MOssyLedge

So sorry for the confusion. When we switched from the Jewels of Scandinavia to the Ports of Timeless Wonder cruise (2021 to 2023), we opted not to get Allianz Insurance. The trips were almost 2 years apart and we didn't want an Allianz policy. We did not ask for a credit, but Vantage, for some reason, said they would give us a credit. I'm not even sure they actually did give us a credit. Since they've never paid us a dime, they didn't give us any money. The only reason we went back to Allianz is that Seven Corners Travel Insurance contacted Allianz somehow through their own devices. Allianz, who said that we had filed a claim for theJewels of Scandinavia, for which we hadn't gotten any payments, Seven Corners assumed that we were owed money. So Seven Corners was concerned that we would get paid by them as well. That was the only reason we contacted Allianz, because Seven Corners wouldn't process our medical claim unless we could prove that Allianz had nothing to do with our new trip. Once Seven Corners did their own research and determined that Allianz had nothing to do with the Ports of Timeless Wonders, they were able to process our claim. We did not want or expect anything from them, nor have we received anything from them. It's all part of the black box of Travel Insurance. So there's actually nothing duplicitous on our part because we don't expect anything and would be happy to return it to whomever. In fact, we had to sign a piece of paper for Seven Corners, saying that if we ever got anything from anybody for any trip with Vantage, we would turn that money over to them. So they know it's all a fake, but they were trying to protect themselves. I hope this helps.

Some time ago, a participant on this Facebook group asked if anyone had gotten third-party Travel Insurance not connected to Vantage or to Allianz. We did that and the saga has continued up until a few days ago when we finally got paid from our claim for medical reasons made on June 6, 2023. So the process took 4-1/2 months. We booked this travel insurance through Squaremouth, which is an aggregator of travel insurance companies including Seven Corners Travel Insurance. They are the most difficult people to deal with and I would recommend not dealing with them by anyone in the future. The saga has gone on for more than four months with them and I only got paid because I played their game and answered every question and did every bit of research and even did things like asking Allianz to send me whatever insurance credits that might come my way. Allianz Travel Insurance said that they would send us $222 each for the part B insurance that was purchased through VantageTravel. They would never send us an email indicating that, just that I should note it in my own notes from our telephone conversations. To get that far with Allianz I had to make seven calls to Mexico City to their call center. I never did get that money and I don't expect to get that money. Seven Corners turns out to be ruthless in terms of taking their time to do things. Seven Corners asked me to prove a negative many times. Until they tracked down everything that I gave them in writing, they wouldn’t pay us. Once they did that, they sent an EBT to our account. Ultimately Seven Corners paid just $17,500 instead of $17,798. I guess that should be considered a win. There actually isn’t a real insurance company called Seven Corners. Every decision that they made had to be cleared with their owner - United States Fire Insurance Company. The content below is from an email that I sent to Mr. Stiller of Seven Corners on October 2, 2023. October 2, 2023 For David Stiller Senior Customer Care Person Hi David, As per our telephone conversation earlier today, from 10:00AM to 10:23AM, I am forwarding to you in this email the original pro forma invoice for a trip called ……. Jewels of Scandinavia, Baltic Capitals and St. Petersburg. You will note at the bottom of the invoice that we purchased Travel Protection Plans through Vantage Travel, through Allianz, for each of us for $999 each or a total of $1,998.00. Please note that the Vantage Invoice, is dated January 5, 2021. The departure date was originally August 12, 2022. Vantage canceled this trip because they did not have a boat that they had bought, so it was all fraud. They did not actually cancel it and in their terms they postponed it. Apparently, all Allianz policies say that if they postpone the trip, they do not have to give money back to the travelers. But if they actually cancel it, they would have to. So, Vantage postponed it to June 2024. If you want that email from Vantage, I can probably find it. When we were able to finally rebook a trip with Vantage, we decided not to continue with the Allianz policy, because it was all fraud. That, by the way, has come out in the testimony in the bankruptcy hearings in Boston. When we told Vantage travel that we didn't want to rebook the Allianz policy, they said since it was non-refundable they would keep $998 of the $1998 and we could get a credit therefore of $500 each on the invoice for the new trip. It was worth it to us to give up that money to not have to deal with Allianz or VantageTravel. As a result, we decided to book a third-party travel insurance company for this trip, called the Ports of Timeless Wonders. And that's when we investigated travel insurance companies through Squaremouth and you came up as a good company. So we purchased Travel Insurance, the most expensive version that you have, for this trip. I'm hoping that Seven Corners makes good on that promise to pay for trips that are have to be canceled for various reasons, including medical reasons. As you know my wife's knee replacement surgery was scheduled for July 17, 2023 and the trip was going to leave on July 15, 2023. So obviously we could not go on this trip which is why we made a claim with Seven Corners. As far as we are concerned, Seven Corners owes us $17,798.00 regardless of what Allianz might give us for the original trip which has nothing to do with this trip. The invoice below is for the Ports of Timeless Wonders, showing the credit of $500 each which means that Vantage kept $998 of the original payment ($1,998.00) made to them for Travel Protection. Below is the invoice for the trip: Jewels of Scandinavia which shows the fee of $999.00 each for our Travel Protection Plan, (TPP) bought thru Vantage and insured by Allianz. It has come out conclusively that this policy has a Part A and a Part B section. Part A was actually, behind the scenes, self insurance by Vantage for trips for issues that occurred before departure and Part B for issues after departure. The premium that actually Allianz got from Vantage was $222.00 per person and that’s what they claim that they will give back to us. There are actually thousands of emails from other travelers about this on a two different Facebook groups. Soooooo… I said, that I agreed to take the$222 per person that Allianz offered to all Vantage people when the trip did not happen. Immediately below is the Vantage invoice for this trip: Immediately below is the original Pro Forma invoice from Vantage showing the total costs including the TPP of $999 each. Also please note that the date of the invoice is January 5, 2021. That means that this saga is almost a full 3 years old. I hope to hear from you, once you review these documents. These were all previously sent to Seven Corners. Ports of Timeless Wonder Invoice 2.pdf Ports of Timeless Wonder Invoice 2.pdf Proforma Baltic Sea invoice 2.pdf

Thank you for starting this new thread and hopefully there will be some solutions, suggested that gain traction and will result in payments to travelers. I suspect most payments would come from third-party Travel Insurance rather than from Allianz policies bought through Vantage.

