Her Great Value Vacations refund problem isn’t so great

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By Christopher Elliott

When Linette Warnecke’s travel companion breaks her hip and has to cancel a Greek vacation, Great Value Vacations is reluctant to refund the vacation. What can she do to encourage the tour operator to do the right thing?

Question

My travel companion and I bought two Groupons for the “Greek Highlights: Athens, Mykonos & Santorini Upgrade.” We purchased an additional two nights, airfare from St. Louis, and insurance with Great Value Vacations.

Then my travel companion broke her hip and had surgery. She couldn’t make the trip but canceled nearly two months before our scheduled departure. That gave her tour operator plenty of time to fill her reservation with another traveler.

We have several issues. First, it took four phone calls before Great Value Vacations canceled her reservation and provided us with a credit. The trip cost $2,400 per person, yet even with the travel protection, Great Value Vacations would only credit $1,037, claiming the difference was for the “shared” services. We only shared a hotel. But why have insurance if they’re going to ding you for it?

Great Value Vacations would not allow me to find a different travel partner who would also pay for the trip to utilize the “shared” service. That way, my travel companion could get her full refund, less her insurance premium. I found out the only way to get a full credit less the premium was if we both canceled, which we ultimately did.

By the time Great Value Vacations canceled the reservations, it was too late for me to take advantage of the Groupon special and rebook at nearly the same cost for the same trip.

I feel I should have been able to continue with the trip at no additional cost to me or my travel companion. The idea that the shared portion of the hotel cost Great Value Vacations $1,200 is absurd. Can you help me? — Linette Warnecke, Troy, Ill.

Answer

If you had travel protection, you should have been covered for a cancellation. At least that’s what the average traveler would assume. But you had an itinerary with lots of moving parts, including the Groupon component and the Great Value Vacations package with air, hotel, and insurance.

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Great Value Vacations is just taking the components of your vacation and bundling them into a package. It still has to follow the individual rules of each company. So, for example, if the hotel has set a cancellation restriction, then Great Value Vacations must follow it, too. If an airline doesn’t allow name changes, then neither does Great Value Vacations.

I think you understood that. The question is, when does your travel protection policy kick in? It turns out that these details were contained in the terms of your purchase.

When one person in a reservation cancels, and they have the trip protection, they receive a credit for all non-shared services. But when you ran the numbers on the individual components of your vacation, you concluded that Great Value Vacations was keeping more of your money than it should have. The company also failed to explain its math and never bothered to tell you why trip protection didn’t cover the losses.

Read the terms of your Great Value Vacations package carefully

Your travel protection plan, the terms of which are disclosed on your carrier’s site, comes with a ton of restrictions. You can cancel for any reason, but you will only receive a credit for future travel equal to the full amount of all payments made, less any protection costs and fees. Name changes are also prohibited.

If you’d read these restrictions before your purchase, would you have changed your mind? You say you would have, especially knowing how opaque the company would be about its costs. But the average person wouldn’t care. No one thinks they’re going to file a travel protection claim. (Here’s our guide with the best travel advice.)

I list the names, numbers and email addresses of key customer service executives at Great Value Vacations on my consumer advocacy site. You had already found those contacts and were dealing with a manager, who refused to budge.

My advocacy team and I contacted the company on your behalf, and it cut you and your travel companion a check for the full amount you were due under your travel protection policy.

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Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter. He is based in Rio de Janeiro.

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