Gate 1 Travel Consumer Reviews - Page 3

MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA -- If anyone thinking of doing business with Gate 1 then must be careful because once they got your money you will be screw. We bought an onsale 10 Day Classic Brazil Argentina on Thanksgiving 2018 for traveling in September 2019. A month later, their price reduce by $500.00 more so we asked for credit or refund. Of course, it wasn't happening. Too bad, so sad. Well, it was stupid of us. So we just swallow our stupidity.

Now, three months before our travel days we went into Delta Airlines to check our seats & rule of traveling. We found out our flight has been moved to next day on return day. We contacted Delta to arrange our return day but couldn't do due to third party rule. Gate 1 is the only can contact them. I called Gate 1 and they didn't even know our flight was changing by Delta. Now, Gate 1 notified us that we will have to do 2 connecting in order to go home on original date which we are willing to do. But out of many choices, they put us on the worst and longest waiting time at the airport. This is their response. It's the best they can do.

It seem like they think we were very stupid that's why we used their service (actually, I do feel stupid for booking with them because I could do a better job myself). We believed Gate 1 was rude & cheap when they deal with Delta. We know airlines rule very well. When they cancel your flight they are willing to do their best, not their worst to put your travel in jeopardy. Now, we just hope the trip will not be a disaster because we don't have any trust on them. We rate you 1 star because there was not a ZERO. Otherwise 00 is what you get.

Gate 1 did a great tour of Peru, until the Hurricane created a snag. After that it was 4 days of phone calls and rearranging reservations. It took me 4 different customer service representatives until someone would actually help us get back home. Gate 1 and Latam Airline just kept blaming each other while meanwhile our tour director left and we were stuck in Lima. Gate 1 seemed to be under the impression the tour director would help us, and the tour director continued to state that he was not allowed to help us at all in any way with our flights or connections or bookings.

I will say that the trip was great up until that point, and eventually Gate 1 did get my family and I home. I will however never forget the more than 15 hours I spent on the phone over the course of 4 days to make it happen, not to mention the exhaustion and stress of worrying and not knowing anything.

Many others in our group had previous and satisfactory relationships with Gate 1 travel, but in the end most of them had to pay to fly themselves home, and our family was the only one who stuck it out on the phone with them trying to find solutions instead of having to drop an additional 6K on plane tickets to get us home. The final customer service agent I finally spoke to seemed to be surprised that we were still stuck in Lima 3 days later.

In any case, I have serious mixed feelings about this company, but just in case, book all your own air travel so you have some control. The most common things I kept hearing from the airline and the Gate 1 agents were, "I'm sorry but there is nothing we can do for you." and in hilarity from a couple agents "we can't do that much about it, we are just travel agents." A special shout out to the wonderful woman in the Gate 1 air department that finally got us home and handled me sobbing on the phone that I was worried we would all lose our jobs with calm and serenity. She became my angel.

I don't ever want to feel that helpless when out of the country ever again. From now on my air travel will only ever be booked through Delta or Travelocity.

PENNSYLVANIA -- Had the terrible experience with Gate 1 Travel.
The worst travel company of my lifetime led by
Dani Moshe Pipany as a president, Beth Ferleger as supervisor .. others...
They do not care about people. The king in this company is money at any cost.

I should read this review before any booking with Gate 1 Travel.
Unfortunately, I was too much relying on the human decency.

"Beware of using Gate 1 Travel.
First, you are required to put down a deposit which you are told is to hold services. Should you decide to cancel, you are not given the deposit back as the company will tell you that they paid a penalty for the canceled service. This is not the case. Gate 1 banks your deposit - sometimes a year in advance of travel - and collect interest and pays NO cancellation fee to its vendors.
If you are booking a tour, beware. Many times in the past, the owner, Dani Pipano is aware the tour will not be running or that MAJOR attractions advertised will not be available - however, employees are not allowed to tell the passenger instead are required to wait until just 14 days before travel to tell you that you won't get to see what you've paid for. The logic is: you'll go anyway because you've purchased other services in conjunction w/ this trip. Ie, it will cost you too much to cancel.
If you complain enough, you will get a credit for future travel. Your trip is ruined and Gate 1 thinks $50 per person toward future travel will make a difference.
The owner is currently looking for ways to cut costs - its a major campaign of his. He is downgrading hotels, cutting costs on contracts so that vendors are not as willing to cooperate and systematically letting go some of his more seasoned employees, replacing with new graduates with no background. These new employees are diligent and eager to learn - but it can be at your expense. With very low pay, you get very low commitment - this is who is booking your trip of a lifetime.
The company employees about 3-4 FULL TIME people who read complaints all day. Most are answered - however, even 2 employees at 8 hours a day.....do the math. There are a LOT of complaints.
Do your homework - don't accept what it says on the website. Don't accept hotel changes and last minute substitutions....you are getting bottom of the barrel and its not right. "

I would not recommend this company to my friends of family.

