Vantage Deluxe World Travel - WARNING

[MOssyLedge]

You are 100% right.  That's my problem for doing that and trusting Vantage in what they told me. Thanks for the input. 

[sfm629]

I arrived in Athens yesterday for the Pearls of Greece & Dalmatian Coast tour. There was a Vantage travel representative at the airport when we exited baggage claim, which we were happy to see with everything going on. We got to the hotel in Athens and the Vantage host there acknowledged the security breach a few times and said that Vantage in the US is working on it. At check in, we all had to swipe credit cards as a “security” but we allegedly won’t be charged (we’ll see how that goes). @DonnaMW, they mentioned that the next group disembarking was coming in on Saturday so you should be good with a hotel (Caravel). Just be prepared for the security credit card swipe.

We are scheduled for our Athens tour today and we embark on Ocean Odyssey tomorrow. I will let you all know how that goes. 

[DonnaMW]

Thx Sfm629. Don’t like that cc procedure

did not have to in Ammon.   
never did at any hotel with them??

[debrowe2]

Thank you for keeping us updated on your journey. I know many of us are anxious to see what you have to say. I am hoping for you and those of us on future trips that everything goes well. 

[MOssyLedge]

As Cool Cruiser said: At check in, we all had to swipe credit cards as a “security” but we allegedly won’t be charged (we’ll see how that goes). I'm not sure how that creates security.  What if we refused? At all hotels, you always have to give them  CC for incidental expenses.   I believe, without reading the marketing stuff again, all hotel costs and tipping is included in our costs. 

If we use a CC that is our "main" card, any untoward charges can be easily challenged as Not Authorized and it becomes a Disputed  Charge and doesn't have to paid until it is resolved.  

[CPT Trips]

21 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Vantage Deluxe World Travel is listed as a covered supplier on the Allianz website, so their policies that include supplier default coverage would cover it.  I'm not sure which of their policies include that coverage, but the Journey Plan sold by TAs does.

Many other insurers also cover supplier default in some of their policies. It’s clearly displayed on the popular brokerage cites. Just keep in mind there are typically several qualifiers for coverage based on when the insurance is purchased. 

[Rrehfe4969@aol.com]

The Boston globe reported that the public relations firm that worked for vantage resigned yesterday because the company was not forthcoming on his request for info on the web crash or their cruising status on current and future cruises

[pbnjrockette]

Vantage is not a member of the USTOA, so customers are not protected by the Association's $1 Million Travelers Assistance Program. Additionally, Vantage Deluxe World Travel encourages customers to bypass travel advisors and book direct, giving them no one to advocate on their behalf.

[cherylandtk]

Additionally, booking direct means there is no third party default coverage from insurance (because there are only two parties in the transaction).

[Roadlamp]

The Boston Globe has updates on the Ocean Explorer getting diverted.  I can't read the entire article.  Can anyone out there read it?
 

 

[MOssyLedge]

From the Boston Globe:

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

CruiseMapper reports that "Ocean Explorer current location is at US East Coast (coordinates 43.22023 N / -65.77688 W) cruising en route to Halifax. The AIS position was reported 31 minutes ago." [i.e. 4:22 pm EDT Fri Apr 28, 2023]

 

Looks like they're trying to outrun the Sheriff!

 

[Shmoo here]

6 hours ago, Roadlamp said:

The Boston Globe has updates on the Ocean Explorer getting diverted.  I can't read the entire article.  Can anyone out there read it?
 

 

In looking at the past track of the Ocean Explorer on Cruisemapper.com it appears that she was diverted after leaving Provincetown, eastbound to her next port, back to Gloucester.  There could be any number of reasons for that - medical emergency, ship repairs, who knows?

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Shmoo here

[nh6mile]

The Vantagetravel.com site is operational.  Per Vantage:

 

As of 6:30pm ET on Friday, April 28, the Vantage Travel website went back online with limited functionality as we continue to troubleshoot. Our call center is anticipated to be back online no later than Monday, May 1.

 

[ural guy]

On 4/27/2023 at 3:15 PM, Shmoo here said:

I'm not sure I'd call them fraudulent, but it's been well known for some time that dealing with Vantage pre-trip/office personnel has been difficult and, oftentimes, challenging.  Meanwhile, once on a Vantage trip, the employees are stellar.  

 

We had a tulips cruise booked for March 2020 - yeah like that happened...

 

I was on the phone when I heard the news when everything basically shut down then.  Before Vantage had even had their first meeting about what to do.

 

Long story, short version - our 2020 trip was moved to a land trip (Nov 2020), when then got moved to tulips cruse in 2021, that was postponed to 2022.  We finally did get the trip we had paid for.

