Switzerland Tour & Trip Reviews

Recently returned from a Viking Rhine trip on 10/14.
The good:
Rhine water levels were good, no issues. Service on the vessel was A+, excluding one attendant with “attitude” at the front desk. Entertainment was low key but acceptable. Viking succeeds in creating a laid back atmosphere. Viking is like a clock - they run on time. Cabin was nice and shower was exceptional. Most (not all) tours were informative, guides ranged from good to excellent. Tour buses were top shelf with experienced drivers.
The not so good:
All 6 in our group were disappointed with the food (not service but food) all week excluding breakfast. All felt the food offerings got “old” real fast. Food appeared to be prepared in advance and then reheated. Plenty of TV movies, tv and internet reception poor all week.
Most concerning
Viking, customs, and airline never asked to see our proof of vaccination. While Viking did a excellent job in keeping the boat itself clean and sanitized we had an issue on one of the bus tours. A unmasked woman sitting directly behind my wife was sweating & coughing non-stop. Not a occasional sneeze or cough, it was obvious this woman was ill. At the first stop multiple riders relocated to seats as far away from this individual as possible. Regrettably, Viking said/did noting.
Viking claims they are not the Covid police and if we felt compromised we should have put on a mask. Absolutely ridiculous that Viking felt we should have masked but took action to pull this woman aside, require her to mask with a suggestion to see a physician. Again - we’re not talking about normal coughing and sneezing- this woman was visibly ill. Viking was willing to put 30 travelers at risk rather then ask a visibly ill woman to mask up. It’s Vikings boat, tour, bus but they say and do nothing.
Of course 2 of 6 in our group contracted Covid.
Viking had a obligation to do everything within their control to protect us as best possible. In this instance they didn’t even try.
Not trying to trash Viking, just being truthful.

If I could give them 0 stars, it's what I would do. I have had nothing but problems since I booked our 10 day trip back in August 2021. You don't know what their "cancellation" policy is until after you've booked the trip & taken out the trip insurance. I had to change my original date of departure due to surgery. I rebooked for 7/23/2022. Our flight 114 from Philadelphia last night was cancelled. When I called the Vacation store today to change the trip to August or September 2022, I was told they need 72 hours before the flight to make any changes. I'm not the one that cancelled the flight, I was then told my trip is now only 9 days, not the 10 I paid for. This is the worst company to deal with. They've got their money & you're stuck with nothing, If you cancel the trip altogether, you get nothing back, no matter what the reason. Hope anyone who has booked a trip with these morons doesn't have a travel partner that dies, because you are really screwed without a kiss. Hopefully we will fly out tonight & not lose another day in Ireland.

Terrible experience - with no resolution in sight. We have been experiencing difficulties with the vacation store postponed travel itinerary for 2 years - trying to reschedule our trip and have not been contacted with any flight or trip confirmation - and NO ONE to contact directly for more information. We’ve been told that “operations” or “airfare” departments will get back to me by the end of the week or within the next few days - and they don’t. How do we end this nonsense and get a refund? Even disclosing a personal health matter did not lead to any resolution. We are VERY frustrated, to say the least. Looking for guidance on this matter… thank you.

I have had to rebook my trip several times due to COVID concerns. I have kept a record of each time I called, and each person I have spoken to. While all were nice, Lexi stands out. She is pleasant and very efficient and follows through. She understands the issue or request I have immediately, which makes the whole procedure much more efficient. Lexi deserves a bonus!!!!

Hello,I'm backed from my holiday in Barbados since the 14th of Feb, hotel and flight perfect. When I landed no transfer to be seen so I asked one of the local taxi guys to call the transfer guy who arrived with a van with other people in it. I had paid for a private transfer so more standing around with my mother who was getting stressed.

Transfer to hotel all good after the drama. I got the hotel to ring 2 days before I was due to leave to make sure my transfer was booked to airport, it was confirmed for 2.30pm for 13th.

