"Beware Gate 1 Travel!"

UPDATE: I had a manager reach out to resolve the issue. They said they would cancel the trip and issue a full refund. I check the mail and it's only HALF the amount. Where is my money?! Just when I thought about giving them another chance this is a sign to not to. I won't stop until I get my FULL refund. Do better Gate 1.


I am extremely disappointed with Gate 1 travel. This is my first and last time booking with this company. I bought a Groupon that included flight and stay for Cartagena from Gate 1. At the time of booking there were so many additional fees that they were trying to up sale me on. Eventually I was able to get exactly what I paid for. However, today I get an email from JetBlue saying my flight has been canceled. They instructed me to reach out to Gate 1 travel. So I reached out to Gate 1 and they told me my only options were a credit towards another trip or to pay $500 PER PERSON to be switched to another flight!!! What?! This is an issue completely out of my control. As a company why do you feel this is acceptable and the only options? Why am I being penalized? I’m not getting my money back and possibly won’t be able to make this trip. I can not believe this is happening and Gate 1 is so lax about a solution. I am absolutely livid and so disappointed in how this “company” decides to handle their business and they have zero concern for the consumer once they have their money.

"Bad post Customer Service"

I had a spectacular trip to Tuscany, Italy. We were a group of 22 people. When we returned to the United States, 9 people from the travel group, including me, did not get our bags; the airlines don't know where the bags are and when we called Gate1 Travel we didn't get any collaboration either. Gate1 Travel has a commercial relationship with Lufthansa, why do they wash their hands so easily? Perhaps they do not appreciate their customers. I am very disappointed.

"Lousy pre-trip services"

This is my first and probably last trip on Gate 1 and I haven't even left yet! Horrible, Horrible, Horrible customer service! Email questions from April haven't been responded to yet! When you call, it can take hours to get through! People you talk to can't resolve even simple issues. Call backs in a week???

"Gate1 - Fraudulant Travel Agent"

We recently travelled back from Antalya, where we had luggage booked for both the inbound and outbound confirmed by Gate1. Freebird refused to allow our luggage as their system did not show the booked luggage. We requested Gate 1 assistance via their contact page, where our request was automatically closed as Freebird is a budget airline with whom they refuse to negotiate.

"I agree with other people on this site…"

I agree with other people on this site about the customer service. I have been on one other trip with Gate 1 and it was great and the customer service was great. I booked a tour in 2018 that we still have not been able to take. It has been cancelled by Gate 1 THREE TIMES. So here we are in 2022, was scheduled to fly out this morning and lo and behold Gate 1 called at 1pm yesterday telling me that my trip was yet again cancelled. No empathy, no solutions, no "I'm Sorry", nothing. I have had to scramble 3 times to reschedule airline flights for 5 people. I have spent hours on the phone with airlines(literally hours), and here we are, years later and still have not taken the trip. It's almost comical. As an advisory, NEVER assume that a Gate 1 trip will actually be a go, and don't have any expectations for their customer service. But the actual trip(once you get there) is very good. It's the company itself that sucks. Do not let the response fool you. This is a company that has cancelled on me at the last minute 3 TIMES for the same trip that I booked in 2018!!!!, each time I had already purchased airline tickets and have spent countless hours on the phone trying to rectify the situation. I want to add that the worst part of the situation is that never once have they apologized, acted like they cared at all and have NEVER tried to help me book another trip or work with me in ANY way. I would steer clear of this company and many like it, because no matter if you cancel or they cancel they will do everything in their power to keep your money and make it as difficult as possible to get it back and their customer "no" service is rude and unhelpful. Go to a smaller company or just do everything yourself is my only advice. These people are just too far removed from being human.

"Gate 1 Travel to Morocco (May 21-28, 2022)"

The POSITIVES - This is our 8th tour with Gate 1 Travel (8 Day Essential Morocco, May 21-28, 2022. Like all our previous tours with Gate 1 Travel, our expectations were met. Our Tour Manager Mohamed, the bus driver Fetah and tour assistant Aziz were all exceptional and helpful. Local tour guides at Fez and Marrakech were very knowledgeble and informative during our optonal tour activities. Hotels in Rabat, Fez, Marrakech and Casablanca were all centrally located enabling you to do further site seeing in your free time after you had arrived in your hotels.

The NEGATIVES:
1) On our 2nd full day at our hotels in Barcelo Fez Medina and Novotel Marrakech respectively, housekeeping forgot to give us fresh supply of towels. We both have to call housekeeping and the desk to remind them that towels were not issued at all.
2) On our last breakfast day at Novotel Marrakech, the staff were not at all wearing mask. The worst is that one of the staff delivering baked items were not using a tong to transfer said baked items from his cart to the tray on the table but using his bare hands to do it. VERY UNSANITARY especially when this pandemic is still around us.
3) We had traveled with Gate 1 for the longest time and my wife and I had always been assigned seats together (an aisle and middle seats or window and middle seats at times) but not separately seating on middle sites on different rows. Talking to our fellow Gate 1 Travel passengers departing from JFK on the same flight (AT-201 Royal Air Maroc), a number of couples traveling together too were all separated and assigned middle seats. Why is it like this, is Royal Air Maroc trying to make money from seat change fees if the husband and wife travelers would like to be seated together. Luckily for us on departure day for JFK, we were able to seat together as the return flight (AT-200) was not fully booked at all. Thanks to the RAM agent at Casablanca who granted our request to be seated together.

"Cannot get any help with reservation…"

Cannot get any help with reservation 2074195. It's an easy fix but no one will step up and change my flight reservation. Instead they want me to have a 20 hour travel day when others in my group have a direct 10 hr flight. It's ridiculous how callous and indifferent this company is. Worst customer service in HISTORY. Travelers beware.

"Hi travelers"

Hi travelers. We did a nice Peruvian 12 days kaleidoscope trip. So happened that at Orlando airport in USA our baggage was delayed and two days were without our comfortable belongings. Our tour manager Mauricio Gomez coped perfectly with the problem and our baggage caught up with us in Cusco after 50 hours delay. Dear Mauricio, will you take our deep gratitude and respect for your care of tourist needs and problem. Mauricio treat tourists as a family, we used to hear from him Coca-Cola and answer Inca-Cola. Gate 1 performed all points of the trip. Definitely we will do other trip with Gate 1.
Yuri and Luda, Russian Canadience
may 2022

"Horrible travel company"

Horrible travel company. Booked a trip with cancel for any reason insurance. Attempted to cancel 4 mos in advance due to health reasons and took 20 hrs on the phone, completing a application thru an entirely different company, and receiving only 50% of my paid funds. Have attempted to contact customer service by phone and email over 20 times and never received a call back. NEVER AGAIN. There are much better options available

"I recently completed my 4th trip with…"

I recently completed my 4th trip with Gate 1 - this time to Guatemala/Tikal. It was an amazing trip as were all my others with Gate 1. Wonderful hotels, top notch tour guide and bus driver and another great group of travelers. I have my 5th trip booked to Thailand in March 2023 and cannot wait!