Vantage Deluxe World Travel Reviews

Original Review: Hello to All the Vantage Deluxe World travelers, I am in the same boat as everyone is complaining. Vantage Deluxe World Travel deceptive business practices have caused us a nightmare. Why isn’t there any class action lawsuit on this company? I have a trip booked since 2019; I still haven’t yet been able to go on my trip. Vantage has canceled my trip again for the fourth times. Last year, my Passage to Eastern Europe trip was canceled while I was checking-in at the airport. I have the boarding pass the night before the trip should not be any problem. But, to know the airline reject you to board the plane is a nightmare. I take the time go to airport and return home with anger. So, this trip was postponed to June 26, 2023 and again, Vantage cancels this trip due to operational reasons with no detail information. We should put Vantage Deluxe out of business.

Could not contact them until they sent alternative email where I asked what was going on with my trip to Cairo which was to leave now, in about 10 days. Received blast email presumably to all their "good customers". It stated news of the hack but all is good (paraphrasing) except for 6 trips 4 of which were river trips in the Netherlands(?) with an equipment problem and 2 to Cairo of which one was mine. No real explanation as to why it was canceled. All were canceled but they would be getting in touch with me in a day or two...Still waiting! 1 and 1/2 months!!!

The other shoe then landed, I received a notice from Allianz Global Assurance on the 23rd of May that my insurance was canceled. The notice showed a purchase date of Jan 26th 2023...cancelation date Jan 30th 2023. Better than 100 days late and after trip was to depart. Called Allianz was told they only insure the trip once it is started and Vantage insured any cancelations before departure. I asked Allianz for return of premium paid to them they said they returned premium to...you guessed it..Vantage Travel....same for airline, ticket refund went to Vantage....So the company canceling the trip was also the company issuing the trip insurance...Nice racket! When you call as I have, at least 15 times, I get this perky little voice that says they are sooo busy taking care of their good customers but they will return my call with in 24 hours (still waitingx10)!!!!

I did get through once. the same little perky voice asked how she could help, after giving my booking number and customer number she again asked how she could help. I asked her if she had looked up the booking number and knows where it was to go? In a little less of a perky voice, she said "Cairo" to which I replied "Then you know why I called". She then informed me in a negative perky little voice that I have a bad attitude and she might hang up on me. To that I replied "Given how classy this company is, I would expect nothing less" and then.... CLICK!!!! She hung up on me! I never raised my voice, never cursed, and said nothing personal....She did make my point however!!!

I think They have blocked my number because I can not get through except that perky little voice telling me after about a 8 minute wait they would call me back within 24 hours! Don't know how They even get a 3 star rating, from what I've seen, most would give VANTAGE DELUXE WORLD TRAVEL a zero rating. There are no words in the English language that can adequately describe this organization. They are despicable low lifes. There are no curse words vile enough!

I probably lost my money but it is on me. I let a trip of life time cloud my judgement and good sense. I should have never trusted them and as a person of reasonable honesty I actually gave it little thought. Sadly, I have lost a little innocence and this will stay with me a long time. Bottom line I was a fool.... but I have learned and I can live with myself. Not sure how anyone at Vantage can say that....Just thought...They should change their name to ADVANTAGE TRAVEL as that is what they will do...take Advantage of you....DON'T LET THEM!!!!

Recently Vantage has been cancelling trips with almost no notice whatsoever. We have friends who were in the airport ready to leave for a Vantage cruise, only to receive a phone call that the cruise had been cancelled. You can read about it in the Palm Beach, FL newspaper. Other Vantage unfortunates have started a Facebook page (search for "Vantage Complaints") to record their trip cancellations and postponements and the ridiculous and demeaning behavior of Vantage's so-called "customer service," if you can reach them at all by phone or email.

Vantage has had our money since October 2019 and has done nothing but postpone our trip further and further into the future. We opted to choose a different cruise when Vantage postponed our trip to a date where we had another cruise already booked with a different operator. Now the ship which was supposed to carry us on that delayed trip is sailing with its sister ship to Caen, France, where we believe the owners (not Vantage) will impound the ships, possibly because Vantage is not making its payments on time for use of those vessels. It is quite likely that no one with a future tour or cruise with Vantage will ever get to travel, as every day sees more cancellations without good reasons.

I sent Vantage an email asking why this trip was canceled and I wanted a full refund for this canceled trip. On 5/16 at 4:38, I received a return phone call from Vantage indicating there was a vendor issue and I would be receiving a full refund for this trip. I also requested a follow up email to our phone conversation. I am now in the process of trying to get a refund and have just become aware of all the nightmare stories that are all similar to mine. Please, please DO NOT book a trip with Vantage Deluxe World Travel. It will only cause you nightmares, heartache and hassles. I would have given them 0 stars if possible.

