Apple Vacations Reviews

No one can ever give me a straight answer and they make it impossible for you to resolve any issue. Now, I go and try to book a short trip to at least use my other $1500 they are telling me it's even less than it was before. This company lies, steals, scams and treats its customers like trash. At this point I will be out almost $3000 but will not give them another dime! Never ever use APPLE VACATIONS!!

The hotel had no idea what we were talking about and no email has been sent or call to the hotel, consequently we lost a day of vacation and almost lost the second day when they locked us out of our room due to the confusion of the extended day. Hotel promptly fixed it for us or we would’ve had nowhere to stay that evening. Not because they spoke to our Apple representative just because they listen to our situation. It was one of the worst vacations I have ever taken. The destination was beautiful and we enjoyed that, but our vacation was cut short and the stress at this point I feel wasn’t worth it. I do not recommend a Apple Vacations. I have dealt with them in years past and they were excellent but their customer service now is horrendous.

Original Review: Aug. 8, 2023

Let me start by saying I have booked vacations, sometimes twice per year thru Apple for almost 30 years. Up until recently, I had relatively great experiences, but no longer. Just last week I attempted to book a trip to Punta Cana, 4 people/2 rooms for next July 2024. The airline is a Charter, Allegiant, using travel credit from a canceled trip from this year. Tried booking online because the wait to talk to a rep was always 2+ hours. I completed the trip, added traveler info, was able to locate the credits, but it would not permit me to add my credit card for final payment. Told me initially the system was having an issue, but then my credit card was invalid. This went on for 2 full days.

I finally called on Aug. 2 and only waited for the first rep an hour. She apparently was in a call center, SOMEWHERE, and all you could hear was many others talking in the background. She was hard to understand and could not understand me, she had me spell everything. After 1.5 hours on the phone, she put me on hold for 4-6 minutes, 3 or 4 times, she finally came back and said, "I can't understand you", and hung up. I recalled and after another 1+ hour wait, I got a very nice lady that completed my booking using the save itinerary I had in 10 minutes. However, I was told I could not book my seats until the reservation was created at Allegiant, 3-4 days.

Fast forward, I reached out via Apple chat. The fun began, we spent over 1.5 hours going back and forth and he told me I needed a ticket number to upgrade my seats, but I had to call Allegiant, which I did. Allegiant said all changes needed to be done thru Apple. Contacted Apple Chat again on Aug. 7, he told me no ticket would be generated and I could upgrade my seats now, but had to call. Again, it took me over 1 hour on this chat. Today, I just spent 1.5 hours on a call with the rep and she told me I could not upgrade my seats until 3 days prior to departure. That is not true!!!! I have all my itineraries from previous years and my seats were assigned on the day of booking.

In short, I talked to 5 people over the course of 7 days and received 5 different pieces of info, all different. Apple no longer has trained reps to assist you and you cannot rely on them for a good direction or even booking your trip correctly. I could give you horror stories about things the trained reps booked incorrectly in other trips, but I will refrain. Also, the Apple reps at your resort, are non-existent. If they cannot upsell you anything, they will literally ignore you and not help with any issues that were the result of an incorrect booking.

I still feel my booking for July 2024 is incorrect, but I have been assured it is not. I have heard that story before and I will have a nightmare next July when it hits the fan, in Punta Cana! I've been down this route before! After next July's trip, I will not be using Apple any longer. You can book much easier with any of the other travel sites and pay for what you want a la carte.

Just as an FYI, the $800 travel credits they want to give you is a sham. When you get to the resorts, they give you coupons. You cannot use this credit for anything, only what they want you to use them on. But all product costs are higher. i.e. have to spent $100 in a gift shop to use the $50 credit they give, etc., etc. Spa services are extremely overpriced. The same message I get at home for $80.00 is $200.00 on the resort and the coupon is for $50.00. Get your message before or after your trip. Safe travels!

The day prior to travel I call in again and ask to speak to someone higher up… a decision maker. I spend 6 hours (no kidding) on hold and I am assured 100% the issue is fixed. That hold music still haunts me. We show up to the airport and Frontier airlines (another odyssey in travel… not in a good way) can do nothing about the fact that only 5 are listed on the reservation. They are rude too. I’m in the travel industry and at no point didn’t anyone take control of this matter on our behalf while representing Apple to fix it. Apple finally told me to just buy a ticket for the 6th person and they’ll pay me back. A lie. I do buy the ticket and basically double pay.

We get down to Cancun and check in… or try to. Another 2 hour wait while the hotel tried to figure out how to check in the 6th person who wasn’t on the reservation. So Apple messed up the air, the hotel… oh and they double booked our private transport from the airport to the hotel on arrival and didn’t book one for our return. So basically, Apple messed up everything. 100%. We had to basically tell the hotel to figure it out with Apple and started our vacations stressed and frustrated.

When we got home, I was told that Apple doesn’t really reimburse for mistakes, I would need to file a travel claim with our travel protection. What a scam. So I file the claim and attach all required documentation. Ghosted… never heard a thing back. Being in the business for over 30 years I’ve seen good and bad players. Apple is one of l, if not THE worst travel vendor I’ve ever experienced. At no time do they actually control the quality of your travel experience… unless they are taking your money. The travel protection is a scam. You get no value out of it and if you want to hear horror stories of in trip experiences, simply ask Frontier employees about all the bad situations Apple places customers. Never again! No way.

He "finally" found a flight available in March and after I spent the first 15 minutes saying I did NOT WANT to pay any more out of pocket, he quoted me $500 to change. LOL! I went home and found flights, and a BETTER HOTEL FOR $100 CHEAPER! $1508.00 with a PROMO CODE! Shady people, all they want to do is UPCHARGE YOU, and not help you so you wind up throwing away good money. Do your own research at home, first and then call them for it to be switched. Do not trust these shady people!

He told me that the flight would be fully refunded and would contact the resort the next day to find out if that would be refunded. I went home. I called Apple the next day to find out if the resort was going to be refunded and they said no, only the flight. I asked to speak to a manager to find out options. He told me he would suggest that I book another flight to Jamaica since the previous flight was refunded and would be back in my account within 25 business days. He was the 3rd Apple representative to tell me that the flight was going to be FULLY REFUNDED, so I booked another flight-not through Apple-to Jamaica.

I booked with Frontier again since it was the cheapest last minute. I asked Apple is Frontier was refunding my baggage and they told me to reach out to Frontier. Frontier told me that the flight was non-refundable and didn't acknowledge the baggage fees. Since then I have emailed, called, and gone back and forth with Frontier and Apple trying to get my flight and baggage refunded. Apple tells me to contact Frontier and Frontier tells me to contact Apple. And now no one is even responding at all. Apple tells you lies then ignores you.