Road ScholarReviews of roadscholar.org

I went on a trip, Sicily Cooking. Booked it on Jan. 4, 2022. In March they emailed me a flight plan for 3 connections from Chgo. When I called asking to be booked for 1 connection they refused. There were 2 routes that had 1 connection. It was a nightmare the moment we tried to check in at O'Hare. The first flight was cancelled and the way the air was booked Delta and Air France were blocked by ITA airlines from issuing another ticket. It took 3 1/2 hours for a new ticket. Called Road Scholar emergency number, after going through their lengthy recordings was connected to someone who then transferred me back to the recording. No help at all. In Paris, the first stop, missed the connecting flight do to first flight being late. Air France was again blocked from issuing a new ticket. I had to walk more than a mile though the airport to go to Delta to try to issue the ticket, they had problems with the block on the ticket and I almost missed the connecting flight. Of course, my checked in bag was lost with all the flight problems. The hotel room (paid the single supplement) should not have been used by any Road Scholar customer. To get to the room had to climb 5 steps, in the room a step to get into the bathroom, no place to charge phone. Hotel had to unplug lamps behind the bed to charge devises. Toilet paper kept above and behind toilet. Other people on this trip had nice remodeled rooms. To leave the hotel over 100 steps to get to the street for tourists. Guide did not let us know if there were other places to go and shop or eat.. Since I had so many problems with air coming I wanted to check to make sure the return flights were ok. Emailed Road Scholar just to ask them to check the flights because I couldn't, their response was to use the locator number which I told them didn't work. I sent back a reply which said I tried that, the next response was, not my job, call the travel department. They wouldn't even refer my request to their travel department. This is my 4th trip with them, I don't know what happened on this trip which will be the last with them. When talking to their representative she blamed the airline and hotel for the problems. Stated they are not a travel agency and they are adequately staffed. The only thing they offered was a credit for the single supplement. Since I will never travel with them again, it is useless.

Great trips, terrible interface. Once they have your money they hand you off to the actual trip provider and are unwilling to help you through the maze that provider may have.

Our trip to Egypt was cut short by a week because of the Covid-19 situation. I had purchased trip insurance through Road Scholar for that trip. Obviously, it had to be cut short, but Road Scholar assured us that we would be reimbursed for the part of the trip we missed. That did not happen. They have sent me many requests for donations, and nothing about reimbursement. After almost 2 months are requesting some remuneration, they finally offered a small credit toward another trip....but it had to be by June 5th. Um...we are still in the middle of a pandemic, so that's not going to happen. They have not offered one penny of my money back even though I bought my insurance from them. Yes, they're an educational travel group...and boy! did I get an education.