So no pick up came left stranded so had to get a taxi which was hard to get as island was busy on a Sunday with cruise ship.

Totally unacceptable service, I paid for and did not get.

I have contacted your office still waiting on Sharon to update me .

Can you please come back to me on this I'm getting annoyed I have to keep ringing and sending emails,I spent a lot of money going on this trip to treat my mother after an operation and I won't this closed out by end of the week.

Regards
Denise

Poor, poor, poor!!!!
I received an email telling me of my flight cancellation and that I'd receive alternative flights within 24 hours. 5 days later no email so I called the customer service from which I was told I could have a refund, when I asked for a confirmation email I was told the call centre was unable to generate emails. Anyway 2 weeks passed and no refund so I got back in contact and again I was told I'd receive a voucher refund and this could take up to a week, Weeks later and still no refund, I wouldn't mind but the flight was paid for with a voucher I received after a previous flight was cancelled. Also tried fillig in an online refund applications, as yet still waiting.

I like to give a big shout out to Claudia Bombeck from customer service. She went above and beyond to make me feel confident that my trip would go though without a hitch in the uncertain travel times. Not only was she professional but personable at the same time. I've had other Aer Lingus agents take my calls in the past but Claudia is the best.
Thanks,
Maureen F

I'd like to give -* if that was possible. Do not book a trip with this company. The travel protection insurance is a joke. Three of our party cancelled and got no money back, just a credit which had to be immediately rebooked. When we got to the Edinburgh airport there were no cars available for our party. The list goes on. TERRIBLE COMPANY. THE ABSOLUTE WORST.

I wish I could give them zero or negative stars. This is absolutely the worse customer service I have ever dealt with. They make it impossible to change reservation ( Aer Lingus canceled the flights due to covid) this company wouldn’t even let me reschedule. They said a supervisor had to call me back in 24-72 hours. Then I was informed that I had until the next day at noon to reschedule or lose my reservation.
They did everything they could do to make sure I missed the window of being able to reschedule.

I don't even know if this company Aer Lingus Vacation Store is still in business. They are NOT part of Aer Lingus airlines. They have had my money since January 2020. They canceled my 2020 trip and gave credit - NO REFUNDS. Travel advisory for Ireland in Sept. 2021 says DO NOT TRAVEL to Ireland due to Covid. I have sent many emails, spent HOURS on hold. 12 calls just in the last month with no answer, reply or ability to leave a voice message. A month ago a live person answered, she said that she works out of her home and she would get back to me. There is no indication that this call was ever acknowledged nor any actions taken. I am scheduled to leave in a week and I still can't get a hold of anyone at this company. There is no way to cancel on line, I will be resorting to contacting the airline and hotel and car rental directly to see if they will take the cancellation. My friend and I are out over $4,000 by dealing with Aer Lingus Vacation Store.

Absolute shambles of a company. I know covid is still rife, but come on. Read on.....
Booked flights for Sunday 26th September until 17th October from Manchester to Orlando. First time doing 3 weeks but I'm 60 when we're away and thought this would be a treat. AL informed me that they won't be starting flying out on June as expected because of covid but would be flying from 30th September. So my holidays are before this date. Thought okay - get refund and book for a week later and still get 2 weeks away. Nicey nicey. So I paid a deposit, expecting my voucher to arrive before I pay the balance. Still waiting. Incidentally, I was on the phone for 1.5 hours before I got through to an AI robot, which was a huge waste of time. I had to repeat myself umpteen times and her voice was burbled and gargled like she was drowning. Nothing was achieved. The day comes when I have to pay my balance for my rebooked flight, I go online to pay, but the website is playing up, as actually stated by AL themselves. It said the booking had been cancelled, I assumed because of covid, but no email to say that or even to ask me for my balance, which is just as well I remembered it was due. Tried phoning them and held on for 1hr and 10mins. I phoned another AL number later and held on for 1hr and 30mins. Screenshots to prove! In between all that, desperately trying to get my hands on somebody by email, Facebook or Twitter to no avail. Actually AL on twitter had a statement saying they were having problems with the website and an engineer was working on it! Managed eventually to send a message on FB messenger and got an automated response. Woke up next morning (15 hours after leaving message) and they said as I had not paid my balance on time my booking was cancelled and my deposit was forfeited. I said the deposit should go against a new booking, refunded or even a voucher, under the circumstances. After explaining to them their website was not working and explaining my whole story again, this was to no avail. After 24 messages back and forth (screenshots to prove) she said there was nothing she could do and send in a form! This is still where I am at. Through no fault of my own, trying to pay the balance online, phoning for hours, emailing and messaging them, they are taking no responsibility. Absolute shocking. She said I could have paid by phone, but this was not stated online and I would have probably had to hold on for 2 hours! I have no deposit back and cannot afford to be over £300 out of pocket. They need to get real people there in case of serious problems like this, not AI robots. Disgraceful. Still fighting them.

I just had Aer Lingus cancel parts of my flight back to the US. Despite the fact that I had a ticket in my hand for Aer Lingus, they were unwilling to help me sort a new flight, stating that I had booked through Kayak and they were unable to alter flights booked through a third party.

I contacted the booking agency who said this was not true. The agency told me that they have agreements with other airlines for situations just like this, and that there were laws specifically for this. Still, they refused to help me or let me speak to a manager. For some reason, they also hung up on me not once but twice. I know it's had to believe, but I was incredibly nice even though it was a horrible situation.

They said the call dropped, but it switched to hold music before it dropped, so that doesn't make sense.

Of course now, flights are triple what I paid six months ago. I am stuck in the UK with no way home. I may look into a solicitor. This doesn't seem right.

Someone can explain why does this company even exist? They are just thieves, they take your money without any judicial consequence. Last month I booked a flight, some days later day cancelled for unexplained reasons and never got back to me with neither an explanation nor a refund which I have submitted for more than a month now. Please, no one buy flights from this company, they just laugh at us, and I think seriously this should be taken to court.

Avanti Destinations is a HORRIBLE and dishonest company. Paul Barry(who is sole owner) along wtih executive team of COO Mark Grundy, CMO John Hanratty and CFO Susan Marra should be ashamed on how they run a company. As a military family we booked our trip to London to leave March 21, 2020. This was to be our FAMILY trip overseas. While C19 is not the fault of Avanti, it is Barry who is at fault. While other airlines and travel agencies are giving a 100% REFUND not just vouchers Avanti is holding our money hostage. Trying to work with anyone associated with this company does not response. How can USTOA stand behind this company? How do we get a FULL REFUND from Avanti? My travel agent sent us information and our of almost $7000.00 we would get back $1700.00. Seriously? We are PCSing to another country in Asia and want to travel. What is Avanti decides to file bankruptcy because Barry does not know how to manage clients money. SOMEONE HELP US!!!

I would love to write a review about our meticulously planned out trip, but as our $12000 week long trip to London and Dublin was cancelled due to a global pandemic, I cannot. This company has made it not just hard but nearly impossible to help out their customers who are in awful situations during this time. They are completely unwilling to budge on their bottom line even a little.

We had to cancel due to boarder/country closings and this company is trying to keep 100% of our money. We were booked to fly with British Airlines, and BA refunded $700 per person and that is all that this company has given us.

If by some miracle we get a representative on the phone they are condescending and degrading. I even spoke with the VP of the company and he was the worst. He made me feel small and unimportant. This whole company is taking advantage of the situation and unless people get lawyers involved they are completely unwilling to refund any money.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! If something goes wrong on your trip, which let face it, multi country trips often have at least one thing go wrong, this company will NOT HELP! Do yourself a favor and go with someone else who has much better customer service and company values.