Vantage Deluxe World Travel

Meg Furio

I booked a Safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania before the Pandemic with Vantage based on a friend’s recommendation. I will never use them again. They left six of us abandoned in Kenya at the end of the trip. The tour ended on Friday, August 19th and we were booked by Vantage to fly out Saturday night at midnight on August 20, 2022. I asked Vantage when they booked our final flight arrangements what we were supposed to do during the day (Saturday) before our flight. The Vantage agent said that we could stay at the hotel until our flight. Well that was not true. If it wasn’t for our Tour guide, we would have been sitting in the Nairobi airport (no AC) in the sweltering heat for 12 hours. Why didn’t Vantage book us to fly out Friday night at midnight? You can book this trip on your own by booking flights direct to Nairobi via Kenya Airlines and booking Serena hotels in all the parks. Serena will arrange for your transport to/from airport and book your safaris. Don’t bother with Vantage. They don’t provide the customer service for the amount of money you shell out for this trip. You will be on hold for two hours waiting to talk to someone every time you call and they don’t respond to emails. Several members on our trip have been fighting for CovId cancellation refunds from Vantage for two years. As a matter of fact, The NY Times published an article about Vantage’s terrible customer service on August 21, 2022. Their advice is to file a complaint directly with your state’s attorneys office. “You should file a complaint with the State Attorney General’s office. That might just work: The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office has received nearly 600 complaints about Vantage, most related to Covid-era cancellations, and recovered $1.1 million for consumers. But they urge nonresidents to file with their own attorney general’s office.” “Vantage received $2 million in federal loans under the Paycheck Protection Program in early 2021. (Like most companies, it did not repay the loan.)”

Gail Kapusnick

While a lot of people are coming here because of the New York times article, read the rest of the reviews from people on here that were posted well before that article came out. What happened to the lady in that article is apparently not an isolated occurrence. They reacted to the negative feedback on Facebook by deleting all the comments and shutting off the ability to comment on their posts. That seems to be their modus operandi for any problem. Just pretend it never happened.

Roger Hitchner

I suggest you read the recent NYT article on this business before booking with this company. It will be eye opening.

Linda Morrisson

Pick another company. Vantage, though they tout themselves as 5 star with the finest food, liquor, guides, ships, etc., has been a nightmare for three years. I have been to 90 countries so I am hardly a novice at arranging group trips, family trips and solo trips for myself. Three ago I put a deposit down on the Mumbai to Persian Gulf cruise. (The usual companies I travel with did not go there,) Of course I took out the insurance with Trip Mate. Fast forward and that trip was canceled. Like many of you I was pressured into picking another trip. They didn't go anywhere else I had not been to. Foolishly I picked one of the Canadian /New England trips to places I had been to many times. No word was mentioned about insurance, so I assumed my middle east insurance carried over. Fast forward to this spring...because of health concerns my doctors advised me not to leave the US and not to travel alone. I requested a trip refund in May with all the proper medical explanations. To mid July TripMate showed my claim was being processes and the check was in the mail. Today, after speaking to a rude TripMate rep and then finally a decent person I found out my claim was DENIED and I would get no refund! I still don't quite understand why. I just know I lost $6000because Vantage and TripMate said so. I hope Vantage goes bankrupt in their current class action suit. Beware!!