I could add family and friends as I wished, and it was supposed to be so good, that it was really too good to be true. They failed to tell me that 90% of where I would be trying to travel to, stay, or book, would be unavailable through their agency and discounts. There are very limited options for you to choose from, if any. Even when something appeared available, which was rare on their website, I would try to book a hotel, for example, to have it say just the opposite. I called about it, and I was just told that it is the norm and deal with it; try a different hotel. I am not one with a lot of patience to deal with that kind of thing with my anxiety, and I was not warned at all about this prior to making the purchase. In fact, when I called and spoke to Joshua specifically about this, he was so caring and reassuring in the prepurchase stage; but was he ever different in the postpurchasing stage. He could clearly care less about my having issues booking the hotel. He offered to let me speak to someone in customer service about booking, in which I had already tried to get nowhere; I said forget it. I went on a trip in December, in which I was able to use the hotel discount finally. The hotel, that they offered on their website for us, was a dump, and not highly recommended. As for the other so-called $300 discount savings they so kindly gave me to do this, I cannot even use! As for the air discount, they do not offer any flights from my hometown, my home state, or anywhere close to me! Of course, this wasn't mentioned during my prepurchase conversation. I travel a great deal at this time, and I have been on nine trips, since November 22, and I was only able to take advantage of one so-called deal, with the hotel, in which it was a dump. I am requesting all of my money back as this is clearly not what I thought it was and was led to believe it was! I am beyond disappointed that these individuals are taking advantage of military personnel who have served this country this way. I have attempted to call to cancel on a few occasions since January, first one being 25 January as recent as last week, to have people put me on hold and give me the runaround. I finally attempted online to cancel, and am just now having the time to file an official complaint. I have not paid the full amount yet, as I agreed to pay $275 the first month and $175 the next eight months. I am requesting to stop payment and receive all paid moneys minus the $100 they call themselves saving me in December. I see a lot of complaints now, but I wish I saw them prior to them tricking me. I can only hope I help others in making their decision.

I book 2 cruise on 19 April 2022

For a Havana Cabana and a Spa Cabin on Carnival Cruise line. The book my Havana Cabana as a Balcony. Both the agent and I spoke with a Carnival Representative who stated if I didn’t pick my room it would cost $1571.86 for the Havana Cabana and if I pick my room it would be 2611.86 for me. Now Government vacation is telling me after 3 hours on the phone, Carnival Cruise line will not honor the price their Representative quoted the travel agent and myself. Government Vacation is requesting I pay and additional $192.20 which was what I was getting off in savings credits with them. Basically the savings credits don’t work and Carnival Cruise line is wrong for not honoring the pricing when I put my deposit on that price.

I was a Canadian Army Reservist, which is how I came upon information regarding this so-called affordable vacation club for military families. As you can image army reservist do not earn a great deal of money for their service, and this appeared to be a great opportunity do some traveling at an affordable price. I called the number provided to get some information as their web site is totally devoid of anything useful. That should have been my first clue. The person who I was initially speaking to said he was also Canadian from Montreal, said I believe to put me at ease. I told him why I was calling, and he immediately went into the pitch which promised all these wonderful benefits, if I only paid the $2100.00 fee. I should have hung up the phone right there, but the lure was too great and I guess that is how professional con men hook all their prey. But I figured with enough time it could pay off. Then came Covid-19 and the World shut down, Canadians are only now returning to a normal way of life. As travel was completely restricted there was no way that I could use any of these benefits, but I booked a cruise for September 2022, in the Baltic that has been since cancelled because of the war in the Ukraine. I have yet to receive a refund and my savings credits which I paid $2100.00 USD for have expired. It was all bad enough that you can only use a few at a time, which they do not fully discuss with you, but you certainly can't use them when you are not allowed to travel. GVR has at the very least has acted in bad faith, not informing me just how exactly this club works and then taking things for which I paid hard earned money defending my country for. To say I am disgusted is an understatement. I do not wish to remain a member of this club, but almost have no choice but to continue to pay the annual fee to see if I will eventually get at least some benefit out of my investment.

This is on the back end of this Avis Car Rental complaint that happened in Liberia, Costa Rica on 3/28/2022:

https://www.complaintsboard.com/avis-car-rental-multiple-credit-card-holds-c1355605

I spent 2 days straight trying to get GVR to have my back about this crazy situation with Avis. I bet Avis makes something up and tries to charge my cards while I'm on my way back home. I have alerted both companies that Avis may make unauthorized charges, but I've got something better in mind.

