Has anyone travelled with Trip A Deal on the 20 day Baltics and Fjords Cruise/Tour? How large was the tour group? We are interested in bokking but having read some very negative comments, we are concerned especially the travel is August 2020 - 1.5 years away!
Appreciate any comments.
Iâve just got back from the TripADeal tour to Israel (Palestine) and Jordan and it was OK. It was well organised and a lot was squeezed into 2 weeks. One hotel was excellent; the others including the Wadi Rum camp, were OK. Breakfasts and dinners in all hotels were mostly to western tastes and varied from good to excellent. Overall the trip was good value but not without the following problems.
The biblical sites we visited were crowded with tourists/pilgrims from all over and they were very slow in making way for others because they had to pray and/or sing before leaving the site. With so many groups and all this noise it was hard to hear explanations by our guide. The whisper tour guide system would have been a big help in this case but was not provided.
The tour took us to too many sites of significance to christians which got a bit boring. But to be fair the idea was to follow the path of Jesus from birth to death. However we learned very little about the two main religions of the area. And we learned almost nothing of local culture except that Jordanians are a friendly bunch and Israelis are friendly when theyâre trying to sell you something.
We have now been on 4 Tripadeal tours, namely Turkey, South East USA with Caribbean cruise, Canada & Alaska with cruise and more recently Jordan & Israel. We are still generally happy to book tours again with them as we have had no significant problems and any shortcomings can be excused on the relatively cheap cost and any minor glitches we usually laugh about afterwards.
The first tour of Turkey was excellent with hotels, tour guide, bus driver & itinerary first class. However the USA land part of the tour did have some substandard motel accommodation in the outskirts of town with pretty ordinary breakfast. As mentioned in the entry above the religious sites in Israel were crowded and we were lucky to hear a quarter of what the guide was saying. However in Jordan seeing Petra alone made up for any negatives on this tour and we had a pretty good group with lots of laughs.
I am amazed at the negative comments aired in this community. Last year we went on a tour to Sri Lanka and it was in one word marvelous ! Bus we traveled was as new, tour leader was excellent as was his assistant and the driver. Some accommodation was a bit far from town center but we were kept that busy during the day that after dinner the whole group went to bed to resume the adventures early next day.
We are just back from a 10 day tour to Borneo and that was organized as good as possible. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur hotel early in the morning ( 8 a.m.) and were booked in immediately while the normal check-in time is 2 p.m. Then there was a free day in K.L. and on the 3rd day we were escorted to the airport for the flight to Sandakan (Borneo) where we were met at the airport by a fantastic tour guide who did stay with us for the rest of the trip. Accommodation overall was good to very good. Accommodation at the Borneo Nature Lodge was perhaps a bit primitive (only 2 **) but that only added to the atmosphere of the wild life water expeditions.
I just booked a new tour now a river cruise on the Mekong river and as far as I can judge it again will be of a very high standard.
I have searched numerous sites looking for a review of Trip A Deals Tour âBest of the Stanâsâ If anyone has experienced this tour I would be interested in hearing your thoughts It sounds interesting but first hand experience would be appreciated. Thanks
Further up in this thread, TripaDeal replied and said âcontact usâ. Well:
We have a 2 for 1 China trip booked to depart soon.
I called them at the time of booking⊠20 minutes in the queue before the phone answered.
Last week we got an urgent email from them re passport details. I replied within 10 minutes on this urgent matter. Itâs now five days later and they havenât responded to my email. I tried to call themâŠwaited 20 minutes in the queue, still no answer. I had to leave for a meeting, so gave up.
They clearly have no idea what âcustomer serviceâ means. It seems that they are grossly understaffed in this area, just donât want to spend the money providing the service. Iâm worried about our forthcoming trip.
Welcome to the forum @Jonti. I can understand your angst and defaults of âsheâll be right - cricketsâ are never OK when nothing except a positive âit is rightâ are acceptable.
That observation seems reflected across their âserviceâ. Not comforting to have a problem and nobody to contact.
Their web site has an online chat facility but the âagent [is] offlineâ on Tuesday at 14:22 when they are open 09:00-19:00 weekdays. You might periodically check (and let us know) whether âthe agentâ is perpetually offline.
It could be that one of their claimed â90 local staffâ at Byron Bay rotates to customer service at a time?
Since many of us have unlimited mobile plans consider trying them on 02 6620 9900 as returned from the White Pages. It might be the same queue as their 13 number, an old number out of service, or ?, but.
Sometimes companies are more responsive to social media, so you also might try messaging them on Facebook.
Good luck to you and hope all is well when you connect with them and your trip is worry free.
We were due to travel to China on a Tripadeal tour. Even with the government upping to âDo not travelâ and tourist attractions being closed, they wonât offer a full refund (only a credit note with an expiry date before I would be in a position to travel) and would also need to pay extra for a different travel location.
Buyer beware of this company when there are problems!
Do you have travel insurance and checked to see if your cover includes such events?
Also check the a T&Cs of the tour to see what it says about such events. Most have cancellation and rescheduling clauses.
