Vantage Deluxe World Travel / Vantage Travel Service
reviews and complaints

I sent the following letter to the CEO of Vantage Travel on or about July 1 after returning from one of their trips. I have since cut & pasted the same & emailed it to their Customer Service. As of August 12, 2010 I have not had a reply. This is my letter:It goes against my nature to be negative. However, my wife & I have good reason to bring to your attention some very negative aspects of our last trip, Eastern Europe & the Black Sea + Vienna. I am sure that it is not necessary to bring such matters to your attention because as the CEO it is your business to know the conditions on that trip. Perhaps the most undesirable factor was that there was a major problem with the air conditioning system on the ship (river boat). We were first told that the problem was due to high outside temperatures. The Purser’s desk finally admitted to me that the whole system on the River Explorer had to be replaced. Our cabin temperature was up to 80 degrees at midnight while some friends said that their cabin was very cold. The ship’s engineer finally told me that he would “make some adjustments in the engine room” but that only brought our cabin down to 75, our last night on board. That informed me that there were selective areas of the ship which were being cooled. In addition to our cabin problem neither the lounge or the dining room was reasonably comfortable during the cruise. My major complaint is that Vantage Travel should have cancelled the entire booking. First of all because you knew that the Danube would be flooded due the heavy and widespread rains throughout Europe the week or so before the cruise and that the ship would not be able to proceed beyond Belgrade cutting the cruise short. Such was predictable. Secondly the booking should have been cancelled due to the defective air conditioning system. Sleeping under such condition was a major problem.It is obvious that we did not get what we paid for and should have expected, however the Vienna extension was nice due to our tours that we booked. What is your policy for such undesirable circumstances as we encountered? Your agency has not even acknowledged to us that you are concerned nor have we been sent a survey. The latter is most unusual! We are getting your numerous brochures wanting us to take another trip.

Beware of potential problems booking and paying for a vacation with Vantage Deluxe World Travel . They will cancel your trip that was already paid in full, not notify you in a timely manner, and not reply to your concerns. Vantage canceled my vacation (that was paid in full) in May 06 and didn't notify me until Sept 06. Over the past year and a half I have sent this letter (below) to them over a dozen times (by USPS, email, and over their website, etc.). They have never responded.

This company follows a certain pattern. Once you have booked your trip, you're on your own. Try to make any changes or ask for even the slightest accommodation, and the response will be "sorry, can't do, that's not our policy". And that is if you are lucky enough to talk to a customer service representative Hold of 45 to 50 minutes are common.

We booked the Moscow-St Petersburg cruise and later added the pre-trip to Kiev.

When we check our Itinerary on-line we were booked Sacramento-Seattle (Alaska Air) - Paris (Air France) - Kiev (Air France) - Moscow (Kiev Air). St Petersburg - Paris - Seattle (Air France) - Sacramento (Alaska Air).When we received our travel documents, our itinerary had been changed for our return. Paris - Salt Lake City - Sacramento (Delta). This new return itinerary from Paris is longer with a 5:40 minute layover in Salt Lake for an 1:38 minute flight.

My wife called Vantage and after a very lengthy period on-hold, the clerk was extremely surly and said that nothing could be done. ;I contacted Air France and was told that the flights were still available with plenty of seating, but any changes would have to be made by Vantage.

I then sent an email to Vantage Customer Service who responded that the flights were no longer available. We are now hoping that the smoky conditions in Moscow will persist or increase so that we can cancel without penalty. We have future trips in the planning but we will never, ever travel with Vantage.

This company follows a certain pattern. Once you have booked your trip, you're on your own. Try to make any changes or ask for even the slightest accommodation, and the response will be "sorry, can't do, that's not our policy". And that is if you are lucky enough to talk to a customer service representative Hold of 45 to 50 minutes are common.
We booked the Moscow-St Petersburg cruise and later added the pre-trip to Kiev.
When we check our Itinerary on-line we were booked Sacramento-Seattle (Alaska Air) - Paris (Air France) - Kiev (Air France) - Moscow (Kiev Air). St Petersburg - Paris - Seattle (Air France) - Sacramento (Alaska Air).When we received our travel documents, our itinerary had been changed for our return. Paris - Salt Lake City - Sacramento (Delta). This new return itinerary from Paris is longer with a 5:40 minute layover in Salt Lake for an 1:38 minute flight.
My wife called Vantage and after a very lengthy period on-hold, the clerk was extremely surly and said that nothing could be done. ;I contacted Air France and was told that the flights were still available with plenty of seating, but any changes would have to be made by Vantage.
I then sent an email to Vantage Customer Service who responded that the flights were no longer available. We are now hoping that the smoky conditions in Moscow will persist or increase so that we can cancel without penalty. We have future trips in the planning but we will never, ever travel with Vantage.

