Anyone had problems with Affordable Tours?
 

I have recently booked a cruise through Affordable Tours and am very concerned about their customer service.
Since making my booking and paying my deposit I have emailed them three times with the same query, and had absolutely no response. I copied the agent's line manager in the last email I sent, but have still not had a reply.
This raises grave concerns for me- if something serious goes wrong with my holiday booking, I now have no faith in them to either respond or to deal with it.
Before making my booking I did some research about the company and found it to have mixed reviews, with many people raising the issue of poor customer support. Unfortunately I went ahead and booked anyway, because they were offering a very good deal, but I now wish sincerely that I had gone with another company and paid a bit extra, as it is definitely worth it for peace of mind. I certainly would not use them again.
Has anyone else had a similar problem with this company, and if so how did they resolve it?

I can't understand the need to save a few dollars on a cruise and throw caution to the wind. A cruise is a big expense. It is something you have little control over once you've paid your money. Thge cruise lines will do absolutely nothing for you unless they are contractually obligated; they write the contracts. It makes sense to me to find a travel agent who will try to protect you and perhaps bail you out of a tight spot while you are away. This means asking some questions, getting some references, and paying the extra $100.

affordabletours.com is fine for me have used them for big

discounts on tours like globus BUT

they are a big clearinghouse

though might call contact your tour cruise operator directly

for best service that is their job.

insuremytrip.com independently always cheap wise

if you paid with CC you can dispute your charge

get your money back at anytime if things go bad.

So no worries...

I bought several land tours through Affordable Tours - never had a problem. Any time called with questions, or e-mailed, all was done on time.

As for a cruise, sent a quote request, and don't remember, either delayed reply or my specific question was not answered, left and never looked back for cruises.

Now I checked a possible land tour to get a discount with them, sent a request, got an answer right away. Maybe their bus tour department is better? Who knows!

Why not just cancel and rebook with someone else? I'm not sure what country you are posting from and what the terms are there, but here in the US if you are not within final payment you can cancel with no penalty.
If that is not possible, you should be able to have the booking transferred to another agent or the the cruisline itself.

I have booked two tours with Affordable Tours and was very pleased with the service. The agent assigned to me prompty responded to my requests for information.

I have had no problems using affordabletours I have used them on 3 tours to france, New Zealand and one North eastern tour. I have never ran into any issue reaching my travel agent. I call and I email any question or concern I have and I always receive a timely response. This is the only place I use for travel. I have tried the others orbiz and people like that and I found the service alot better with affordabletours. And the price is the same or less than the other guys. I hope you have a better experience because if it starts bad it will mess up the entire trip that is why I always use affordabletours because I know its done right.

I suggest you try to phone Affordable Tours instead of emailing.

I booked a cruise with Affordable Tours. As a travel agent myself, I can say that their agents like to cut corners. The whole booking process was a nightmare as well as trying to redeem the promotion they offered me. I was promised a free promotion of 3 days 2 night free hotel stay, which I never got.

I emailed and called the agent for 8 months before they sent it to me... when I filled out the paperwork for the certificate the thrid party charged my credit card and never sent me my booking confirmation. I tried working with both the third party and Affordable Tours to get this resolved, as I ended up missing my vacation to Vegas I had planned on those 2 free hotel night stays.

When I finally spoke with a manager at Affordable Tours (After calling for a week straight and leaving her voicemails with no calls back), she told me "it's not their fault, they only promised me the certificate not for the other company to redeem it" SHADY!

Then, she proceeded to tell me how it is my own fault for missing my vacation because there are plenty of hotels in Vegas I could have booked myself... Not taking into consideration that I may not be able to afford the hotels on my own dollar, since they had promised me 2 free nights :( She was out of line and basically scolded me for missing my own vacation. She somehow diverted blame for the failed promation from their poor business decisions back to ME!?! I felt offended and ripped off after getting off the phone with her.

The last poster registered just to reply to an old post? And she says, she's a travel agent, she bought something from a competitor?

I smell a troll :)

Don't Go Near affordabletours.com
On January 29, 2013, After entering my credit card info to book the tour, I got this message.
"“Your booking details have been forwarded to our staff for review to ensure the highest levels of quality control. Shortly you will receive a complete recap of your booking details and any necessary follow-up.”
Never heard from them. After 16 days I sent off a heated letter. They responded that I do not have a booking along with some other proof of their ignorance. BBBHouston was put on the case by my complaint, and was closed without a resolution on April 23, 2013. They have 18 complaints vs 3 for Pavlus Travel. Wish I had know this in January. affordabletours.com has screwed me greatly. So Sad.

I'm sorry to hear that. I booked a river cruise with them last year and have another booked for next year. No problems at all. Received the discount and both times the river cruise companies had my booking confirmation within hours.

