Apple Vacations Reviews

We get to the airport on the day of travel and IT WAS CANCELLED. We called her right away and she said she didn’t know what happened and would get back to us. I booked us a new flight (one way) for that day because we only had a certain amount of time to get there to meet our daughter. She then texted me and told me they would handle it - and book us a ticket back. They would reimburse us for the original cancelled flight or the one way we just bought. Since it was entirely Travel Impressions' fault and we had asked for a refund or new flights back in early July.

) weeks later they tell us we can get $258 Back, that’s it. The original flights were $1000 and the one we booked last minute BECAUSE OF THEIR SCREW UP was $850. Unacceptable. Files complaint with BBB and Federal Trade Commission. DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE COMPANIES. They completely messed up, cost us so much extra money and stress and refuse to see their error even though we have everything documented. Emails and texts from them showing they told us the flight wasn’t cancelled.

At 1:15 pm (central) on 10/4 I called the 800 number and spoke with Samiksha Singh for 27 minutes and 55 seconds. In summary, I was told that there were no Preferred Club versions of those rooms with balconies available during my stay however there was Premium King Balcony Ocean Front (losing the Preferred Club but gaining a balcony). I requested to change out the King reservation for the king with the balcony. It was becoming apparent that the language barrier from the international call center could lead to mistakes - so I was very specific that it was just the king bedroom that was getting swapped out.

I was charged an additional $27.40 to downgrade my room to one that would have carried no additional premium at the time of reservation. I received the modified reservation at 2:02 pm (central) on 10/4 and noticed that both original rooms were changed and now my adult children were sharing a king bed and that the $216 premium I paid for the Preferred Club access was gone without refund, not including the $27.40 I was charged to downgrade.

I called the 800 number back at 2:08 pm (central) on 10/4 and spoke to Geetika who took 81 minutes frequently putting me on hold while she tried to resolve the issue. Her offer was to charge me an additional $120 to reverse previous reps mistake for 1 room. I told her that was wrong, I already paid the premium for both rooms and I asked for supervisor and she said one would have to call me back. I inquired about the time frame, she said 24 hours, since it was a Friday I asked if I should expect a call on a Saturday, she then said Monday. I then asked for an email, name of supervisor or other contact number and was told she didn't have one to offer.

No one has ever called me back. I did get an email from a review team, Beth M’s reply was largely dismissive and sided with the call center rep. Finally I contacted Apple Leisure Group (Apple Vacations parent) and their customer support line is just a voice mail. Left several messages over a week and no one ever calls back.

Oddly, while typing this I did get a call from Beth M. She, in essence, refunded the amount I was charged to downgrade and reversed the bed issue for my children. I forfeited the premium I paid for the original Preferred Club Premium King Ocean Front room. Not great but this won't be the vacation that went wrong cause my adult children had to share a bed.

I'll never understand why people use travel agencies... I've never had an issue like this when booking myself. Quite frankly, it's not worth the heartache. Even the packages they offered didn't really go beyond "boomer bus tours". Half of the job is filling out those forms correctly. The other half is cashing my very large checks. Couldn't even manage to do that correctly. Gave us the run-around when we tried calling to correct the info. What exactly is the point of paying their fees for 'service' if this is the service I get? No wonder they're struggling. It's very telling that they can only get the small-town boomer clientele. I can only hope that their actions will hasten the inevitable demise of this industry as a whole.

Be warned that this resort caters to kids. We just got lucky with school just starting in September. I may not book again because Frontier is a terrible airline. Their check in app didn’t work properly and on the return they wanted us to pay $25 each for a paper boarding pass. We argued and won, but what a hassle. Also didn’t know they would charge an additional $110 each to check a bag! Who flies without a bag! Once on our flight they gouge you another $13 for a cocktail. Bring your own snacks, they are outrageous too. We bought the insurance, but thankfully didn’t have to use it as I read the reviews of other customer nightmares. Read the fine print! I will look for other options next time.

