thit_cho

Kavey, thanks for clarifying -- I certainly did not mean to suggest that all airline seats are fully refundable. But, they do offer SOME fully refundable seats (those are what I often purchase when I have a business trip and I very often change the flights, even at the last minute and even mid-itinerary).

Luisah

<<Author: arkay
Date: 11/11/2007, 02:26 pm
Just for the record....>>

But what if they take "OAT's Guaranteed Travel Protection" plan? My impression is that if you cancel right before departure that you get a voucher for the full amount.

pat

these problems with OAT have been going on for a long, long time. If they wanted to fix the problems, they would have had ample opportunity to do so. They haven`t done it.

PIPERPAT

To clarify OAT's travel protection, if you have to cancel a trip,the portion of the cost of the trip that is not refundable is covered by OAT vouchers, so in effect, you are 100% covered. Of course you would have to book another OAT trip to take advantage of that. I agree that I hope they clean up their act, because I love traveling with them.

jkr2006

My thanks to everyone for their concern for my situation and thoughtful postings. I want to bring you up to date with my OAT experience.
I spoke with a supervisor at OAT and we agreed on a date for a future Egypt trip of next November with a letter to me confirming that I will not be bumped from that trip. In addition I will receive 50% off of the cost of that trip. I also agreed to keep my reservation for a Peru trip in the spring with a similar confirming letter to be sent to me. (haven't received those letters yet).
My feeling was that, as many of you have written, they do a good job on their trips for the most part, and, if you can survive the Boston staff experience, you will enjoy the trips. I am willing to give them a second chance (I might regret this....)
I also contacted two families who were scheduled to be on my cancelled trip. Neither of them had been contacted by OAT with offers to voluntarily give up their seats. Both of these couples were traveling with other couples and were also scheduled for pre or post trip excursions, so that may be why they were not contacted. My friend and I were NOT scheduled for pre or post excursions.
I am in contact with the Boston Better Business Bureau and plan to review the judgement against Grand Circle to see what else might be indicated as a follow up.

My request to Grand Circle would be just this (as several of you have mentioned): Please advise your clients when they are on a waiting list and not confirmed on a given trip and DO NOT require full payment unless a client has a confirmed reservation.

I also wrote a letter to the Director of quality management at Grand Circle referring him to this thread on Fodor's. No reply to that as yet.

I will keep you posted and again, thanks for your support. JKR2006

atravelynn

The 50% deal offered to you is hard to pass up. You've shown it pays to be proactive.

Hopefully OAT will get its act together regarding the involuntary bumping problem. The people I know who went with OAT liked the trips. One woman I know goes 2x a year with them.

Their prices are hard to beat. If they can get off the BBB's bad list, that would be a big plus for them. Then I personally would not write them off if I were considering a group trip to one of their destinations.

Thanks JKR2006 for the update.

LyndaS

Thankyou jkr2006 for posting the outcome, I am glad to see that you have come to satisfactory arrangements on this.

As most Fodorites know, I like group trips and purposefully book them. But, even with the offer of 50% off the one next November that you got, I would still never consider OAT for a group trip. I am one of those that cannot play with vacations - once it's booked as time off, it's booked & that's that for the year. Your situation should never have happened.

I felt secure booking with Micato both times as they are always guarenteed to run if the date is published, and if there is one person booked on it, it will go.
Unfortuantely though they don't go to all destinations that I may want to see in Africa, (such as Egypt) so I will have to look very carefully now for a good provider when we do decide to go to Egypt! (I had though OAT would be a possible for Egypt)

Luisah

jkr,

I'm happy that it worked out for you. My OAT Egypt trip was wonderful and I think you'll have a great time at a good price.

I do hope that OAT/GCT will change their policy and be upfront when a person registers that the trip has reached the maximum of 16 and you will be on a waitlist. When you've paid for your trip and have your tickets in hand it's a heck of a shock to learn that you're not going. I would certainly be as upset as you were.

arkay

JKR, yes thank you for posting the outcome. I'm glad you were able to work out a satisfactory solution and I hope that you have a wonderful trip to Egypt - one worth a year's wait.

It will be interesting to see if you get a response from the director of quality management. This is the response I received from my PTC:

"I'll pass on the information you have provided on the Fodor's Forum for management to review. If there is a case of a trip being overbooked, we do offer alternate dates for passengers. If it's a date that is cancelled, alternate dates or other options are given passengers affected by the change. Unfortunately, there is not anyone specific to speak to in regards to this. If these instances do occur, we do have a team of trained professionals that go above and beyond to assist passengers."

mcpats

I had been in touch with Grand Circle Travel and voiced my concern over their policy of cancelling on short notice regardless of the fact that people had paid in full 90 days in advance. I was not inquiring about cruises. I thought I would post their reply for all to view.