We do have insurance but will be out of pocket for the excess unfortunately. Also, the tripadeal T&Cs states. âprior to travel, the provider of the travel offer ceases trading or ceases to provide the goods or services that are the subject of the travel offer.â
Given that this condition is met (closure of most of the tourist attractions listed), we are entitled to a full refund.
Thanks for replying
I also read these general conditions and took them asâŠ
I also see their T&Cs have force majeure clauses as well as clauses which tries to negate any responsibilities. The forced majeure may be reasonable, as they had no influence over the prevailing events.
Have your indicated to them that you canât reschedule (proof or evidence why) to see if they might through goodwill , do a refund?
I have tried asking them each day since Friday. They have said their Legal people have been involved, etc.
Last night was on hold for over 2hours. Nobody answered the phone, so not sure what is going on any more.
We are in the same boat, they are blatantly lying to us. And said we cannot get a refund due to cancelation policy⊠we didnât cancel I have cut and pasted my review on every site I can find. Which I will do so below this comment along with a screen shot of their refund policy.
My mother and I were booked for China to leave on the 4th February. Clearly this trip has been canceled through no fault of our own. This was to be my mums last overseas holiday and the only place she wanted to see was China. Donât get me wrong. Clearly it isnât your fault a coronavirus broke out and China canceled all tourism. What we are upset at is. YOUR REFUND POLICY STATES, refunds may be given in the event the tour ceases to operate. WELL IT HAS. China canceled all tours and refunded the money paid, Cathay Pacific has refunded Money paid, Royal Caribbean refunded all money paid. My mother does not have a year in which to use a credit note, I cannot go anywhere after the 1st of March due to work commitments and no foreseeable holidays for a further 15 months at least.
To tell my mother we arenât eligible for a full refund due to the cancellation policy just now is an utter lie. We did not cancel. ALL TOURS WERE CANCELED BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT ON THE 22ND. You sent an email on the weekend stating to reply for a credit note for the 4th. We replied stating we will need to have money refunded⊠and by law you are obliged to honour that of your own policy. My mother and I have been extremely understanding at these circumstances however, now you have lied and not replied to our request I feel that this review needs to be written. It is shameful you identify as an Australian company. I am reading many complaints in how your company are dealing with this. My advice to you is. Itâs not hard to loose good customers and once you do itâs very hard to get that business back
And donât forget that the particular tour wasnât cancelled by Tripadvisor either.
I suspect that there will be many other customers in similar situations with other tour companies who will be disappointed in their China travel cancellations and out of pocket expenses through no fault of their own.
Maybe this is where some responsibility may lie?
As outlined above, if you have travel insurance check to see if your tour cancellation is covered. If it is, make a claim through your travel insurance. While it may be a burden to pay the insurerâs excess, at least you will recover the costs (less excess) of the travel.
Tripadeal has been caught up in the suspensions of travel to China as well (they would be losing booking/service fees and has had a impact on their reputation in relation to current cancelled China toursâŠas well as cost they would have incurred organising any of the cancelled tours)âŠand is something they possibly arenât ultimately responsible for.
It might be a long shot, but did you book via credit card? You might be able to lodge a credit card chargeback with your bank.
Insurance wonât cover an epidemic/pandemic. The issue we have is that all suppliers have already refunded Tripadeal. Tripadeal are not honouring their own policy of refund and are not extending this refund to the purchasers (us) then lying to my mother today on the call. We have received notifications from the cruise line with them stating all moneyâs Have been refunded. As have Cathay Pacific and the chinese government had ensured all hotel bookings were canceled and refunded last week as well as all tours. Lying to keep our funds and then to say they are offering a credit note where they donât have to offer anything due to the cancelation policy is beyond fathomable and disgusting to say the least
The insurance company now will not cover this due to the pandemic. Tripadeal have already been refunded as we have been notified by Royal Caribbean, Cathay Pacific have also made public they have fully refunded all costs. And to have the audacity to say we arenât eligible for a refund due to the cancelation policy (only applicable if we cancel) yet their refund policy clearly states refund is possible due to the tour being canceled by the tour operator has what has made me make this public. CompaniesâŠ: DONâT LIE.
Neither my mother or myself will be able to travel after the 1/3 until we donât know when. My mother may not be able to travel at all as my fathers heath is deteriorating and this was her last chance.
This was purchased 6 months ago. But we could only try. We wouldnât be upset if they hadnât blatantly lied to us. And demanding we respond within 24 hours of email then not actually corresponding with us after that email was replied to. We are chasing our tails as they are not providing any service other than deplorable behaviour
Who is the insurer?
The reason for the question is that there are reports of some insurers waiving exclusions clauses due to the unique nature of the coronovirus response, including travel cancellations resulting from government action/direction.
How do you know that Tripadeal has received any refunds?
Most of these sort of companies use intermediaries to do bookings and if refunds have been made, it may be that the intermediaries have been refunded and not Tripadeal. Cathy Pacific on their website alsi indicate for those who purchased tickets through travel agencies for support It appears that direct bookings may only have easy access to refunds.
Also check your tour T&Cs as there could be a clause about rebooking cancelled tours and not refunding.
