Overseas Adventure TravelReviews of oattravel.com

Actually, we haven't left for our trip yet. We are scheduled to leave in mid October and decided to arrive early and spend the nights of 10/13- 15 at the hotel in Lisbon where the tour will start. My mistake was booking and paying for this early arrival before the tour starts thru OAT. The friend I am traveling with wants to take me on a special trip to Porto for the nights of 10/14 (my birthday) and 10/15. So I called OAT to cancel the early pre tour starting nights of 10/14 and 10/15. No can do. If I had booked directly with the hotel I could have. So so greedy, OAT. Now for one night (1 night) it will cost me nearly $1,000.00, the full price of all 3 nights.. For one night. Checking in at 3pm on 10/13 and leaving the hotel at 10:00 am the next morning. Cost for 1 night/ 19 hours will be close to $1,000.00. So be aware, friends, that changes, even a month in advance, to early arrival pre-tour on your own will cost you the full price with no refunds if you book thru OAT. Book on your own with the hotel. This is the hotel they booked me in for that I now have to pay nearly $1,000.00 for one night. Check out the prices if you book on your own. Turim Marques Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal. Rates at this hotel if you book on your own is between $100- $200 a night. I have learned my lesson. These companies may have been good pre pandemic. Now they are just trying to make up for lost profits by these sorts of business practices. I have traveled extensively on my own (48 countries) but thought that traveling with a small group would be easier now. After this trip, however, I am back to traveling on my own. I would never have to spend nearly $1,000.00 for one night/19 hours on a hotel if I was traveling on my own.

Anyone know a good consumer class action attorney? That's what this company deserves. I was mostly satisfied with Road Scholar, but was seduced by an OAT trip's pre- and post-options, as well as the 'no single supplement,' so signed up. I told the Travel Dep't I wanted to travel Business Class, and they made the reservation I had researched and requested. Now that it's time to pay, I noticed that they also charged me $1200 for economy round-trip airfare. Even though their website says "Free round-trip economy airfare!!!" I have never seen anything so outrageous. The customer service guy I ended up practically screaming at kept repeating lines from the handbook trying to appease me, but couldn't/wouldn't address my complaint about paying for airfare that a) supposed to be free and b) I'm not using. The R/T business fare I found on Google was just a few dollars more than what they're charging me for the Business Class 'upgrade'. Please, someone sue these people on behalf of all of us!

THIEVES! Buyer Beware! My mother had legitimate reasons for cancelling and even purchased Cancel for any Reason insurance. Allianz insurance assured her she’d be reimbursed in full and then OAT deducted $2,000 from her reimbursement. This company lacks honesty and integrity and we will spread the word far and wide to save others from such deception and shameful business practices!

To be courteous and professional, I am letting you know in writing that this information is also going to the Attorney General’s office in Boston, the BBB, Yelp, Google, Tripadvisor, ConsumerAffairs, and Trustpilot. It has been a tremendous waste of our time trying to get our money back after cancelling our trip. Starting on 29 Nov 2022, we were told multiple times, both by phone and by email, that our request has been given to the finance department for review. We have never heard back nor have we received our refund. This is ridiculous. Both my wife and I are retired and have traveled extensively with many other companies but never has any company given us such a runaround/delay. From numerous calls and emails and hours on hold, this is without a doubt the worst customer service we have EVER experienced. No one should ever be treated this way…especially a loyal returning customer. One can only theorize OAT is planning to go out of business. We were told that we have until the end of 2023 to use the credits from our cancelled trip. But due to your policy of requiring a COVID vaccination, which you did not have in place when we initially booked our trip with you, we will not have time to use the credits. Holding our money, from the initial booking on 29 Mar 2021, while making it impossible to use the credits is neither legal nor ethical. Also, if we were to book and trip after being treated like this everyone on the trip would hear firsthand how we have been treated. No…that’s a promise. After this complaint is filed, there will be no more, “contact us at…so we can assist you”. Enough is enough. Just do what is right or we will keep this up. Customer # 2822077

I canceled my trip for October on April 26th. I was informed in writing since I had the Allianz trip insurance that I would receive a refund by May 11th. When I did not receive it I wrote to inquire. I was told the policy had changed to 30 days - May 26th. I replied that I was not notified of any policy change and expected them to honor thw agreement they put in writing. The next response said I would not receive my refund to June 8th. I called and spoke to a rep then escalated to a manager and was told there was nothing they could do their finance department is overwhelmed. That might be a BIG clue for those thinking of booking with them!

i booked a trip w/OAT. my first return to international travel since covid. i liked that the trip was on a small ship with a cap of 25 fellow travelers . better yet the ship would transit through the corinth canal (part of my bucket list for years). two days ago OAT advised me via letter that he itinerary had changed a bit. i was informed that the corinth canal is closed and that instead of making the transit to delphi by ship , it would be done instead by a 7 hour bus ride over mountainous terrain. other modifications were also revealed. I called OAT to cancel. i was informed that siince i was cancelling 35 days out, i would be subject to a 65% cancellation "fee" (read penalty) and that i could recoup the balance from the "any reason" trip insurance i had purchased from their travel partner allianz (more on this below). by this time , i had researched the status of the corinth canal and had discovered that the corinth canal has been closed since january 2021and that the authorities have indicated a re-opening of the canal in summer 2023. NEVER at any time or in any correspondence did an OAT representative offer any information regarding the canal. in discussing my desire to cancel the OAT,agent asked if i would like to move my departure date to MAY 2023. you have got to be ... that "any reason" trip insurance ? well it turns out that you do have to have a reason and the exclusion list of coverage is longer than the inclusions . cancelling because OAT made a consequential change to the itinerary does not qualify.so if you dont have a qualifying reason , allianz will issue a travel voucher w/OAT for a future trip w/OAT for the balance of what i had originally paid minus the 35 % reimbursement from OAT. had i not cancelled when i did , allianz would be offering me a 100% travel voucher. after my experience w/OAT the last thing i want is a travel voucher from them. it is my sincere belief that OAT has ,from the very first contact ( and continues today) acted in bad faith. proof? go look up this trip on their website . they are still marketing the corinth canal today with nary an asterix regarding the canals closure. pure and simple deceit; delays in notifications that then create higher penalties; lack of transparency; disregard for ethical treatment of customers are all attributes that this company embraces. if you are considering travel with them I STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO RUN FOR THE DOOR P.S.- i wish i could have gone with zero stars

We have traveled 11 times, spending more than $110,000 with this company---NEVER again! Booked our last trip with them to Egypt. On our return home our tickets on American Airlines on our final leg were cancelled by British Air. The flight was not cancelled--only our tickets. If we wanted to get home we had to pay $650 for tickets on the same flight that OAT had already booked us on. we were at the gate ready to board and told tickets cancelled. We paid, now OAT says it's not their responsibility even though they made all flight reservations and were paid for all reservations. Beware--OAT will take your money but give no help when they owe you $$$

I have been on hold for hours and hours over several days and have not got through - I dont know how I ever got through in the first place to make a booking. This is ridiculous