"Thank you for replying to my email. Overbooking on Cruise Travel is a common practice in this industry, and you will find that all of the major cruise companies participate in this practice. We do list the following information in our Terms and Conditions on our website: 13. In certain circumstances, Grand Circle overbooks its trips to offset anticipated cancellations. If, up to four days prior to departure, more passengers are booked than can be accommodated, Grand Circle will solicit volunteers to change their reservations. Customers affected by overbooking will receive compensation and will be offered an alternative departure date."

I hope that you do not choose to travel with another company, but if you do be sure to have a look at their Terms and Conditions prior to booking.

Thank you again for writing to us. Please let me know if you have any other questions or if I can assist you further.

Sincerely,

Shirleyann Jones
Email Correspondent
Grand Circle Travel
www.gct.com
[email protected]

Luisah

<<If, up to four days prior to departure, more passengers are booked than can be accommodated, Grand Circle will solicit volunteers to change their reservations.>>

I think they are dodging the issue here. The problem isn't so much that they overbook, and yes, other companies may do it too, but that they don't let people know until "four days prior to departure" that they won't be making the trip.

The OP had booked her trip seven months before the departure date and had no idea that the trip had been overbooked. That's a heck of a shock to learn that you're not going when you have your tickets in hand and have made arrangements -- vacation time, pet sitting, airline tickets to point of departure, etc.

OAT/GCT needs to follow Elderhostel's example and tell people when they register that they are number 17, 18, whatever, and that if someone doesn't cancel they won't be going.

Lynneb

I agree with the last poster. It's crazy to think we'd book trips and then have our fingers crossed that they won't be cancelled. If this type of holiday company think that this is a regular enough occurrence then they need to make those terms and conditions VERY clear. Not hidden somewhere in the smallprint.

KATHERINEMAEPARDEE

Wow!!! So much information and so negative. You've all made me nervous.

We took our first Grand Circle trip this past fall and we can say it was EXCELLENT in every respect.

On our cruise in Russia, we had over 200 travelers (I might also add the average age was 72) and now that I am in my mid 60s, that is considered young. So often I was trying to keep up with the 80 years olds at the head of the line.

Anyway, we made a point of dining with different couples at each meal and met an assortment of fellow travelers who had taken numerous Grand Circle and OAT tours. When you talk to people that have traveled with these companies 8 - 10 to 12 and even 22 times; you feel this is a good outfit. During our 13 days in Russia and all the dining, we NEVER heard a negative about OAT or Grand Circle. I guess it might make anyone look pretty stupid if they continued to travel with an outfit and they were unhappy and voiced complaints.

Everyone says the airline situation is the worst it's ever been but in so many cases that is out of the tour companies hands. Granted, GC and OAT book thousands of tours annually and should have some clout.

Grand Circle is fine but we were looking for a faster pace and less 'leisure' time and their subsidiary OAT offered faster paced tours with small groups 12-16 max.

We do tons of research when ever we travel and upon arriving home, we did the same on OAT.

We subsequently booked several more tours with OAT starting next month with Thailand. In 2008, we'll also be with OAT for Australia, Egypt and India.

We are retired and we felt the majority of travelers that were on our Grand Circle tour were also retired. I hope they do call to reschedule or rebook our future trip.... $$$$ incentives of cash are nice. Our schedule is flexible. We always volunteer to be bumped at the airport and have not paid for cross country trips in years!!! Maybe I will give GC/OAT a call and tell them we are willing to be bumped!!!

Keep in mind that airports are miserable now. Don't you do about anything to avoid Heathrow????

I'm glad these postings have been made and hopefully Grand Circle/OAT will take note and others won't be burned.

Hey, it's a big outfit and some are bound to fall through the cracks; I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience. If something similar happened to me, I will know longer be singing the praises for this company.

I have numerous trip reports from OAT travelers that are just outstanding and we will hope for the best. Upon our return from Thailand, look for my posting and mini trip report.

Happy Turkey Day everyone and I wish you happy trails and safe travel.

[email protected]

atravelynn

KatherineMae,

If you are retired, and if that means you are more flexible, and if you do lots of OAT trips, I bet you won't have a problem. If the trip you are scheduled for bumps you, you could go another time or just take a different OAT trip that you were considering anyway for the future. And you'd make some money for your inconvenience. For those of us who have no flexibility in schedules, it is a bigger problem.

I agree about flying and airports. Often unpleasant unless you are in one of the lounges and out of coach. I am almost never in one of the lounges and always in coach. The long flights, cramped seats, lack of places to sit in the airport, etc. are all distant memories once I get to Africam though.

shaytravels

Like everyone else I can't believe what they did to you. That is very bad buisness practice. Thanks for the warning. I will definetly tell everyone I know.