GVR made me crazy with dropped calls, extensions that didn't work, and passing me to multiple departments who wouldn't take any ownership of what happened in Costa Rica. I knew when Tabatha (travel agent supervisor) called to speak with Avis before speaking with me, she opened the door for them to lie to her. Indeed, they did with their infamous insurance fraud. That's not what they told me while at that counter.

The first travel agent, Nellie, while bragging that she was a good travel agent, neglected to tell me anything about what could happen at that ticket counter. She also acted like Avis was the only choice I had. We only went over airline tickets, as I picked the resort. I called, left a message for Nellie Fernandes before I left the country and never got called back. I am infuriated with Government Vacation Rewards. Tabatha challenged me about what I would do in her situation, and I laid it out perfectly.

I told her, considering I'm a veteran, that I would've told Avis that they couldn't treat GVR customers this way, nor veterans, and if they didn't do right by me, they wouldn't do business with Avis. Crickets. Of course, that broad didn't want to be made wrong about anything. I also expressed my displeasure about her not speaking with me before talking with Avis's customer service reps. I told her it was more important to put a smile on my face than to back such a disreputable company like Avis Car Rentals. Again, crickets. She had nothing to say.

On the 2nd day, I insisted they have me return the car and reserve a car through another company ... eating the cost to do so if the cars were more expensive. Of course, they were ... like 3 times as expensive as whatever deal GVR has with Avis. The cheapest car was like $1,750 for the remaining days, and that's without extra fees. So what. GVR should've picked that up to save me from the crap happening with Avis. But nooooo, they wouldn't dream of doing that, and of course they had to put me on hold to come back and say I would have to pay the difference. For getting me into that mess? Me thinks NOT!

I spoke with at least 15 reps in those 2 days, and either they left me extensions that wouldn't go through or passed me on to somebody else. My account rep, Melissa Russell, got caught having the most ridiculous conversation with me about racial issues in America. I told her I was checking out Costa Rica as a potential location to live, because racism had gotten out-of-control in the U.S. It was game on, and I made her sorry for asking me that question. I recorded the entire conversation where she lost her mind and wanted me to prove racism is as bad as I said it was. Tell-tell sign that someone is racist when they do that. Then tried to pimp MLK, Jr. at the end of that conversation? I wanted to throttle her. Her character was in question, not mine.

Anyway, she left herself on my account, because her boss Safraz Rasheed told me he would do Melissa's job. I guess he didn't want anybody to know what transpired between Ms. Russell and I. I wanted a new account manager. He passed me off to Nellie Fernandes, who did anything but take care of me. Towards the end of my never-ending calls to GVR, I was supposed to get Max as an account manager but couldn't because Melissa was still listed as my account manager. So, I can't get another one unless she approves? I don't care about commissions; I care about respect and what any other veteran expects.

After a couple of days relaxing out here, I try to cancel this subscription, membership, or whatever it is. I refuse to use a travel service who leaves its customers in the lurch in foreign countries, plays games, lies, and wastes tons of valuable time. I didn't get the name of the woman in member services who I got passed to; it's probably in the recording of the call. I told her and the woman who transferred me that the call was being recorded on my end. Yes, it is. I just don't feel like listening to it again and can provide it any time. I use the Call Recorder app and figure I needed it after reading some of the reviews made by other customers & veterans of Government Vacation Rewards.

She goes on to tell me what Avis did has nothing to do with GVR, and I used points already & a package? I don't even know what she's talking about, and after what I experienced, I could care less if they must eat everything on their end. With all the time I've spent on this, I can easily exceed whatever was saved @ $150 per hour of my time and aggravation. The hell they didn't have anything to do with what happened. The way people detract & deflect around there, I'm surprised they still have their jobs. Nobody records those conversations, because customer service reps say anything they want without consequences.

I remind her she's being recorded, so she gets off the line, comes back and tells me she has to talk with her management team. She'll get back to me; yeah, sure, right. I kept interrupting her, because she was complaining about GVR cost and that I can't cancel my membership on account of what happened. The hell I can't. I will NOT be forced to pay for something that I'll never use again and people who put money over my humanity.

I won't deal with racist or controlling women, and this is all just a bunch of bull to keep getting money from me. Why? I'm unhappy, they can't fix what has happened both internally & externally to GVR, and I'll be a horse's [censored] if I let these employees manipulate me into paying for something I don't need or want. Since I could never get through an entire conversation with Melissa without her losing her mind, I don't truly understand the way GVR works.

