Vantage Deluxe World Travel / Vantage Travel Service review: Won't provide refund on two trips

Vantage Deluxe World Travel located in Boston, MA, actively offers special rates and at times even free airfare for seemingly exciting excursions that cross the globe, from the U.S. to Europe to South Africa to Asia. Many Vantage customers write favorably about their travels with Vantage. But because of its consumer practices and policies buyers beware.

This year, according to a TripAdvisor customer, caronm200, Vantage provided “Poor very poor customer service. They take your money quickly and don’t provide customer service, support, or refunds.” In 2022 HeatherG to TripAdvisor: “Still waiting on our refund from Vantage - months later.” In 2021 reporters Michael Finney and Randall Yip of ABC “7 on Your Side” reported Elliott Advocacy “says some trips reclassified as postponed, not canceled, to avoid refunds.” Neither these testimonies nor additional negative media coverage on Vantage (Seth Kugal at The New York Times and Sean Murphy at The Boston Globe) nor complaints to the BBB and Elliot Advocacy have seemed to matter to Vantage. Nor do letters directed to but not acknowledged by Henry R. Lewis founder and owner of Vantage. Even after the class action suit, Herbert v. Vantage Travel in 2017, and approximately 600 current grievances made to the Massachusetts AG office, this company has demonstrated it continues to victimize its consumers.

When Covid and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused our government to restrict foreign travel, Vantage, unlike other cruise companies — Royal Caribbean, for instance — did not personally contact its customers to ask if they would prefer to postpone and reschedule, receive travel credits for a future journey, or cancel and accept a full refund. Instead, Vantage arbitrarily postponed and rescheduled. In some cases the company merely offered travel vouchers. Vantage has frequently exercised this action. Had individual customers requested Vantage cancel their trips, they would have forfeited thousands of dollars and/or been penalized upwards of $9,000, the amount my husband and I would have lost on one trip had we pursued cancellation. If a refund is promised, sometimes worth over $15,000, Vantage sometimes requires the customer wait up to two years, as stated in the company’s reviews.

Not only do Vantage’s strict policies limit the amount of personal control customers have over their own purchases, a violation, some would say, of fair consumer practices, but also Vantage’s postponing trips enormously benefit itself. The company retains the cost of the excursions that in turn amass interest from its own financial institution thereby disadvantaging its customers who, had they received refunds, would have themselves accrued interest.

Prior to our departure date for one journey, my husband and I bought Allianz travel insurance through Vantage. Between the purchase of the insurance and the trip date, my husband suffered a back injury to the degree that his physicians strongly recommended he not travel. Allianz denied the claim we filed determining my husband’s physical concerns were pre-existing. Without consulting us or permitting us to read Allianz’s paperwork, Vantage itself unilaterally decided to cancel the trip. We learned of its decision through Elliott Advocacy and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office with whom we filed complaints. In lieu of a full refund, Vantage reimbursed us with over $15,000 in future travel voucher certificates — to be used by June 2023. And although Vantage recently thanked us “for traveling with [them],” a much too obvious irony, with a promotional voucher of what seemed an extra $15,000 valid toward an additional excursion, Vantage merely reassigned the reimbursement credits to promotional credits. Regardless, my husband’s doctors still prohibit him from travelling.

As of today, Vantage’s refusal to refund roughly $30,000 I paid to Vantage, I have been forced to reschedule a cruise to the Baltic due to sail this June-July and another to Europe from August – September.

Personal experience has taught Vantage patrons that despite wonderful excursions, one of which my husband and I experienced that encouraged us to travel again with Vantage, the company’s cancellation policies and practices obviate consumer fair practices. Therefore, again, buyers beware of Vantage Deluxe World Travel. Indeed, before signing with any company, research its consumer record thoroughly.