I have used Affordable Tours.com everytime I book! They offer 10% off the top of escorted trips and my river cruises I took. My consultant Trena is very knowledgeable and has been in the business for over 25 years. The agents there are well educated and have traveled to many of the destinations. I think it would be a shame to book directly with tour companies and loose money when I have the same agent to speak to. My airlines did change a couple of times, but they cant control airline changes, the airline does that. So Yes Affordable tours is a great company and has not let me down.
A

If I'd get a message like S-ober a couple of posts above, I'd 2 things immediately:

1) call aff. tours to ask what happened, and if needed would follow up with my cr. card company

2) make sure my computer does not have a virus embedded somewhere

Dayenu, Mitsakis is a new poster and only commented on one post, sining the praise of the comapny. I wonder if Mitsakis is Trena ...

Don't use affordable tours! I booked a cruise to Key West and Bahamas. Wanted to take my daughters to meet family in the keys and do it in a special way. We were on the ship and found out that we would NOT go to the keys, but rather, Carnival just purchased an island and we were the first cruise ship to stop there. What? I went to the desk on ship and said that I wanted only the Key West part of the trip, and was never notified of a change. I was told "well, we couldn't possibly call every passenger on the ship....we are sold out on this cruise and the decision was only made in the past week". I was told that travel agents were all notified. I felt hijacked, violated, lied to, and robbed. Bahamas only trips are much cheaper than the trips all the way to the keys from Port Canaveral. I wasn't reimbursed a penny. The itinerary I printed out again the day I got home from the cruise still said Key West. I called the agent and they claimed they didn't know. They offered no restitution. They screwed up big time and took no responsibility.

And you are blaming Affordable Tours for this? Why?

Good Afternoon JennyGoodman,

I am a representative for AffordableTours.com and have been reviewing your post. First let me state I am extremely sorry your vacation did not turn out as planned. It is our desire, to the best of our ability, to ensure each and every one of our clients are completely satisfied with their vacation. There are certain circumstances, beyond our control, that occur which may interrupt your vacation or alter your vacation plans. Unfortunately, although it is rare, cruise lines do reserve the right to alter an itinerary/port at anytime with or without notice; these terms are listed in the ticket contract. Again please accept my deepest apologies for this inconvenience.

Tabatha,

What about the rude telephone folks at Affordable Tours? Are you planning to address that issue. That is in your control.

I know this is an old post but for other people considering using this company, I needed to say that I have used affordable tours twice, in 2012 for a Bucharest to Budapest River Cruise and again in 2013 for a Vietnam/Cambodia Mekong River cruise. I received excellent service, fast response to emails, all details regarding payments, cabin number, and other information on my booking was kept up to date in the sign-in section on "my booking". I dealt with the same travel agent(Karen)each time. I received an extra discount as a repeat customer on top of a good price for my trip. I dealt with them from Melbourne, Australia and all necessary paperwork was emailed in plenty of time before our departure. Dealing with Karen was a pleasure and I don`t hesitate to recommend her to my friends. I don`t usually post, but I use these sites for research. However, after reading some of the comments above, I felt the need to put forward some of our positive experience. Also use common sense. You will soon know if you have a good, responsive, efficient consultant once you start making enquiries. Just don`t continue with the booking process if you are not getting quick, clear responses to your queries. No matter what company you are dealing with, if it is not right at the start, it will only go downhill.

Is Affordable Tours a franchise or are we talking about the company with an address in Stafford, Texas. I just booked a cruise from them today. I'd appreciate a confirmation whether this is the company in question on this post. Thanks, Deborah

Franchise of what? It's a travel agency http://www.affordabletours.com/Info/AboutUs/

Dayenu, I wanted to know if it was the same company that was recommended to me and it is. Thanks for including the link. Deborah

If I had to do it all over again, I would ABSOLUTELY NOT book with Affordable Asia. If you want to make any changes, then you are out of luck unless you want to pay BIG (read $200-300) in change fees per person. When we called about the change fees early on, all they said was "do it asap," but never told us when. When we finally figured out our dates to make the change, we had passed the window to make changes cheaply, and then had to spend over $300 for the changes we wanted to make (we wanted to extend our stay in China). We called them to make the changes over a month before the tour began. We also got another friend to want to come on the tour with us, and were going to share a room (3 people to a room). I called AA to see if we could get a small discount for the third person, and they refused to work with us! I don't understand why, as the third person wasn't costing them anymore for hotel, and we had recruited this person for them. The least they could have done (and I asked), was to give all three of us some of the little tours for free. Horrible people to work with. Definitely DO NOT recommend.

I think that Affordable Tours and Affordable Asia are different companies.