 

 

 

 

Shmoo-  I think we would have been on that tulip cruise together, boarding 28 March I think?  We were flying into Ireland on 20 March, air corridors shut down the 13th and the dark times happened.  Very fortunate that we were able to use credits for a Passau-Budapest cruise with them last November.

 

We really enjoyed our 3 cruises with them, I liked the longer stays in ports, and having more nights on board.  Taking 14 nights to go from Basel to Amsterdam and take in so much of the Mosell was great, and a trip we wanted to redo.  Having said that, you could definitely see cost cutting with the food on board.  Keeping their oldest river ship and selling the newer, version 2 model River Voyager with it's improvements, hinted at cash flow issues.

 

I hope that people are still able to get some value for their money, and they somehow figure this out.  We had our own stress with low water issues, but these stories are horrific.  We got told small lies about boats being able to float on mud (2018 Fall low water, the call agents sticking to their everything is OK script, when anyone with the internet and the ability to type can see that it is not OK...if you can't ship needed supplies/materials/gas through a river system, how can a cruise ship sail?), ya'll got told whoppers.

[pbnjrockette]

Service Outage Update

 

To Our Valued Guests,

As you may be aware, on April 20 our company discovered a ransomware attack which took down our call center, website, email and other internal systems. Our employees are working around the clock to overcome these challenges to continue serving guests who are en route or preparing for future departures. We apologize for the distress this is causing and thank you for your patience as we work with the experts to resolve these matters and bring you the latest information.

As of 6:30pm ET on Friday, April 28, the Vantage Travel website went back online with limited functionality as we continue to troubleshoot. Our call center is anticipated to be back online no later than Monday, May 1.

While we work to restore our call center, we are actively monitoring messages to our temporary email vantagetravel.customercare@gmail.com,Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Message and replying by message or telephone as quickly as possible. When contacting us, please provide your preferred telephone number, email, and reservation number. Please continue to contact us through these channels and check back here for the latest information.

We are aware of the conflicting news reports about Vantage Travel’s operations and trip cancellations following our initial announcement and know you have questions and concerns. To confirm, trips are underway, and no trips have been disrupted or cancelled specifically due to this incident.

To confirm, we have cancelled four trips to the Netherlands due to the vessel’s readiness and two trips to Egypt. All impacted guests have been notified. With the recent U.S. State Department Sudan Travel Advisory, given the proximity, we are closely monitoring our trips to Egypt until further notice for the safety of our guests.

If you have a trip scheduled, please visit MyPortfolio to confirm your trip status.

Regarding the ransomware attack, law enforcement was notified upon discovery of the incident, and we are working with the Booz Allen Hamilton and Constangy, Brooks, Smith and Prophete firms to investigate the incident, restore our systems and protect guest information.

We appreciate your patience and look forward to serving you.

[Rrehfe4969@aol.com]

I believe there is someone on this thread who is scheduled to leave for Lisbon on the 5th. Have you received airline tickets that have been ticketed yet?  We are scheduled to leave on 12th to Madrid and still no tickets. 
richard

[vwtlat7]

We are scheduled to leave on the 5th for the Douro River Trip. Ours journey goes from Lisbon to Madrid. After sending multiple emails to the Vantage gmail address (Vantagetravel.customercare@gmail.com), we received a call from "Fotene" (Vantage Air), this past Wednesday, 4/26. We had upgraded to Premium Economy so we have connecting flights. Fotene gave us new flights on United outbound and Lufthansa returning. I called each airline and we have been ticketed and was told the flights were paid for. I hope that helps.

[Rrehfe4969@aol.com]

Thanks. We will see what happens next week. Have a great trip. Please keep posting about trip if you have time. Will see you in Madrid on your back end and our front end. 

Richard and Kim
 

[sfm629]

Hi, I’m on the Pearls of Greece and the Dalmatian coast trip that started 4/26. We checked out of Athens and embarked the Ocean Odyssey today. At the port talk, the cruise director acknowledged Vantage’s issues with the security breach and the customer service being understaffed in Boston. She said that they are trying their best to fix everything and hire more staff. We were supposed to go to Delphi tomorrow but we can’t because of mudslides in/near the Corinth canal so we are docking in Kalamata and going to the Messene archeological site. 

There are 121 passengers on the ship. Several had their cabin #’s changed, some were happy because they were upgraded and some were not because they wanted the specific cabins that they selected, which is understandable. I’m just happy that the cruise is taking place at all because I was afraid it would be canceled. I will try to keep you posted. Internet is spotty so we’ll see how it goes. 
Good luck to everyone!