Mind you, this is all automated processing with a push of button software. That they're charging monthly/weekly fees for. You still have to go in to a hard to navigate app and process everything yourself. And then of course look at all the reports and double check them. Because they do the percents wrong with paying the taxes. The first quarter, Paychex didn't even pay anything to state. Then when I received letter from secretary's office, after inquiring about my quarterly filing. Paychex finally started doing the state payments. I was supposed to be paying 2.7% to the state, but Paychex was only taking out 1.8%.

So now I owe the state, plus penalty. Every week I had to make a call to Paychex for some kind of mistake. And it would take multiple calls through a few weeks time to correct their mistakes. I was owed $181 credit from Paychex. But they kept processing invoice payments out my account for 5 weeks until finally I went to another payroll company. I would have to call Paychex after every payroll process letting them know, hey you charged me again this week, when I'm supposed to have a credit. They stated they see a credit is due, but hasn't been approved yet. It takes more than a month for approval to correct your mistake?

Every time you call, you get someone with bad attitude. Because they're so inundated with others who've they made mistakes with. Nobody ever accepts any responsibility. And they always say same thing: "I don't know why they did that." Like they're talking about another company. It's Your company and Your problem. So how are you going to fix? I called to cancel services. They hung up and didn't even put my cancel request through. I called again and they have no answer to the over $150 I am owed. Stating they don't know if I'll get refunded, since I'm no longer using Paychex. They can't credit any invoices. How about just putting the money back in the account you so easily withdrew from?

They also have not returned the tax money they took out of check payments since start of new quarter. And they haven't sent that money to the Feds. I don't know how this company is in existence without any fraud charges. They borderline do business that should have people jailed. I have to call Attorney General's office Monday to get my money back. And next I'm filing report with Better Business Bureau. And seeing if there's some kind of arbitration court.

Every time I contact Vantage, it is "We are so busy with so many claims and working as hard as we can". Last person told me there were hundreds and hundreds of claims ahead of ours. This is TOTALLY irresponsible. They still send me glossy brochures every day along with emails for vacations which really set me off. Spend some of the advertising money on processing refunds!!! We had been very pleased with past 6-7 trips but in the past few years, the company has really gone down the tubes. I will never travel with them nor recommend them to anyone.

Although their Tour Participation Agreement states that if they cancel a cruise a full refund of all funds paid to them would be promptly made, they have never offered a full refund but always tried to retain the funds and substitute another cruise. Contacting Vantage is time consuming and rarely productive. Wait times for their customer service numbers can be literally hours. Customers are expected to frequent their customer website to stay up to date on the status of their trips rather than receive proactive communications of changes from Vantage. Their customer website has frequent technical glitches, Chat has limited functions and after waiting to Chat you are directed to call Customer 888 number and wait endlessly. All communications with Vantage staff start from the premise that they are in the right and you are the problem.

We just returned from a very unsatisfactory cruise. The ship we were on, "The Ocean Explorer", is a small expedition ship with only 160 passengers, capacity, we were able to get to know a number of fellow passengers. There were 120 really pissed off folks. They were all told a number of stories why we were unable to end the cruise in Manaus. The stories ranged from: terrorist risks, bad covid outbreak, abductions, collapsed dock. All obviously lies! Many of the folks were previous Vantage customers who had good experiences with Vantage and could not understand what happened to the company. It appears they are engaged in a "Ponzi scheme", take orders and cash for next year's cruises to pay for this years expenses. If you challenge them for a refund on unfulfilled extensions they quote the terms of the contract, which says, "they are not responsible for any loss due to itinerary changes". This company is preying on seniors.

Vantage never notified me and the rude man lied to me. Vantage refused to give me a refund. Vantage said that the trip had been delayed only, for over a year, and they could do that because that was a “reasonable modification” of the trip. My health declined during the next year, and I realized that I would not be able to fully participate in the trip activities. I then asked for a partial refund to lower my cost to the deeply discounted price new passengers were paying. That would make up, in part, for my new health limitations. They refused. I finally had to cancel the trip for health reasons. I was approved for a full cash refund almost 5 months ago. They’ve had my money for two years!! THEY HAVEN’T PAID A PENNY TO ME.!!! They can’t even give me an estimate of when I can expect the money. I just hope I get it before they file bankruptcy!!

Original Review: Nov. 14, 2022

This is the most frustrating company I've ever worked with. I will say that we had a cruise with them in 2016 to Croatia that went wonderfully. I should also say that it was a replacement for a Greece trip that didn't sail because 'the ship wasn't ready.' Since then, I've had nothing but trouble. Two additional Greece trips were 'postponed' - I use that word because if they'd been 'canceled,' I'd have my money back. ('Cancel' is a word that Vantage sedulously avoids.) In the second of these Greece cruises, we weren't even notified it wouldn't happen. I had checked on our flight with the airline only to find I no longer had a reservation. The air department of Vantage confirmed that the cruise had been aborted.