TYPICAL BAIT AND SWITCH!!!! POOR customer service.
We saw a good rate for a cruise at affordabletours.com. My boyfriend and I both work during the day so we only have time to look for vacation deals at night. We went through the process of giving our information on the Affordable Tours website. We even emailed them the same night. We, then, called them the next morning to follow-up during their normal business hours to give them the benefit of the doubt. BUT FOR THE WHOLE DAY, THEY DIDN'T ANSWER CALLS. We never got a response back with our emails. When we called back that afternoon, they finally picked up, but gave us a COMPLETELY different rate. It is very unprofessional not to honor a rate you posted. It makes me lose confidence in this company. Next time, I'll book through a more reputable company. NEVER AGAIN. I hope no one else gets deceived like we did by affordabletours.com.

JetSetJasmine,

Did you actually go ahead and book with them after being given a different rate? That was your decision.

One other thing though. Cruise prices can and do change in minutes. It is all computer based, and the cruise rate first posted may have no longer have been available to the company to sell. The types of cabins offered for that rate may have sold out. Even if they posted it in the morning, if the cruise line changed it at noon, the travel company may have the ability to give a very small discount, but they do not set the price.

If cabins are not selling fast enough, the computer may be set to mark them down until a certain number are sold. When it hits that number exactly, the computer may be set to raise the rate again. It is instant. That is why if you see a cruise rate you want, you need to book right away. It may not be available a few hours later. It has happened that I paid a good bit more by waiting a day to make a decision. Not saying it was not a bad agency, but rate change was not the agency's fault.

For others thinking about it, it is best to check prices with three or four agencies plus the cruise line, itself. Some of the bigger agencies "may" be allowed discounts or credit because they sell in such quantity. My last two cruises, I booked with the cruise line itself. Others have been with vacationstogo, but you need to know exactly what you want if you use them.

I feel like it's that commercial where the old lady says,"That's not how any of this works!"
First of all, if you complete the form on their web site, you will have a price in writing and a travel agent assigned to you within 24 hours, usually less. You can put a 48 hour hold on a cabin and look around for a better price if you want to. No deceit. No bait and switch.

In the past year, I have booked through Affordabletours a Caribbean cruise with Princess, an Alaska cruise with Celebrity, a French River cruise with Avalon, a Canada, NE cruise with Princess, canceled another Alaskan cruise ( no hassle, refunded every penny of my deposit) and just booked a river cruise for 2016. In all my dealings with this company I never once had to call. Everything was handled very efficiently through e-mail. Deposits and final payments went directly to the cruise line within minutes.

I just think that some people, especially first time cruisers, should stick with a local travel agent. Until you understand pricing including taxes and port charges, the difference between categories and sailing dates that impact the price, on board credits, and even discounts for where you live, you are going to be disappointed. However, if you don't need your hand held, AT, Vacations to Go, Best Price Cruises, and many other on-line travel agencies, can get you a very nice price on a cruise vacation.

Interesting. We are researching a Croatia trip for next spring, and they popped up with a cruise that looked neat to combine with maybe flying in to Venice and home from Rome. Helps to know they are a "known" entity. Yeah, we can book lots of things on our own, but maybe it would be fine to do the cruise portion with them and we can handle the pre and post easily on our own.

Uhon, you do realize that this posting is over six years old. Not sure how accurate how any of the postings would be today. Might want to do a little double checking.

Uhoh, it is an old thread, but since you are considering a cruise, look at other well known websites like cruisecritic and vacationstogo. When you find exactly what you want, you can also contact the cruise line and book directly.

Think twice, please research before using AffordableTours.com
 

I've saved for 5 years to take a trip for my 50th birthday. I chose a 'reputable'' company that apparently uses AffordabeTours.com to book the trip details. Never in my life have I been so confused, disappointed and frustrated in the customer service and tactics of a company that I wanted to give my money to!

They have invisible procedures, unknown to the customer and imaginary 72 hour policies to ''approve'' your trip, and you can not ask for help from another travel agent, (or accidentally click a button that sends your info to another agent)! You'll get your hand slapped, and told they can no longer 'assist' you, as did agents Rachel and Amalia did, and eventually due to their chaos and drama, my trip was Denied! This also meant I could not benefit from the discounts that were available to, me before they wasted my time.

Don't even bother with contacting a customer service manager, they'll basically repeat what the agents said, as did Naomi did me. Basically because I accidentally 'played outside the imaginary lines', clicked submit more than once, I was in the wrong.

I have proof that Paige stated on 1/9 at 2:21 pm ET that she could No Longer Assist me due to the reasons state above. Please also note that AFTER Amalia Denied my trip on 1/9/ at 5:29pm ET, Rachel emailed me a ''friendly reminder'' on 1/10 at 5:21PM telling me I needed to complete my booking details (i.e. down payment)!

Before I contacted the primary company, I spent several days researching and planning for this trip, only to deal with AffordableTours.com, who in my experience, is Not about the customer, but only about who gets credit for the customer's trip.

I urge you to be very careful if you decide with any travel company that uses AffordableTours.com as a 3rd party!

I forgot to mention that there was Never an apology to me from these people. I apologized for potentially 'messing' up their routine - if that was the case, but never did they reciprocate.