Beware of potential problems booking and paying for a vacation with Vantage Deluxe World Travel. They will cancel your trip that was already paid in full, not notify you in a timely manner, and not reply to your concerns. Vantage cancelled my vacation (that was paid in full) in May 06 and didn't notify me until Sept 06. Over the past year and a half I have sent this letter (below) to them over a dozen times (by USPS, email, and over their website, etc.). They have never responded.

15 Sep 06

Henry Lewis

Chief Executive Officer

Vantage Deluxe World Travel

90 Canal Street

Boston, MA [protected]

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Ref: Customer ID: XXXXXXX, Invoice # XXXXXXX, Brazil & the Amazon River Cruise, departure date of the trip 11 Mar 07 (actually 8 Mar 07 with pre-trip extension).

We booked the referenced trip on 25 April 2006! Yesterday morning (14 Sep 06) we received a call from Cory Cowen (Vantage employee on ext. 7506) indicating that our trip was cancelled since they changed the vacation to a Presidents Small Ship Cruise, etc. He indicated we could use our money (that we paid for referenced trip) for another trip or get a refund. I asked him what additional compensation I would get due to fact that Vantage cancelled my trip and for my inconvenience, etc. Basically he said that he didnt have the authority to offer anything. He did say that if I had a specific trip in mind he could ask his supervisor about compensation. He stated that compensation (if any) would not be very much, and definitely not what I would expect (around $300 or more per person), etc. At this late date, most of my March 2007 choices were already closed out and I already have other trips booked for most of the other months, etc. However, I did give him a European river cruise to check on. He said he would run it by her (his supervisor) and get back to me in a couple hours. Needless to say he never called back.

After some further research I found out that Vantage had actually cancelled my vacation 4 to 5 months ago. I located a couple old catalogs that list the Presidents Brazil & the Amazon River Cruise for the date of my trip as being sold out. I called Cory back today and after some useless discussion I decided on a refund. He did admit that Vantage had cancelled my trip approximately 4 months ago. He thought it appeared to have been done in May, but had no real explanation as to why I wasnt notified then.

I would like specific answers to the following questions:

1. When the determination was made to change my trip (actual date) to a �President�s Cruise� why wasn�t I called and given the opportunity to book it (and keep my vacation)?

2. Why did it take Vantage 4 to 5 months to notify me that my trip was cancelled? Wasn�t someone responsible for notifying me in a timely manner?

3. Since booking I had called/emailed Vantage several times asking about the status of my air. The last couple times was this month with Lauri and Susan. Susan never got back to me as she promised and Luari never really adequately answered my questions. Basically I got �sluffed off� and was told that �Your flights are being blocked with the airline on a Group Block and once we have the space all finalized it will be put into your record�. I have no idea what �blocked on a group block� means, etc. However, why didn�t they tell me the trip was already cancelled?

4. I�ll be 58 in November and I can remember when a company would actually value their customers, treat them right, be honest with them, and try to �do right by them when a mistake was made�. Does Vantage really not care about customer satisfaction, repeat business, and/or word of mouth recommendations? We�ve been on over 60 cruises and (since retiring 2 ½ years ago) have taken approximately 8 vacations (over 2 weeks each) per year. This would have been my 2nd vantage trip. I�ve been on 3 Grand Circle trips and will probably book more. In talking to other people on the various vacations, the topic of what other vacations do you like and/or have you taken always comes up. I can honestly say that due to the way I have been treated I would never recommend Vantage to anyone.

5. Why does it take up to 4 weeks (per Cory) to get my refund? Why can�t someone expedite the paperwork?

6. I mentioned to Corey that if I wanted to book another Vantage trip at a later date I would lose my �on board booking credit� and �past traveler discount�. I asked if he could extend these discounts. He said that he didn�t have the authority to do so. Can you give me any reason why would I ever want to book another Vantage vacation?

Note: When I was on my original Vantage trip last March 2006 (Norwegian Crown, South American Explorer) a Princess Cruise ship (Star Princess) caught on fire and they had to cancel several cruises. I was booked on that ship for a transatlantic cruise departing 30 April 2006 and my cruise was cancelled. Before I got home from the Vantage trip, they had already credited my charge card with a full refund. In addition, I had a voice mail message from my travel agent notifying me of such. Also, Princess Cruises offered to fully reimburse me for my nonrefundable air and a 25% (of what I paid) credit for a future Princess cruise. Consequently Im booked on a Dawn Princess cruise this December. I didnt expect Vantage to offer a 25% credit on another trip; but I did expect something of significance (i.e. a couple/few hundred dollars per person or maybe an additional 5% off) in lieu of the of the take it or leave it offer to rebook any other trip (that still happens to be available) at the full book rate.

I can understand Vantage making a management decision to change the Brazil & the Amazon River Cruise to a Presidents Cruise. However I cant understand why I wasnt offered my cabin on that cruise, at least notified of the change in a timely manner (like last April/May) when the trip was actually cancelled, or told that it was cancelled when I called in (several times) to check on my air schedule. It is really disappointing to see such a we really dont care about the customer attitude from Vantage Deluxe World Travel. I actually thought that they were a better company than that. I guess I was wrong.