"Why is Gate1 Travel not refunding my money?"

I booked a trip with Gate1 Travel to tour Italy in July 2020. I purchased travel insurance. I have been attempting to get a full refund since no travel to Europe is allowed because of COVID-19. The travel insurance company, Arch Insurance, has informed me that I will not get a refund; apparently pandemics are not covered. When I log into my account at Gate1, there is no option for a refund. I paid approximately $1200. but have been told via email from Gate1 that I can only get approximately $200. refunded. Again, when I log into my Gate1 Travel account there is NO REFUND OPTION only cancellation or re-booking. Why is Gate1 Travel keeping my money? They didn't provide the service so a full refund seems reasonable.

"Absolutely the WORST travel agency in…"

Absolutely the WORST travel agency in the world.
They will hold your money hostage and charge you through the roof for cancellation fees. Avoid like the plague.

"Avoid Gate 1"

I should have listened to my cousin and avoided Gate 1 travel. My wife and I booked a Danube River Cruise for October 2020, we each took out travel protection insurance ($329 each = $658). We also had Gate 1 handle the complete package for air travel, hotels and the cruise--thought they would act like any other travel agency--boy were we in for a nasty surprise! When Covid-19 hit we wanted to cancel our trip, primarily because I had recently had open heart surgery plus I would have been 73 years old at the time of our trip I could not risk my life without a treatment option and/or vaccine. I felt certain that the insurance policy we bought via Gate 1 would cover this--they said no it did not cover pandemics even with my extenuating medical and age conditions (in the global High Risk category)--so what does their insurance cover if it doesn't cover something like this? When we talked to them when we were initially booking the trip they said the call was recorded and when asked a question about refund for medical situations they said don't worry you're covered 100%! Also, when we tried to cancel the trip they would only give us supposedly a 75% refund and said we would have to deal with the airlines ourselves--when we talked with the airlines they said since it was a package deal made with Gate 1 that we would have to deal with Gate 1--obviously Gate 1's people didn't have their act together and were definitely not well informed or interested in helping us. Ultimately, after hours on the phone, waiting for email responses we finally were able to get partial reimbursement for our travel expenses, overall we gave Gate 1 almost $4,000 and recovered a little over $2,400 which included much pain and suffering in dealing with these people. Relatives of mine had a similar trip booked with Viking and they recovered 125% since because of Covid-19 Viking had to cancel the cruise--even if Viking has not cancelled they would have provided a 100% refund. Bottom line AVOID GATE 1! BE SAFE!

The response is simply not what happened--when we booked with Gate 1 we were under the impression they were handling everything--they are the ones that took all of our money--we never were told to talk to the insurance people or the airline-when I used AAA several years and had a problem, AAA dealt with the insurance company and we got 100% refund. Just read all of the reviews on this terrible Gate 1--wish I had before using them, but our daughter had good luck with them because lucky for her nothing went wrong. If you have to get a high priced lawyer to book with a travel agent and take out insurance that has all kinds of fine print that is never discussed with the customer--that tells you to move quickly on to another travel agency--and please read their reviews before booking--but whatever you do remember to AVOID GATE 1 just like you would COVID-19 and enjoy yourself! Life is too short to deal with people like Gate 1!!!!!!

"Our agent booked a trip with Gate1 for…"

Our agent booked a trip with Gate1 for September of this year, Gate 1 is postponing the trip until 2022. I requested a refund and they charged me a 25% penalty for cancelling. Totally unacceptable!

"This is a great company for many…"

This is a great company for many reasons, but number one for me was when they had to cancel our March trip to Prague due to the virus and they refunded EVERY PENNY to my credit card.

I will use them exclusively in the future.

"Booked a trip to China with Yangtse…"

Booked a trip to China with Yangtse River Cruise. Trip was great, hotels very good, travel times good schedules, our guide pretty good and very helpful when we missed our flight home because of problem in first airport. Our guide came back to airport and got us to a hotel for the night.Note much good to say about the cruise. Crumby ship, tiny ugly rooms, food not too good.Some was good but few choices, never even one solid meat dish at dinner, all chinese mixed up stuff, one dessert such as jello or pudding-nothing good. No ice cream ever. Food at land hotel meals was pretty good. For the price we made due and maybe use them again for Israel.. Booked about 4 yrs ago.

"Gate1 VP claims check was sent on April…"

Gate1 VP claims check was sent on April 29. Check was not received.

"Used many times as of 2020"

Like the title says, we've used Gate1 many times to travel to europe and asia, to be honest I'm not really sure how many times, it's quite a few. We've travelled on tours enough times to expect at least a couple issues to arise but G1 always has guides that have secondary plans for almost all events and travel. Obviously the itineraries are are great but what makes a good company is the ability to handle the unforeseen. We've seen people miss flights in the middle of a tour, a broken arm, sickness, family emergencies back home, traffic accidents, major event closures as well as people deciding to extend their trip as long as they are on a holiday. Every single time, no exageration, G1 tour guides and the company have succeeded in getting people home or back on the trip with the rest of the group, made flight arrangements, reroute the group to another event/location etc.
I would have no reservation to recommend G1 and we definitely be using them again (as soon as the economy gets rolling again after COVID).

"Pro's and Con's"

So I used them ten times due to the pricing they provide on their land tours. You have to take the good with the bad concerning this company, unfortunately. Good is the pricing and the itinerary they have for their trips. If you like a fast pace and seeing tons of famous sights without having to plan how you get there, allowing the language barrier not to matter then use them. Their tour managers are always very knowledgeable beyond measure. That's why I use them.

Where Gate 1 Travel falls short is service, it is a hit or miss on the local tour guides. Some are excellent if you've never traveled, and others are okay. You have to speak up if you don't like music constantly being played on the buses. Some of the guides tend to play while you go to one destination after the next. Single travelers, you will typically get the worst hotel rooms, sorry to say, and on many occasions. They don't help with visa's. You are on your own with that. I buy travel insurance, but buyer beware and read the fine print because it is not cancel for any reason. Make sure you can go on the trip since their cancellation policy is horrible, especially for airfare. Last leaving a country, they place you on crazy early flights where you depart from the hotel 1 AM to 4 AM to get to the airport. They do not inform you of later flights to avoid this horrible inconvenience since they look to save on bring most to the airport at the same time. In short, they pretend they care; however, if something terrible happens and the local tour manager cannot help you, you are on your own. Gate 1 travel as a company does not give a crap about you as a customer.

Booking trips customer service is not that great. You can never get the same booking agent even though they tell you, you can call them for all your bookings. Airport pick-up if your flight is delayed or you arrive late at night you are on your own, and they'll give you a voucher to use on the next trip instead of giving you back your money. You have to tip all the local tour guides they have on the tour, and it can add up to a pretty sum by the time your finish. Buses you use the whole trip are typically clean thanks to some of the bus drivers and others not so much. They are good at supplying water in countries where you cannot drink it from the tap.

On the coronavirus, they only supplied vouchers to use on a later trip zero refunds no matter what and they are not available by phone. They don't care what your financial situation is and even with the purchase of the best insurance, you have pages to read through just to say sorry what's happening is not covered.

"More of the World for Less . . . ."

We have taken 5 trips with Gate 1 Travel and we love this company! Some of our most memorable moments on the planet have been courtesy of Gate 1! Their slogan of more of the world for less is for real. Several people have complained on this site about problems with their insurance - not our experience at all. On one of our trips, Sandy suffered a debilitating injury which left her unable to walk. Arch, Gate 1's insurance company, must have spent 10K flying us back from Turkey first class from our hotel to our front door in Texas. They provided perfect guidance from seeking medical attention in Zadar, Croatia (that was a trip in itself) to taking care of all the arrangements. It's really bad when something like that happens in a foreign land, but Gate 1 was perfect. On another planned trip for 20 days to China, Hong Kong and Tokyo, which unfortunately we did not get to take because I was suddenly stricken with an immobilizing illness, it killed us but we had to cancel the trip (I could not walk) just a week or so before departure. Again, we were crushed, which was bad enough, but thankful that Gate 1 and Arch refunded all of our money. . . . The only quibble of all our travels with Gate 1 is that we were sold some crummy bulk TransAtlantic airlines tickets on one of our trips, that we could not upgrade, without our knowledge. Gate 1 finally straightened it out, but not without a lot of hassle. We were told on our last trip by fellow travelers that their flights purchased through Gate 1 did not now have this problem, so hopefully this issue has been rectified by the company. And finally, we just had to cancel our three weeks in GB planned for May due to Covid-19, and the company refunded our money no problem, unlike United Airlines, who suck. Bottom line: Give Gate 1 Travel a try, it will be the best decision you've made in a long time. [George Clooney, Up in the Air]