Gate 1 Travel
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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!!!!!!