However, when I arrived at the resort on August 16th, I was shocked to learn that it wasn't all-inclusive at all. The receptionist informed me that I would have to pay separately for every meal and beverage. I immediately contacted Apple Vacations to address this issue, only to be met with hostility, resistance, and no assistance whatsoever.

Apple Vacations falsely advertised this resort as all-inclusive on their website, and this error cost me significant additional expenses during my vacation. Even the resort's staff verified the mistake by checking Apple Vacations' website and seeing that their hotel was incorrectly listed as all-inclusive. I demand reimbursement for every food and beverage expense I incurred due to this misleading information. Furthermore, Apple Vacations owes me an apology not only for their error but also for the unprofessional way they handled my complaint, including hanging up on me when I sought help. I will never use Apple Vacations again. Don't waste your time or money on this scam.

Now I don't know if this an error or not but it for sure Is adding to the anxiety this company is giving me right now in addition to the medical issues I am facing right now. I will probably take this company to court by the end of next week. Because I will not let a company just steal the money from us consumers and run away with. There was not even a service provided by this company. They just took the money and are now even increasing the price. This is a scam. I want to warm everyone to not deal with this company in the future.

But for the situation that really got me with apple vacations is that I am traveling soon to the DR soon as a group of us. We all have separate double occupancy bookings except for me and my husband. Well here is the problem. How can one passenger call and cancel her roommate's booking when they booked separate times. Even though they are roommates paid with two different cards.

How is one roommate able to cancel the other roommate's booking and use the roommate's money to complete their booking and the roommate get a small refund back. How is that right or even ok to do!!!! Because of these last two years and these instances I don't think I will be booking thru Apple again and the worst with the latter situation Apple did nothing to make it right. The one roommate was told to sue the other to get her money back. Now how's that ok? Just disappointed in the way the situation was handled. 1st no one should be able to cancel another passenger's booking.

**

After reviewing our January call, Apple agreed the customer service rep never told us about luggage fees and gave us free luggage. 8 hours before our departure flight we were notified in an email that our flight was canceled. I booked Southwest flights that added an additional $2,000 to our trip and got us there on the first day of our vacation. In Mexico I called Apple to ask the process for getting reimbursed for our flights and were told Frontier would credit Apple and Apple would credit us. I waited three weeks for the credit only to call in and discover I have to initiate a request for credit which is not what I was told when asking the process. Apple never contacted us to explain the process or acknowledge the cancellation.

I could have booked nonstop flights on Southwest with free luggage for less money than the Frontier flight and a lot more reliability but the agent led me to believe the flights were part of a package deal. At least the cruise ships give you the option to book your own flights or book through them. It takes almost two hours of waiting to talk to an “offshore” Apple agent and there is no separate phone number for post travel or any option when you call in for that department. We used Apple Vacation 13 years in a row in the early 2000’s and were impressed with the company but will never use them again. I felt underserved, unappreciated and neglected after spending more than $20,000 with this company. So disappointed.

Bottom line, they fully deserve the poor reviews they have. This is a non trustworthy company with deceptive tactics. Although I did make reservations with them before but never again. I live in the Ohio Valley area and will make sure all the local residents of the practices of this shady company. Unfortunately, for me this is coming late and lost on this transaction. My sincere advice to everyone is stay away from this company. I will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau

The reason why I will never again use Apple Vacations is because their sales representatives don't know, and don't care to know the add on charges to their customers from the airlines Apple chooses for the trips Apple sells. It is my view that it is Apple's responsibility to inform their customers of the additional charges their customers will face from the airlines.

Next day, called because I never heard back on what the add'l charges would be... no answer after 1 hour and 15 minutes on hold and an email that said she would call me (she didn't). Next day, finally talked to someone after an hour on hold. That agent said the hotel cannot guarantee an upgrade. I said I want to cancel the reservation. I would have never booked this. She told me I could upgrade (with extra $) to a king bed Preferred Club. I reiterated that they cannot have that. She said that was the only option. Or to wait and hope. I said I want to cancel. She said that would be subject to the trip insurance cost and I would get the return in travel credit for another trip with Apple. I said I want to speak to a supervisor. Nope.

