Complain about a product or service

Grand Circle Travel

347 Congress Street, Boston, MA

JO of SKY VALLEY, CA September 6, 2009

in 2000 my cousin and i prepared for a trip of a lifetime with [this] company. it was to begin april 7, 2001 until may, 2000 include australia, new zealand, and fiji. we were supposed to have a side trip to rotorooa. this was one of the reasons why i wanted to go on this tour and see their culture. however on the eve of our leaving, Quantas supposedly went belly up and we were shifted back to Auckland. late we found out that other tours were able to get to rotorooa.

I paid extra for insurance and unfortuntaly on april 13 my mother passed away. I was told that I had to pay full fare to get back home, submit a death certificate and then would be reimbursed my fare. Being a senior citizen I did not have the full fare and therefore continued on with the tour.

it has taken me this long to write this letter to let [them] know how i feel that i was taken advantage of and to clear my mind. i will never recommend [their] company to anyone. i feel that all [they] wanted was my money, which was quite a lot, and i did not get my money's worth from [Grand Circle]. i was not helped in time of trouble and really left out in the cold even tho i had paid extra insurance and i really paid my life savings for a trip that was not promised to me ie rotorroa and other things. i do have more of a list but these are the main things

Sharon of Irving, TX September 3, 2009

Count me among those who won't travel with Grand Circle again. I had five trips booked with them (1 with their sister company Overseas Adventure Travel and 4 with GCT). I've been lied to by 2 different agents and had a supervisor refuse to speak to me. Apparently it takes GCT a month to determine whether they can get a room for a solo traveller. Incrediblely poor service. Based on my expereinces, you want to think twice before you book with GCT.

Jim of Tucson, AZ August 26, 2009

I have been inundated by brochures from them ever since I traveled with them to Egypt. To save trees, my girlriend (who also receives the brochures) and I have requested numeous times to be removed from the mailing list. So far, we still keep getting mailed material, often, three in one day. I will no longer consider grand Circle for future travel.

Allen of BRUNSWICK, OH May 30, 2009

I just read all the complaints re: GCT and OAT, as I was trying to find a trip to Europe, convenient for us. Most of our trips (7 or 8) have been very pleasant-once we got there. Our biggest problems are about the inconvenient air times. When we went to Costa Rica, we had to lv Miami at 8 am, and return there at night. There are no early morning or late night flights for CLEVELAND, at those times-necessitating 2 overnights in Miami where even the 2 star hotels are expensive.

We had a similar experience on our second trip to Peru. Even thought there were more convenient flights, they were willing only to change one. We have had great guides on most of our trips, exceept one in Peru where the woman was very intrusive,and accompanied us on the Amazon (even tho' we had another guide-naturalist -very good) and another in Hong Kong, who followed us into the airport to extract a trip (for terrible service). On another trip to Peru, we had an "assistant" guide, who was learning. His English was not good, although he was a very agreeable person. Were we required to tip both guides? We recently attended a breakfast meeting in Cleveland, but were not contacted following that. I have been assigned three different "personal representatives" in the Boston office, but none ever did anything for me. We have only added one option, when we went to Antartica. We flew on a regular scheduled airline to Buenos Airies, and to Ushuia, while those who went directly to Ushuia complained about the "bailing wire airline" they flew. We had to reeturn via "Bailing Wire". Like others, I have never received an answer regarding any problems- I passed up my last special credit.

Gail of Clinton, CT January 5, 2009

Gail of Clinton CT (01/05/09)
I have been reading in dismay all of the complaints about GCT. We are about to take our eighth trip with them because we have had nothing but positive experiences. We have done river boats and escorted tours. Of all of the people we have encountered on these trips, we have never heard any serious grumbling or consequence. Of course there are those who feel entitled and complain about the most mundane things not taking into account that this company is responsible for a lot of people at one time and do their best to accomodate everyone.

We have seen them deal with lost luggage, family deaths, broken hips, arms and legs,illness and unavoidable change of plans--high river, broken bus etc. Our tour guides have been excellent and knowledgeable.Never have we seen them deal with any of these problems less than professionally and compassionately. We will continue to travel with this company. Our contact with the home office in Boston has always been helpful and courteous. Until I experience any of these complaints I will continue to reccomend this company.

Anita of Harrisburg, PA January 1, 2009

Anita of Harrisburg PA (01/01/09)
This is commendation for OAT's (Grand Circle) handling of my recent complaint.

I took their first-time offering: a Red Sea Cruise - including Israel, Jordan, Saudia Arabia and Egypt. We've travelled with Grand Circle many times in the past and always had excellent trips. We were disappointment in some aspects of this trip mostly due to this being the first time this trip was offered and there were bugs in the implementation. However...

We complained by letter, and were responded to very promptly by phone, and completely satisfied with their response. We have found Grand Circle a great travel tour group to travel with.

There were no lasting consequences, and the company completely made good on things that went wrong on the trip.

Joan of Suquamish, WA November 6, 2008

Joan of Suquamish WA (11/06/08)
My husband and I have traveled with OAT (parent company is Grand Circle Travel) several times and had 2 trips scheduled for 2009, but OAT cancelled the one scheduled for September in France, along with all but about 3 of their entire 2009 europe tours. This year we referred 9 new customers to OAT who booked trips. Three of those people traveled to Europe in the spring of 2008, and the other 6 people booked a trip to France for September, 2009.

The Grand Circle web site as well as the customer service representatives I spoke with when we booked our trip to Costa Rica for February, 2009, indicated that we would received a check in the mail in January, 2009, for referring those 9 new customers. Then a couple of weeks ago we received a letter indicating that the France trip was cancelled by OAT. My account on line indicates that I will only receive 250 in January for the 3 people I referred who traveled this last spring.

The Vacation Ambassador Referral Program, which I have a copy of dated 10/16/08, indicates that a cash bonus will be sent out based on the total number of travelers referred in 2008 who reserve a trip by 12/31/08. It indicates that cash bonus payouts will mail in January, 2009. There is nothing that indicates the cash bonus for new referrals is based on the customers completing the trip, as is the case for Travel Credits. The customers I referred for the September, 2009, trip which OAT cancelled did not choose to cancel the trip and they are looking into other possible trips with OAT.

I met the terms of the Vacation Ambassador Referral Program as set out by OAT and I expect OAT to stand behind its promise. We booked our Costa Rica trip in February with the understanding that the 1000 would be mailed to us in January, and that was a critical factor in our decision to book the trip. I mailed a letter to Alan, president of grand Circle Travel on October 23 and have received no word back. This situation raises concern about the business practices of Grand Circle as well as their customer service and their committment to standing behind their promises.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |