Overseas Adventure TravelReviews of oattravel.com

After making a reservation and submitting a deposit for a tour, I thought I had locked in the quoted price. They offer deep discounts for advanced payment, but I opted to wait until the payment due date, understanding that there would be no pre-payment discounts. The final payment due date is in late October 2024 for a trip commencing in January 2025. I received a letter in early August advising that the price of our trip had increased by $200 per person. The letter went on to say that I we paid in full by August 30, 2024, they would waive the price increase. This seems to me to be a breach of trust. The reason a deposit is required in advance is to protect the company, but I would think also to protect the consumer by locking in the quoted price. At no time did the agent who took my reservation mention that the price was subject to change. This sort of thing has never happened to us on Rick Steves Tours, or on Wilderness Adventure Travel tours. It did not happen on any of the three previous OAT tours we took. But OAT is doing this now. They have a new CEO who seems to be more financially oriented than customer oriented. Bottom line: don't trust the price they quote. They feel entitled to change the price and terms at will.

OAT’s service has declined post-covid. It no longer supports the plane tickets OAT purchases for YOU. In our case, they failed to help with our Business Class tickets they had purchased for us and no one was available to help for 3 days via phone. The tour guide was more interested in meeting her schedule and her family than in assisting guests and failed to provide “included services”. The Mercedes bus skylight leaked on our seats during the frequent rains. The stairs in the back of the bus were dangerous and lacked a handrail. Two of the hotels did not offer “take out” porter service for bags.

I have a major complaint on the pricing system of the tour. On Jul 17, 2024, after speaking with an agent, he prepared a trip summary for me with the exact tour dates and prices (web pricing). On Jul 18, 2024, I called OAT early in morning as I had some questions, after all the questions were answered, I agreed to make the $500 deposit. I verbally confirmed a few times with the agent using the pricing in my trip summary, he confirmed the pricing, and told me that an email confirmation would be sent to me. However, when I checked the email that night, the Pre-Trip, Main trip and Post-trip were all increased by $100 (Tour package increased by $300), I tried to call OAT but the office was closed. On 7/19/24 morning, I called OAT to find out why the prices were increased and spent an hour on the phone with agent and later a supervisor. I am VERY disappointed when the supervisor told me that there was Web system issue which caused the pricing different from the Booking system, and the option I was given was to change to a different cheaper tour, take it or leave it, there is no attempt to honor the verbally confirmed price even it is OAT's internal system issue. I decide to cancel the tour. I am new to OAT, and this is a terrible first experience. I feel the arrogance in OAT's policy, I have traveled with many different tour companies before, and never have experienced price change on tour packages from day to day. There are so many other good adventure tour companies out there.

June 8-July 2, 2024. Lima, Machu Picchu, Amazon, Galapagos. OAT has not concept of timelines nor do they care about efficiency. The pretrip from Lima to Iquitos then off to the Amazon was okay, because I was able to obtain better airlne seats. But then, we met the rest of the so called group for the remainder back in Lima. When we could have gone directly to Cusco instead of wasting two days with a bunch of people with eating disorders or sorely out of shape. Clearly, the bold print said what the physical requirements were. The guide for Ecuador, Alberto Zambrano, and Galapagos had his own agenda. We had to suffer through his briefing which most of the OAT stuff was covered previously then there was the optional Spa day at the tune of $110. Alberto handed out a flyer for he spa and said one should pick out what one wants. Then the ball dropped. Reservations were supposed to have been made but since they weren't we missed out. And on it went. Communications was lacking and surprises constantly as to the schedule, such as 0300 wake up for a joke of a flight. We made a two leg stop to the Galapagos when there was a direct flight. What is the buffoon at OAT thinking?

I applied as a tour guide for this company. Once I scheduled and arranged an interview I was available to have it via Zoom. However, nobody was available to interview me. Left waiting for 30 minutes I contacted the company about this issue. Apparently I wasn't logged in. It didn't make sense. There was no apology or decision to arrange the interview again. Just unacceptable.

I am completely appalled by how Overseas Adventure Travel is treating me. In a nutshell, 2 friends and I booked a trip for January 2024 (that is why I clicked on Jan 2024 for the required time frame button), but we were unable to take that trip. Our insurance that OAT sold us was “cancel for any reason,” and we cancelled due to worries about escalating American military action in the region. Unfortunately, the “cancel for any reason” insurance policy did not include our reason: our concern about American military intervention in the area. In January 2024, the OAT agent told us that we would receive a travel voucher for the trip amount, minus the cost of insurance, and we would have two years to use the voucher. That was our only option. When my friends and I planned the only trip that interested all of us and that worked with our schedules, we called OAT in April 2024 to book the summer 2025 trip. We explained to the agent that we would be paying for the trip with our voucher, and the agent confirmed that it would be good for two years. However, in mid-April, my friends received their vouchers with an expiration date of April 2025, not 2026 as we had been led to believe. I called and spoke to an OAT representative who told me that yes, it should be two years, but nothing could be done until I received my voucher. Then, in May, I received the voucher with the expiration date of late April 2025, which was a year earlier than I had been promised. I have called and I have written their Support team, requesting that OAT honor its promise (made by three agents) that the voucher would be good for two years, or, at least, the expiration date could be extended until the planned summer 2025 trip could be completed. OAT has not helped me at all. No wonder they don’t work with travel agents; I know that if they accepted bookings from travel agents, my agent would be able to help me. But OAT has proven obstinate and unhelpful. OAT thinks my only option is to find a trip of comparable cost to use by April 2025. However, my travel plans book up well in advance and I really cannot fit in another trip, plus the only OAT option I want to take is the summer 2025 trip that I have already booked. I only ask that OAT honor its verbal contract and allow me to apply the voucher for that specific trip. OAT’s lack of professionalism and integrity have caused me a great deal of distress.

I booked a trip for 7 months in advance. Then found out I was going to need surgery so I needed to cancel the trip less then 30 days after making the reservation. They deducted $ 2,998.00 from my deposit for travel insurance I never used. Plus they will not process the balance of the refund for 45 days. This is a rip off and a money grab. It may not even be legal. I pressed my case with O A T and they said tough luck.

I was on an OAT trip to Tasmania/Australia/New Zealand 12/1/23-1/5/24. Cyclone Jasper (CJ) manifested approximately 12/5/23. At that time, our guide, GH sent email to OAT office in Sydney (S) about CJ recommending that our group be diverted from the Cairns/Port Douglas (C/PD) segment of the tour to another location in Australia. Our C/PD segment was scheduled for 12/16-12/20/23. CJ made landfall at PD on 12/13/23. CJ then stalled for several days in the area until 12/18/23. CJ caused power losses, drinking water shortages,trees to uproot,overflow of rivers and creeks,and mudslides and destabilizing damage on many roads. People needed to be rescued. C airport finally closed (12/16-17/23). Mossman and Daintree River also flooded. Crocodiles were seen floating through Ingham. CJ was the wettest tropical cyclone to impact Australia on record. On 12/16/23, while we were in Ayers Rock, G told us that after CJ had hit things were back to normal in C/PD. When we landed in C. we were met with torrential rain. After several detours, we arrived at the hotel about 12 Midnight. P told us to be in the lobby at 9am for the Wildlife Tour. On 12/17/23 morning, P told us that there would be no trip to the Wildlife Zoo nor any planned activities. We were confined to the hotel. Some of us wrote emails to OAT about our situation in PD. On 12/18/23, we all received an email from Marisela R. Perez, Traveler Relations, OAT that acknowledged the situation we were in and attributed it to circumstances beyond OAT's control. She reiterated that our safety remained OAT's priority. We were angered by her letter. On 12/19/23, planes started to fly in and out of C airport. All the various roads between C and PD were impassable. PD started up a Ferry Service between PD and C. On 12/20/23, we took the Ferry from PD to C and then flew from C to S as originally scheduled. On 12/22/23, we all received another email from Marisela reiterating that the change in program in C/PD was out of OAT's control. As a gesture of good will, we were provided a travel voucher for $500.00 per person to use on any OAT or Grand Circle Tour within the next two years. This second letter angered us even more. We wrote a group response where we all agreed to reject the $500 credit offer from OAT and requested compensation of $10,000.00 cash for each person for OAT's gross if not criminal negligence for sending us into an existing dangerous situation putting our lives at risk. G mentioned the suggestion for altering our itinerary was nixed by Sandrine Le Gillard, VP Regional General Manager, South Pacific. On 1/23/24, Marisela spoke with SC and said the Executive Team would not authorize any refund at all. On 1/28/24, I sent an email to Harriet Lewis, Chairman of the Board with Grand Circle Corporation (GCC), Brian Fitzgerald, CEO GCC and Nicholas D'Angelo, Executive VP Traveler Relations OAT. I requested the following from OAT: 1. A letter from OAT acknowledging their accountability in this grossly negligent incident with an apology 2. Compensation of $10,000.00 for the gross negligence. 3. A conversation with a person in the OAT organization with authority over quality control and processes to get assurance that this will never happen again-to anybody. On 1/31/24 Marisela and I spoke. She said that she was speaking on behalf of Brian Fitzgerald. She said that the decision to send our group to C/PD was based on phone calls to the airline where OAT was told that the planes were flying and to the tourist businesses in C/PD where OAT was told that the tourist venues were open. That was the info OAT had at the time and what happened in PD was unexpected. This is "Force Majeure" or "Act Of God". However, the foreseeable conditions in PD nullifies the third test of unforeseeability to trigger the "Force Majeure" clause. I received a refund of $27,000.00 that I had paid in full for four OAT trips. I will no longer travel with OAT. It is interesting that it has taken OAT over 2.5 years to respond to this post. I have not and will not take any more trips with OAT. The company has changed from a caring company with an educational focus to one of for profit.