Vantage denied that no notice had been given, saying there were e-mails sent, but, oddly, no one in our group of six got the alleged e-mail. I've since tried to use the money they've locked up by setting up another trip, but getting it arranged according to the specifics I requested (including not going over the amount we had on the books with them) only to have it come back with a bill for an additional $4,800. I might be able to work around this if I could get someone on the phone, but they insist you use the Chat. I did. I was told that the representative didn't work with the flight department and couldn't help me. This wasn't the first run-around I've had with them - an earlier attempt to schedule a trip by phone directed me to use e-mail. I did and that's when I got the bill for additional $4,800.

Were I unaccustomed to dealing with travel companies, I might think this is typical - it is NOT. We have our eighth trip with Viking coming up soon and 1) can always talk to a representative, 2) have always been treated fairly and recompensed when an experience wasn't a good one (due to a Covid outbreak and an interrupted trip), 3) treated respectfully and above board, and 4) constantly kept informed about our upcoming trip and any requirements we should note. If you're considering using Vantage, I suggest you look for alternative companies to serve you. "Serve" is not a term with which Vantage is familiar.

The "pick up" shuttle we paid a lot extra for was very late as well. Then several times there were no buses at the locations we had planned to stop at. They didn't even know the causeway between Nova Scotia and Cape Bretton was closed so we missed a visit to two places we would have seen because we had to go ALL the way around the island to continue our trip in rough seas! There were so many changes and substitutes made without our consent it got to be a joke amongst the passengers when we were told with actual booing to the coordinators! NEVER again for these gangsters!!

The builder of the vessel, Sunstone Ships, of Miami, Florida was in dire financial trouble. In the summer of 2021, Mr. Niels-Erik Lund, Chairman of Sunstone stated, "2020 became the worst financial year in the combined Sunstone/ISP's 31-year history..." Mr. Lund further remarked, "We expect that 2021 will be as bad as 2020..." Yes, Vantage Travel "charters" its expeditionary ships (M/S Ocean Explorer & M/S Ocean Odyssey) from Sunstone Ships.

In order to get the best price on the expected voyage, on April 15, 2021, my wife and I paid Vantage $17,398.00 for the October 2022 cruise. That was a HUGE mistake. The Ocean Odyssey was being built for Sunstone Ships by China Merchants Heavy Industry of Jiangsu, China. On May 12, 2022, China Merchants Heavy Industry "walked out of the contract" to build the Ocean Odyssey according to Mr. Lund. Calls and emails to Sunstone Ships regarding the status of the Ocean Odyssey are referred to Vantage Travel.

On September 7, 2022, a senior representative for the designers of the Ocean Odyssey in Norway stated that the ship was not yet completed, but that the "latest rumors from China is that the ship will be delivered by end of September." If the "rumor" is true, that would leave 16 days for the ship to transit the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, transit the Suez Canal, reach Athens, undergo "sea trials," staff, and provision the vessel before departure on October 18th. THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. Yet, we hear NOTHING from Vantage. Vantage Travel knew or should have known that the ship would NEVER make its scheduled cruises in August and October of 2022.

We have learned that on August 18, 2022, THE DAY OF DEPARTURE for the scheduled August cruise on the Ocean Odyssey, Vantage Deluxe World Travel announced to its customers without prior warning that, "Despite our very best efforts, the m/s Ocean Odyssey will need more time to come into service" and the cruise was cancelled while people were driving to the airport! Vantage went on to say, "Passengers affected by this delay will be automatically moved to the next available itinerary. Please visit "My Portfolio" for the latest trip updates."

This is a sham! If you go to the Vantage website, you will see that all the cruises for the Ocean Odyssey are "SOLD OUT" through 2024! For those of us scheduled to depart on the October 16, 2022, "Pearls of Greece..." cruise, the lack of communications from Vantage is staggering. No one answers the phone. When you finally reach someone, they indicate they will "send a message to management" and you never hear another word. Vantage is not refunding fairs as promised (read other Consumer Affairs reviews), but they are still pushing "room upgrades" for a cruise they KNOW isn't going to occur.

FINAL STRAW: On Monday, September 12, 2022, all of my travel companions who booked airfare through Vantage were notified by the airlines that their bookings had been cancelled by VANTAGE, and the funds were returned to VANTAGE, yet, still no word from Vantage Travel itself. FYI, as of the date of this review, 13 SEP 2022, the ship's AIS "Automated Identification System" still shows the vessel parked dockside at the builder's yard in China. It is reasonable to presume that Vantage collects close to $1,440,000 per sailing in cruise charges and airfare. Where is the money going? When the trips are cancelled, it's not going back to the travelers. This is a fraud.