I tried to cancel this whole thing during that 10-day window, because Melissa kept changing our date to go over everything. GVR has that letter from me, because I sent it Fedex. I wanted my down payment back, and the letter went unanswered. She talked me into moving forward, but I never should've believed her; that GVR was all cracked up to what she said it was. I should be able to get another account manager without her permission. I'm not a minor, and this is just disrespectful. I tried to straighten out the mess she made on that phone call, but she went MIA and her supervisor covered her butt. He's a supervisor, not an account manager, and did not take care of me the way Melissa said she would.

I'm almost 65 years old, don't need my blood pressure rising any more than it is, and they're worried about money? I'm worried about myself and my health, thank you. I could care less about GVR or anybody working there. They don't own the place, and I'd rather deal with owners than employees. They didn't show any caring about me, so why should I?

That last woman said I couldn't cancel anything because I'm aggravated by them AND the Avis ordeal. Because I used some of this and didn't pay the full package. Watch me!

I made a flight reservation through Gov Vacation Rewards, 15 days ago. My flight reservation is for today (Mar 29th) through frontier airlines. I have a booking # and itinerary #, but frontier does not have my flight. Government vacation rewards charged me for this flight and took flight savings credits from my account, but now says (on the day of the flight) that the reservation didn’t go through and I should have received an email about it 15 days ago. I did not receive any email about this reservation not going through and my money and savings credits were never refunded for the supposed reservation that didn’t go through. So now I am stuck paying AGAIN for the same flight at a higher price ($448.00) and out the money I already paid plus my savings credits. This is Government Vacation Rewards mistake and it should be handled by your company at no fault to me the customer. I will NEVER purchase more points from your company again. I’ve spent over $4000 on a 2 year contract with you that has given me more problems than rewards. The only way to fix this issue is to refund the money I am paying again for this flight (448.00 more) that was booked by me and I have a booking number for. I am beyond upset!

I traveled with GVR last May at a reduced rate, did a presentation at the resort Grand Mayan, and was even offered flight tickets to return the following year. When I tried to book at the Grand Mayan, initially I was informed that I had to travel under a more expensive GVR Reward program, which required points. I paid for the program. When I tried to book later after the payment was made, I was then informed that I could not travel to the same resort I did last year because the resort implemented a restriction, so they say! Then the booking process ended up being no different than a shady timeshare experience, where nothing was available for the dates I wanted. GVR should be ashamed of itself for taking advantage of people who served...I am also ashamed of myself for not seeing them coming a mile away.

They told me that I would be able to get discounts, and after I paid them over 1,000 dollars, they wanted over $1,000.00 more. I haven't been able to get a single discount from them. They send me emails, constantly asking me to renew my membership. I won't send them another dime. My account remains open.

I am disgusted beyond belief at this scam of a company! My 92 year father has gotten caught up in their 'vacation rewards' scam for years and I've been trying to get his account closed on his behalf including sending them letters per the instructions on their own stinking website to no avail. I have called at least 6 times, each time being promised 'the account is closed' only to have them mail yet another 'final notice' to activate his vacation rewards card. They take advantage of the elderly. I called today after receiving another 'final notice' only to be told that the account is not closed as previously promised. So my promise is, to complain about this company to everyone possible and give them as much grief as they give us. You all are a disgrace!

I paid $2,100 to join this program because I was promised all of these great benefits for future travel. I have been completely scammed and I want my money back! They only give you 10 days to request a refund which is not enough time to really see how this company works. I have been on the phone for over 6 hours total trying to purchase airline tickets with them while utilizing my points and then resolving an issue regarding my tickets because I was charged THREE times for tickets... I have wasted so much time dealing with this issue I want my money back and my account closed... I have spoken to FIVE separate agents regarding this issue... FIVE... this has been such an inconvenience.. utilizing the points as vacation cash to over the base fare of my flight was not worth all of this stress

5/23/31 I upgraded 4 "VIP" travel membership which was supposed 2 include two 7 day certificates, points & agent free booking assistance. My issues are that I have an certificate that they say expired, airfare rebate & I can't reach the point of contact I was given. I called asking for assistance with the supposedly "expired" certificate, rebate but he never got back with me.

As a first time user on 2/17/22 I called my contact and got voice mail saying she would call back when she gets into the office and if I required immediate assistance call her supervisor @[protected]. I did and it said this number wasn't connected but leave a message. I left my number but never received a response from EATHER one. The next day I called again to talk to anyone regarding the quarterly specials but was told Myrtle Beach hotel was sold out. Great service huh?

