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Reviews 358
Kate
Nov 12,2020I have waited 6 months for a $450 dollar refund. Just got an email saying they’ve finally sent me a refund, but ‘we’ve deducted $85 for the administration fee’. I don’t know any company that profits from stealing refunded money that doesn’t belong to them. In England it’s illegal. Their communication has been completely automated responses for 6 months, and no contact number available. I’ve never had such a terrible and criminal service. I really needed all my money back. So angry and disappointed.
Customer Debra
Nov 04,2020I bookeda holiday in September with gate one the company vieling authorised a refund for my flight cancellec gate 1 have still not responded or payed me back my money please do not use this company they will blame it on the airline but they are the ones in charge of returning are money
Phillip Speake
Nov 02,2020I will preface my comments by letting you know I am a travel agent. I discovered Gate 1 Travel in late 2015. I could not believe the prices for the trips I reviewed. I decided to give them a try before I booked clients which is my usual pattern. We booked a trip to China between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2015. We were visiting our Daughter and Family out of state and I thought it was silly to fly back home and turn around a couple of weeks later and fly back, so I found this Gate 1 trip to China. This was a 10 day trip with 8 nights of hotels in Beijing and Shanghi, all transfers, air from LA to Beijing, Beijing to Shanghi, Shanghi to Beijing and then back to LA for a price of $799 each. I was extremely skeptical with such a low price and did some checking on the company and could not find any issues. So, we gave it a shot. Additionally we booked 7 outstanding excursions for a total of $323 each and were in a small group of less than 30. The hotels were outstanding (4 & 5 Star), the tour guide was exceptional, the tours were on par or better than other much higher end tours, the transfers were seamless. The entire trip was off the charts of my expectation. Since this first trip, we have made numerous trips with Gate 1 and booked many clients with Gate 1. All of us have come away with how can they provide a top quality experience at such a fantastic price? I am still scratching my head over this but also booking with them as often as possible. I am so pleased that we took a chance and discovered a true Gem in the world of Travel. They are no doubt the best bang for your travel dollar. All of my interactions with Gate 1 staff while booking trips or on a trip have been excellent. They truly understand customer service as well as providing an unbelievable cost effective travel opportunity. I strongly recommend them to all of my Family, Friends and Clients. Do not let the low price deter you from experiencing what this first class company has to offer!
Cheryl DaMota
Oct 13,2020Gate 1 is the best travel agency. What you see on paper is what you get. Nothing but good experiences with their trips.
Customer
Oct 05,2020my outbound flight to Gothenburg changed and I need to cancel the ticket. However I want to keep the inbound and I need a new ticket and asked Gate 1 to contact me - this was 1 week ago and despite to emails there has been no contact - its like they dont want business - rubbish service
Janette Nicoletti
Oct 03,2020I had an Central European trip booked for June 2020. I have travelled with Gate1 on 4 previous trips and have been very impressed with the organisation, guides, accommidation and value for money on each of these 3 trips. Due to covid19 the 2020 holiday was cancelled but will definitely be rebooking this trip once their programme starts up agaon.
Kathi S.
Sep 12,2020I have traveled with Gate 1 several times both on guided and independent trips. My experience has always been positive. I have never encountered a problem or misrepresentation from them. On a guided trip to Croatia and Slovenia, they provided additional meals that were not on the scheduled itinerary when there were some delays due to traffic. All representatives I have dealt with are very professional and helpful. I had a trip booked for Egypt that Gate 1 cancelled due to COVID19. I have a full credit for what I paid to use towards another Gate 1 trip and cannot wait for travel to open up so I can go with Gate 1 again. I highly recommend this company!
R.
Aug 26,2020We booked a trip to Peru that included an insurance package. We were supposed to leave yesterday but there are no flights scheduled for the whole week. We were not even notified of the cancellation. We contacted Gate1 yesterday to ask for a refund. We spoke to a supervisor and then to a manager and they both told us that the airline is not refunding money. We booked the trip through Gate1 and they are responsible for their customers. They did not even try to fight on our behalf. Fraud is when a business charges you for a service they do not provide. We will never book through Gate1 again.
Don
Aug 14,2020Reservation #182634 for Monica Merkins and Donald Haaga. Start date March 13, 2020. Since March we have been patiently waiting for Gate1 Travel to reimburse our unused Air and Insurance moneys. All our Tours, Air and Travel Insurance was booked through and paid direct to Gate1. Gate1 cancelled the Tours, and did not inform us, and abandoned us in Panama City. We had flown into Panama City a few days early and were scheduled to fly to Guatemala City on March 13th to start the Gate1 Tours. My son, who was going on the tours with us, texted us that the tours had been cancelled. Gate1 NEVER contacted us. We sat at the airport for 15 hours until we were able to get a flight home back to San Francisco. When we returned to the U.S. we contacted Gate1 to refund our money. Since March we have been given "the runaround" when Gate1 said they would refund our money for the Insurance and Airfare within 60 days. 60 days later - nothing! We called again and they said they would resubmit the requests for Insurance and Airfare and to wait another 30 days. 30 days later - again nothing! We went direct to Arch Travel Insurance and Copa Airlines for refunds but were told that Gate1 had to file the refund claims. They had to pay us the refunds since they booked and billed us. As of today, Aug. 13, 2020, Gate1 has not refunded us the money. My son has received all refunds, inclusive of Airfare and Insurance. Gate1 does not respond to e-mails or calls. All of the times we called we were on hold for over an hour to no avail. Every time we repeated the same request to different people at Gate1 and nothing has been taken care of.
C. Campbell
Jul 01,2020I 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.
Steven
Jun 30,2020Absolutely 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.
Robert Grant O'Dette
Jun 23,2020I 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!!!!!!
Helene Jeffrey
Jun 17,2020Our 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!
Marilyn Z
Jun 09,2020This 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.
Arlene Pellegrino
Jun 06,2020Booked 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.
baabara ratner
May 31,2020Gate1 VP claims check was sent on April 29. Check was not received.
AARON
May 26,2020Like 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).
ThatNYCShopper
May 13,2020So 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.
Michael Anthony
May 03,2020We 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]
Maryland Drive 455, 19034, Fort Washington, US
http://gate1travel.com
Colleen
Nov 29,2020I have taken four trips with Gate 1 and have been extremely happy with all of them. All were well organized, professionally led, and budget friendly. I’m amazed at the quality of the hotels and meals provided for the price. In many places, the lodging was unique and had more of a boutique vibe than a chain vibe. For example, one of the hotels in Ecuador had a private hot springs right outside the door of my room. I couldn’t have researched and booked a more extensive and unique tour myself. I’m so looking forward to next year and booking another tour with them.