Sharkster- Teachers provided the foundation for me for everything that I do. I can recite the names of each of my teachers from kindergarten through sixth grade inclusive. They were the foundation for everything that my friends and I have achieved in life. Many in my family are teachers as well in the public school system, private school system, and college system. So I don't have anything against teachers.

I didn’t mean to indicate that those who are in academia don’t produce valuable work for all of us to benefit from. My best friend, who I only know for 74 years, has spent his entire post graduate life in academia. He went on from going to New York City public schools and colleges to getting his PhD and is a world renowned scientist. I know all of the issues that are prevalent within the world of academia since I know him that long. There just is a very different approach when you work with your head, and when you work with your hands. Both are valuable. I started out as a registered architect, working on large projects and moved on to working with my hands in a woodworking shop, with another registered architect. Both are of great value, but come to the world with a different mindset. So I apologize to anyone who thinks that working with your head only is not as much value as working with your hands. Obviously, those who work with their heads are very talented and will be the saviors of our world in trying to achieve world peace, etc. Getting an education is the only thing that all the people in my neighborhood knew as their parents were all immigrants and we all went to college, and we all became professionals. But what Henry Lewis has done is not something that many people can comprehend and condone. We cannot be angry at those of us who want him to get the justice that he deserves. It is morals and integrity that count, not when do you use your head or your hands. One, without the other is of no value.

I would say that folks who are in academia, think very differently from those of us, that actually have to produce stuff to make a living. I'm not only talking about working with your hands, but working with your brain as well. I've had the pleasure of getting two college degrees and owning two businesses.In 1992 I decided to close my business because of the amount of money that we were owed and could not collect. However, I contacted every client that owed me money and said I would finish each and every job as per our agreed contract or verbal agreement on time, and for the cost agreed and as per the specs. Some of these projects were several hundred thousand dollars. That took six months. Everybody got what they had anticipated and I got my money. When we were done, I had more than one offer to hire me and my partner, because they knew we had integrity and morals. Mr. Lewis apparently lacks both of those characteristics, and we all know that if they were in a court of law with justification, he would definitely end up in jail and be destitute. But that's not how our system works within the legal system, and I have many lawyer relatives, who explain all the loopholes that have been built-in. I support each, and everyone who has expressed their anger and hatred, for what is happening, and they certainly should not be chastised in any way. The law may never take Vantage and Henry Louis to the dock. I hope he gets what he deserves. There are no excuses.

Apparently, tips paid with credit card and collected by cruise directors on some South American trip were not distributed to the staff. How much more can Vantage steal from those who deserve to get the money. This is as per a FB post.

This is the article that talks about the A&K Travel Group's offer to Crystal Cruises previous clients as I mentioned about an hours ago. https://www.cruisehive.com/crystal-cruises-aims-to-help-guests-affected-by-former-ownership/97076 Also, I said "maybe" everyone is wealthier than I am. That's a qualifier. That's not clairvoyant. Sorry if you are offended.

As I recall from these threads or the one on Facebook, when A&K bought Crystal Cruises, in order to get some money back you had to buy 5 more cruises, the first within 3 months of the settlement, in order to get a 20% scout on the next 5 trips. So... if you think you are owed $20,000 by Vantage, the new buyer will require you to commit to $100,000 in new sailing to get back your $20,000. I won't be alive or in good enough shape to go on 5 more cruises. Nor do I necessarily have $100K to do that. Maybe everyone here is a lot more wealthy than I am and I am glad you are, but don't assume that everyone can spend an additional $100k to get back $20K. Also, there are other forms of vacations that interest me besides cruising. i can sure everyone that Hank Lewis or the new buyer ris NOT going to get you any money back without spending 5X what you are owed. The model is out there. With a class action suit, you might get nothing, 10% , 20% or 30% back. And not have to deal with the Vantage.

I appreciate your passion and well spoken posts. One other thing that you amy do is join the class action lawsuit that has been filed by a Boston attorney. Call his office and leave your name and tel number and he will reach out to you. I don't know if Cruise Critic will allow this post for various reasons. I found out about the lawsuit from someone who is on the Facebook page about the Vantage debacle. Ron Dunbar, Jr. Attorney, 617-244-3550

How about giving us a summary about what you learned from the article in Sea Trade?

@ATL1234 @CoolCruiser I certainly hope you are correct and we eventually get a ZOOM link while something can be successfully effectuated. I'm waiting.

2ATL1234 Yes, we did all of that. Did you ever get a response from him? Including a ZOOM link? If you have a ZOOM link, please post it.

Is it reasonable to assume that Vantage is out of business and will not be taken over by an angel between now and July 15th? The airfare that I booked with points, turns out to be non-refundable. I was just told that I can change the dates without transfer fees - just pay any cost increases due to a different itinerary and new higher fares. We don't want to go away for the 17 or 18 days that I had scheduled with my own extension in London. If I don't do this, I will lose my 466,271 points.

Charles Moskowitz hasn't responded to anyone with a ZOOM link. I think he is bogus- completely. It would have been nice to hav such a get together.