MARYLAND -- My wife and I just returned from Gate 1's 5-day Northern Light Tour to Iceland. This was the first, and last, tour that we booked through Gate 1. To say that is was a disappointment would be an understatement. The documents we received from Gate 1 prior to departure stated clearly that a welcome pack with vital information would be provided when we arrived at our hotel in Iceland. However, when we arrived at our hotel at 9:20 a.m., after traveling all night, there was no welcome packet or other information from Gate 1. Since we were scheduled to depart at 10:00 a.m. that same morning on a tour of Reykjavik, I was hopeful that our guide would provide the packet. Unfortunately, 10:00 a.m. came and went and no guide. After speaking with the front desk clerk, I finally located our guide in the hotel lobby. From the outset the guide, Guobjorg was rude and nasty. She refused to answer any questions about the Northern Lights and insulted any of the tourists who dared to ask. Our tour, that was supposed to start at 10:00 a.m., eventually departed at 10:35 a.m. which naturally was unwelcomed since all of the use were exhausted after traveling all night. The tour of the city was a waste of time and money since it consisted mainly of a “Northern Light Museum” which in reality was a store front establishment with a few pictures of the Northern Lights and a shop where designed to sell junk to tourists. Once again we were late departing the “Museum” because our guide was busy shopping for a blouse. All of this on just the first day. Unfortunately the next three days were not any better. Rather than bore the reader with all of the details, I would recommend using a company other than Gate 1 Travel for your tour needs.

NEW YORK -- I have traveled extensively on my own. This was my first tour, which I took because I wanted to see some Christmas markets, and the price looked good. It wasn't. The tour director had no personality and seemed most intent on getting us to follow his rules.

We had only a short time in each city, but we were not oriented at all or given maps, except for Vienna, after our bit of free time. The hotels were not the best and were all far from the Christmas markets. We were not allowed to use the bathroom on the bus except for emergencies. The Sears were very uncomfortable, with no armrests. We were given rotating seat assignments, and the tour director became upset if we chose where to sit. Most of us fell into line to avoid his snit fit.

We booked our 9 day Classic Ecuador and Amazon Adventure back in June 2014 for our Jan 20, 2015 departure. This is our first tour with Gate 1 Travel and we were looking forward to it. Suddenly we got an email on Oct 29, 2014 informing us that our tour flight schedule has been changed. In fact that is NOT the whole truth. Gate 1 changed our tour from 9 days to 8 days with the flight schedule change. We spoke to their customer service and explained to her that we booked 9 days and now it is only 8 days tour so they need to adjust our tour price because there is one day short from what we originally booked for.

On top of that they changed their flight schedule and now it costs us an extra hotel stay expense in Miami and they should compensate for that. Gate 1 Customer Service told us that she understood all that but she refused to take any responsibility or compensate us for anything. This is totally wrong! We were looking forward to the trip and now we feel that we have signed up with a very dishonest company and felt cheated. We are not sure what is really in the tour since they cannot even honor their itinerary. Can anyone help us?

PENNSYLVANIA -- Please stay away from this company. Do not waste your money or time. Gate One has zero compassion for people during a world crisis/pandemic and poor customer service. Won't even give a company credit for future travel nor speak by phone to resolve matter. Stole money from me during Coronavirus pandemic due to their own greed.

No flights had even been booked due to future travel and despite their claims of a refund due to coronavirus, they will only communicate with select customers and will not waive their cancellation fee as stated in their website due to coronavirus and as other companies and airliners have done during this crisis. All other customers are blocked and left in the cold to have their money stolen. Gate One's bottom line is profit, not customer safety. Be warned.

FT WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA -- As of Feb 28 BOTH the US State Dept and the CDC advised no non-essential travel to Italy. We were booked for March 4th and called to cancel and found out there would be a 90% cancellation fee! You would think that the Company would be fair and allow us to rebook another trip at another time but NO.... We weren't asking for our money back, just a credit. You would also think that the Company would understand the legal ramifications of sending Clients to a country both US agencies advised against. It does not matter to me the Company policy, what matters to me is FAIRNESS. If this is not rectified in fair and timely manner, as repeat customers we will no longer Travel with Gate1 and advise others to not do so as well.

TORONTO -- Booked a flight deal with Gate1.ca and they suddenly canceled my purchase without informing me. They did refund my money, but not after I had already booked hotels for the trip and was then forced to have to buy tickets at 30% higher than the average cost. Looking back at reviews of them from other people, all you read is how they scam people for more money after they've already committed to buying seats. You read their fine print and essentially it says "when you buy with us we reserve the right to cancel your ticket, or increase the cost at our discretion." Buyer beware.

We were on a group tour in Italy. The hotel in Venice ("on the Grand Canal") was awful. The tour manager gave us the keys to our room. We walked and walked and found ourselves in a small room with black mold at the back of the hotel. We opened the window to someone's back yard with clothes hanging. Hardly the Grand Canal experience we were hoping for. We changed our room and were charged 80 euros a night to just get a decent room.

At the same hotel that night we had a welcome dinner. The food was awful - cold hard dinner rolls (Costco's is better even if cold) and something that looked like a chicken pot pie without the crust - everyone was complaining). When I reached out to customer service at Gate One I was told that the fine print reads that they can assign any room and they hoped I would travel again with Gate One. In other words suck it up. So disappointing. Yes, I will travel on a group tour again but not in this poor style that Gate One offers. I called back to Gate One to speak with Customer Service and they took my information. I was told that they would call me back - but have not.