[GeezerCouple]

I wonder how well Vantage is *really* handling these cruises that they claim will take place (per the above quote from them, to their "Valued Guests"):

 

https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/vantage-deluxe-world-travel-customer-complaints/

 

Per the link above, from a consumer advocate:

 

"Attention Vantage Deluxe World Travel customers: The news isn’t good if you’ve got a trip planned with this tour operator. The unfortunate reality is that you might not be going anywhere. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, my consumer advocacy team has been fielding a heavy volume of Vantage Travel complaints. But recently, the number of pleas for help from customers of the troubled tour operator has skyrocketed.........."

 

And it looks like the travel insurance sold by Vantage, what appeared to be an Allianz policy, is a policy that Allianz only *processes"... for Vantage.  Then, if the claim is approved, Vantage pays... or not...

😡

And this seems to be a problem that was occuring several *years* ago!

 

I had never heard of them until noticing some of the posts here on CC.

And then the email from ConsumerRescue showed up today, about Vantage's "issues".

 

What a mess.  What an expensive mess, it seems...

GC

[lynncarol]

My husband and I just returned from our Vantage Duoro River cruise (April 14 - 28th).  Despite some issues with making sure our flights were actually booked (which I posted in another forum) our flights booked by Vantage ended up having no issues whatsoever and we had great seats on each leg of the journey. The good: The Duoro region is gorgeous.  I had no idea Portugal was so hilly.  Our hotels were very nice and the staff everywhere so helpful and friendly.  Our concierge and cruise director were great. Lots of excursions planned throughout the trip plus time to explore on your own if desired.

The not so good:  Cabins on the ship are small.  It was difficult to move around the king-size bed on one side (mine, of course) to get to the bathroom at night and I am not a large person.  They serve lots of food at each meal, one side of the buffet table had the main entrees and salads, and the other side the desserts. This resulted in long lines at buffet meals as everyone had to get in single lines for their food in a counter-clockwise direction going around one way only  Fortunately, most dinners were not buffet and for  some reason, the buffet breakfast and lunch services were not so bogged down. The cruise director and concierge were both retiring after our cruise for family reasons. We were there when the Vantage site was hacked and although I am sure our staff  was going crazy, the passengers were not impacted at all.

[MOssyLedge]

The post by Geezer Couple (2 posts back) has an important link to a consumer affairs a writer.   Lots of great info to maintain in your files.

 

I have to count myself as SO lucky for having booked my own airfare and bought may own travel insurance.  I'm sure my airfare is good.  Travel insurance will only be known if it's good if I have to make a claim.  The insanity of Vantage administering the Allianz policy insurance is such a conflict of interest  that a child can see this isn't moral, albeit probably legal.   I think Vantage has spent a fortune on legal advice to know what games that they can play.

 

A couple pf posts back, someone said that there are only 121 people on board the Ocean Odyssey. So strange that Vantage says that they are sold out until 2024.  Maybe they'll only be that few people on my trip (that's only 75%  of capacity) and the crew won't be harried. Maybe we'll get extra chocolate cake.  Ha! Ha! My trip starts in 77 days and hopefully Vantage will still be in business.

 

 

[Billybob79]

What a roller coaster of a week. When the website and call center went down and stayed down for so long, we were sure our South Africa trip, scheduled for May 22 was not going to happen and that Vantage may well be out of business.Then, when I checked my Delta page for trips on Wednesday, the reservation was gone. I called Delta and was told the agency had cancelled the flight the day before.

I immediately emailed everyone I knew at Vantage about the lack of ticketing but never heard back.

HOWEVER, once the website came back today, I checked My Portfolio and the trip is still listed so I went back to Delta and lo and behold, the flights are not only relisted, but they have been ticketed and  paid for. 

While I do not know the staus of other trips (except for the ones listed by Vantage as cancelled), I think the outage may well have been a ransomware attack and not a going out of business event. As someone who is going on his 15th Vantage trip, I can speak highly of the tours once you are on them. On the other hand, the PR from Vantage is as low as you can go, which is a shame since the product is very good and generally of very good value. Our Egypt trip last December was one of the best trips we have taken and the Ocean Explorer is a wonderful ship, with a fantastic crew and excellent food. 

I sincerely hope Vantage continues in business, but wakes up (after 40 years) to the fact that they lose customers every day becasue of poor PR and even worse customer service.

 

[Rrehfe4969@aol.com]

Sent e mail to vantage this morning and I now have tickets for delta all the way to Madrid and returning home and have already gone in and change some seats.  Looks like we are going to the Douro 

richard and Kim Rehfeldt