I would like to preface this post by saying that my husband and I have been on Grand Circle river cruises and have enjoyed them very much. It has come to my attention, however, that both GCT and OAT have very poor business policies and even worse customer relations skills. (Grand Circle Travel is the parent company of Overseas Adventure Travel. Both companies operate under the same policies.) The following is the story that tainted my view of GCT/OAT:

My sister was booked with GCT's offshoot company, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). She has done many trips with OAT without incident and has always enjoyed them. She was to travel to Nepal with OAT on May 14th. She had called the company to make sure there were enough people booked on her departure date in order for the tour to run. She was told by an OAT rep that there were more than enough people booked to run the trip. She paid for and received her visas, made her final payment to OAT, and proceeded to buy clothing, etc. for this trip. A couple weeks ago she received a call from OAT telling her that her trip was canceled due to "lack of interest." They did not offer her an alternate date in May. (OAT also canceled the Nepal trip departing on May 7th. Why they didn't combine the 2 departures into one in order to still run the trip, I don't know.) The next date they mentioned was September, and she was not able to go at that time. They told her she would get a full refund to her credit card for the trip cost and that they would refund (only) a portion of the visa costs. These are things that any good tour company should and would do when they cancel a trip, especially so close to departure date. There was no "Good Will" offer made to her. Not even some extra travel credits in her "bank" for a future trip. It was rather, "You're canceled, there's nothing else in May, and don't forget to recommend OAT to all your friends!" I would think that once OAT has received your final payment that they would be committed to running the trip. Not this company. Did you also know that Grand Circle and OAT will cancel your reservation due to their own overbooking? I have wondered how they decide who gets bumped. (Any questions you ask any of the phone reps or supervisors gets you a reply of, "I don't know. I don't have access to that information.") In my opinion, when they overbook and need to cancel someone's trip, the person(s) who paid the least amount for the trip gets the boot. That way GCT/OAT refunds the lesser amount of money. No matter that you may have been the first to book a departure!! GCT/OAT certainly does not seem to care whether they keep their loyal repeat customers or not. If they did, they would not treat them so poorly. They don't seem to understand why canceling a trip so close to departure would be upsetting to the traveler. After all, "We are giving you a full refund." Well, preparation for a trip involves a lot more than just paying your money to the tour company. There is a lot of research that is done, documents to be secured, things to buy, etc., not to mention the great anticipation you have while waiting for your departure date to arrive.

As I said previously, my husband and I have gone on GCT (the parent company of Overseas Adventure Travel - OAT) European river cruises and enjoyed them immensely. The trips they offer (if you actually get to go on them!), are great. It's too bad that their customer relations are not on the same level. Because of this, I will never book another GCT/OAT trip again. If it happened to my sister, I can happen to me, and it can happen to you, too!