Travelbrands

Their call department took an hour and a half, guy one the phone was yelling at us and rude. Avoid them like the plague...

I will never use this company ever again. Changed my wife's airfare one week ago and they triple charged me!!!

Still waiting for them to return the funds to my account. It has been one week and they blame the ba

February 2020 I booked a trip of a life time to Australia, New Zealand and Figi.

Travel would commence May 29, 2020 to June 26, 2020

My trip Insurance was booked with Manulife. My Flights were booked with Air Canada, Air Zealand, and my excursions were booked with TRAVEL BRANDS.

Shortly there after we all know what happened.

COVID. Most countries closed their boarders, and this included the countries I were to Visit.

A few weeks later I contacted my Insurance company the airlines and my excursions company and advised I like to get my monies back (because I had paid the monies up front) and decided I was not interested in travelling in the future because it was uncertain when the countries would open its boarders..

Some months later I received my monies for my Insurance company, and the airlines, but not from TRAVEL BRANDS.

April 13th 2020 I received a Travel Voucher from TRAVEL BRANDS advising me that they would NOT be giving me my monies back ($2370.00) and the travel Voucher would be for future travel and expire June 30, 2021.

I advised TRAVEL BRANDS I had no interest of travelling in the future and please return my monies. After many, many emails I have not received my monies.

February 15, 2023 I sent an email to TRAVEL BRANDS advising them they have 48hrs to sent me my monies or I would be going public.

Morning of February 15, 2023, at 9:37am received an email form TRAVEL BRANDS, We have our product manager who is looking into this for you.

February 16, 2023 I received an email from TRAVEL BRANDS asking for a contact phone number.

The number was sent that day.

I have sent 4 or 5 emails since advising Im patiently waiting for the return phone call.

Now its March 6th and I have NOT received that phone call.

I have been travelling for over 50yrs, and I have NEVER experience such poor service in all my life.

Barry

Medicine Hat

Alberta. DON

Was denied boarding going to and returning no response for a week stuck in mexico from redlabel!! Tied at least a dozen times always put on hold and forgot about.

Some response would have been nice, spent another $4000.

To make sure didn't miss my resort booking also. Not one phone number in all the paperwork has a contact that actually answered there phone

Confirmation # 5692**** Arrival Date February 21,2023

Passengers: Darnel Dorey & Scott Daniels

We booked the Sens Cancun with the pre-conceived booking that we were going to an Adults Only Resort!!

We were completely misled by Sunquest. And the Hotel description on the website.

We arrived last night. Our first night at the resort, Feb 21st. And we had tons of kids running around and yelling, clearly this is not an Adult Only Resort. Upon checking in, the Sens Staff advised us that this is a family resort and not an Adult Only Resort to which we booked and purchased.

I am clearly disappointed and mortified that we spent $2387 a person to come to a family resort which we could have booked an Adult only resort with another travel agency.

We travel 3 times a year and just booked a trip in October 2022 with Sunquest and had planned on future bookings. However with this huge error by Sunquest, I will be reconsidering future travel bookings.

Due to this virus. Show som compassion

“The mouse that ate the elephant”- Travel Brands now swallowing dream vacations

Do you like travelling for pleasure, vacation, adventure, and cultural experiences etc.? Or was your dream vacation ‘swallowed’ by a fat mouse with symptoms of indigestion? If your answer is yes to either question, you may want to read this story.

It is about our Italy tour swallowed by the Travel Brands (TB) which clearly stated in the brochure, “...Tours are guaranteed to depart with a minimum of two people traveling together.” We had a booking of a party of four people since May 2015. The story of the Three Brothers who founded the Travel Brands in 2013 (incidentally both TBs) is not only that of “The mouse that ate the elephant,” as quoted on the website but now in 2015, the same mouse is seemingly having financial trouble, unable to stomach the elephant for too long.

The Three Brothers claim to have come full circle when they acquired the entire Thomas Cook Canada in 2013 and created a new ‘super distribution’ model with a total of 15 retail and wholesale brands. These include the likes of Sunquest, Holiday House, Alba Tours, and their original company, Belair Travel. Unfortunately, the mouse, who tried to digest the elephant little too fast but could not, is now facing a court supervised financial reorganization with uncertainty and protection from its creditors. I have no understanding of the legal implications of such “bankruptcy” type proceedings in Canada. Our vacation dream is swallowed by this “mouse” and my goal is to forewarn many others who may be in a similar situation or are in the wings for doing business with the TBs. In my experience the story of TBs suggests a steep but unsustainable “rise” by the mouse in 2013 who may be finding itself in an equally steep “fall” In 2015.

The Court has appointed KPMG as the “watchdog” agency (Monitor) during CCAA (Companies Creditors Arrangement Act) proceedings of the TBs. The CCAA is a federal law allowing insolvent corporations that owe their creditors in excess of $5 million to restructure their business and financial affairs. According to the report prepared by KPMG and submitted in the court, an example of the losses of about $4.5 million in 2014 are attributed to the underperformance of Alba Tours and Encore Cruise. These losses are expected to grow to $11.6 million in FY 2015. However, the Alba Tours continue to do business as usual. It is not clear why the court did not question the continuation of business or halted business completely by the financially troubled Alba Tours. It is also not clear how well KPMG did its due diligence and informed the court. The consumers would never know the motives of either of the TBs- a wishful ‘hope’ for recovering the losses or creating a ‘despair’ for the travelers? For us it is the latter because we trusted the written statements and promises like, ‘Number one priority is providing a vacation experience that you will treasure always,” and ‘Commitment to customers- to be completely satisfied with products/services.”

More importantly, we were told verbally by the booking agent that Alba Tours never cancelled a tour. I now understand that the written and verbal assurances by TB (the company) on behalf of TB (the brothers) were no more than what was meant to be swallowed by the mouse who once ate the elephant. I wish I had not taken everything on its face value but the hindsight is always 20/20.

In the big picture our dream vacation is not only swallowed by this mouse, we are facing significant losses which TBs are not willing to compensate for. I have communicated with the Three Brothers directly with no resolution. We will go ahead with our vacation dream and not let the TBs have the pleasure of writing their next story of the mouse swallowing our vacation and creating “despair” for its dream vacationers like us. We plan to travel on our own because our tickets are already booked and will continue our fight with TBs in the court of public opinion and other avenues. We know that if all else fails we must “stomach” our losses to save our dream vacation. What is unfortunate and troubling in all of this is that the TBs, proudly portraying, “A driving force in the Canadian travel industry” appear to be in the state of desperation, despair, and possible demise. The intent of this story is to forewarn the future vacationers to be wary of any mouse that claims to have eaten an elephant- it is “too big” to be true.

I am an avid traveler but this experience gave me some humbling thoughts about the TBs; avoid doing business with TB at least until their fate is decided by the court. I know I will never do it again. If you already have something in the works with them, consider getting out it if you can before being swallowed by the financially ailing mouse. Lastly, please question every statement you read or hear which, I know, appears counter to our good practices of doing business in good faith. The TBs, in my experience, have crossed what could be a business in good faith with trust.

Finally, if you have a story of your dream vacation shattered and swallowed, let others know so we all learn lessons. We must not let anyone be victimized of possible unethical and inappropriate practices by the mouse with indigestion or a travel agency with ‘big’ words but ‘little’ to deliver. Let us wish the TBs a happy ending in their battle for financial reorganization while we exercise caution in saving our dream vacation from falling prey to the ailing mouse.