I settled for a Las Vegas trip but it's costing me over $3000.00 for the airfare. I could have drove to SC.

February 2021 and February 2022. GVR charged $29 to my debit card when my account is closed. Where happened to that money? I had previously paid nearly $1700 for a subscription and closed the account (which was very difficult to do) when I realized that this company is a scam. I originally filed a complaint with the Arizona BBB requesting a refund because every time I attempted to use GVR, the price quoted was always higher than market price. I am also writing to the Inspector General for AAFES asking why the Army-Air Force Exchange continues to endorse GVR when there are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of complaints. I will also file another complaint with the Arizona BBB. As best I can tell, GVR's approval rating hovers around 1.5%. Is someone getting kickbacks to look the other way?

Mr. Sig*** Gonzalez (with Arrivia) promised to credit my account with a cruise certificate as an incentive to renew my membership. This was offered during a call about a year ago (02/2021). Since then, I have been in contact with the following people several times, both via email and phone: Mr. Gonzalez, Rod*** Lopez and An*** Greaves. Most of the calls lasted over two hours, some three. They all promised to investigate the issue. Mr. Gonzalez said he would review the recordings. Nothing has been done to date to address the issue. The only reason I renewed my membership was because he promised to add the cruise certificate to my account, after I explained to him that I lost it during a previous membership. He told me he would note the account and once I was settled in Italy (I made it quite clear to him I was relocating to Rome) and ready to use the cruise certificate, he would add it to my account for immediate use. It’s been 7 months since my arrival to Rome. There are many cruises from Rome but Mr. Gonzalez refuses to add the certificate to my account for me to use it.

Instead, I noticed a resort certificate was added to my account and most, if not all, of the resorts are no where close to my location. This is very frustrating and a bit harassing. And while the certificate is fully transferable, why would I want to do that? These are the benefits for which I paid and would like to use. I’m not inclined to travel 24+ hours to get to a resort in Mexico when I can catch a cruise less than an hour away from my place in Rome. The latter makes more sense to me in terms of cost and time. Mr. Gonzalez was well aware of my plans to move to Italy when we talked. He talked about being a retired NYC police officer and knew I was an Army veteran. He was more than happy to take care of a veteran. Again, there is a recording to support these statements.

At the very least, I would like someone to take responsibility by following through on what was promised and guaranteed to me several times, by Mr. Gonzalez.

Back in July I was lied to when I signed up for an upgrade. I was told I would be able to use a 7 day certificate anywhere on the website. They refuse to give me a refund even though I was told false information and they said there is no way to escalate this issue. Fernando was rude and he paid no attention to the issue I said I was having. Leon, the original representative not only lied but manipulated the situation. They are money hungry and only care about themselves. I asked for a printout of the conversation and they said "they don't do that." I was scammed.

Made a reservation for linchfield inn paulyes island for one night in the middle of night got up to use bathroom bedroom area covered with water that was dripping from celling
Reported to front desk when they opened in morning said the would refund $ but never did filled claim with gvr. That havent refunded payment yet either when threw credit card to file claim they said gvr said because I didn't cancel reservation no refund would be paid. So how do know ahead of time celing would be dripping water all night. Both hotel and gvr suck. And worse companies ever delt with

We had booked a cruise to Australia/ New Zealand on 2/9/2022 - 2/22/2022, Ref number CRBK3039384, Booking number 5624136, booked on 2/8/2021. The cruise line cancelled the cruise in July 2021. We received a call from a GVR representative notifying us of the cancellation. She was very helpful in applying for and obtaining a refund of our down payment. She also indicated that the 140, 000 points that we and used against the cost of the cruise would be restored to our account. As of today 11/16/2021, the points are not back in our account. I have called 9 times to find out why the points are still not back in our account. No one seems to know who to talk to regarding this matter. I have been transferred between the cruise department and customer service an endless number of times with at least a half an hour of wait time between anyone answering my call. This is totally unacceptable. In the mean time, I have received numerous call from GVR agents trying to sell me upgrades with extremely hard sales tactics that became very rude when I turned them down.
We recently got a call from a GVR agent telling us that a certificate we had received was about to expire. We booked a week in Mexico for next year. The agent was very friendly and helpful. I want to use my points to help offset the airline fares for this trip so it is a must that our points be restored. I look forward to your response and action.
Jim Smitham