Next day, I get a call from a supervisor. That person knows nothing of previous conversation and tells me he can help by offering an upgrade to Preferred Club King Room for $$. Again, I said I cannot do that. He called hotel. Got the same answer... no option for double room and preferred. He said I could switch to a different date or hotel (not convenient because Spring Break trip) so I said I will need to talk to the family. I get a random call later from another "supervisor" from an Indian call center. I try to call back to the call center to move the date. Number from supervisor doesn't work. So I call the Apple number. They tell me I can't without using the travel insurance AND paying thousands of additional dollars to move the date (A DATE I DIDN'T WANT TO BEGIN WITH!!!).

I said I want to speak to the supervisor I talked to before. "There is no record of that." What about the 2nd one? "There is no record of that. To be honest, I am questioning if the person you talked to was really a supervisor." Now they say they need to listen to the call to prove that she told me that. Will take "a few" days. Meanwhile the prices are increasing and flights are booking up, making the travel worse and worse for us and we are stuck with Apple. I call again to say can you please freeze the prices at least as they are right now? No. In fact, the agent hung up on me because there was nothing she could do for me. They will not stand behind what their agents did or help you. They make YOU pay for THEIR mistakes. I am talking thousands and thousands of dollars. And we went from direct flights at normal times during our kids' Spring Break to now having to layover for hours, take the kids out of school AND pay more. This is crazy.

NOTE that other, equally nice, resorts and other dates were available at the time of booking and even in the first couple days of this. BUT BECAUSE OF THEIR SLOW "CUSTOMER SERVICE" PROCESSING, and terrible policies, we had to eat THEIR mistakes. Unreal. I should also note that I have never called without being on hold for at least 30 minutes, with the exception of the original booking. Buyer BEWARE!!!!

After two phone calls I got the information that I had up to one day from booking or one day from paying in full to add this on. I did this but was told to call back. Nice service. This particular man also told me that insurance is only for **. Just because I am ** I have no rights if something comes up and I need to cancel? My husband and I both have elderly parents.

Another issue is nowhere on the website did they state the fees were in American money. I’m departing from Toronto and had in my mind Canadian funds. My mistake; however; this should be clearly stated with the price per person for hotel and flights. I have purchased a vacation package from this company before and it was booked with an agent. I’m obviously not an agent knowing the ins and outs of the websites. Not a user friendly website or a company who cares for their customers. Very disappointing. Do not book through this company.

I had to spend HOURS on the phone daily with customer service being bounced around from representative to representative in various departments (because NO ONE there knows who deals with what---so unorganized/undertrained individuals) who then had to read through the entire notes section to get caught up. Apple vacations NEVER called or contacted me, I ALWAYS had to contact them. Finally, right before we got to rebook I reached a decent human through customer service and she helped me figure things out and she was good with keeping up through email. SHE IS THE ONLY PERSON OUT OF THE 38 DAY BATTLE to help me. APPLE VACATIONS IS A TERRIBLE COMPANY WITH TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

After many attempts to contact Apple Vacations to recoup the room charges they had no problem charging me for, I have yet to hear back from them AT ALL! They booked the airfare and never booked a room for her? HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN???? Apple Vacations also has yet to respond to any of my inquiries to even begin discussing this issue as well as a refund of money they took from me when I initially booked her trip. I will never do business with this organization again!!! I would look elsewhere rather than do business with such a shady organization that has no issue ripping customers off and never even acknowledging them once it is all said and done!!!! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED!

Finally, our trip. No one was there to pick us up from the airport; apple had never changed the day (I requested it!). They initially couldn't find us because our name was input incorrectly (last name first). Then the hotel requested payment for the additional room. We had to call apple at check-in, but they could not verify our second payment so we had to pay the hotel again. Now we are trying to get a refund but I am doubtful. The hotel itself was wonderful, and very accommodating, but Apple Vacations provided more stress and chaos than I've ever experienced in my life. I was actually dreading this trip to paradise because of them! I intend to report them as fraudulent if they do not refund us the extra payment.

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.