Higgins Travel & Cruise Center, Ltd.

I was in charge of handling the travel arrangements for a destination wedding group headed to Cancun, Mexico earlier this month.A wedding guest by the name of [redacted] contacted our office to make her reservations in June Since I was out of the office when she called, our office manager, Joan Lorenz, took care of her arrangements in my absence.According to the itinerary provided to me when I returned, Ms [redacted] and Mr [redacted] booked a night package through Funjet Vacations that included nonstop flights on Sun Country out of Minneapolis and a Deluxe Oceanview Room at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Resort for $3,841.93.They paid a deposit of $on June 30th and made nine payments after that up until their final payment on December 3rd.Each time a payment was made, a detailed invoice – including the room category at the resort - was emailed to Ms [redacted] She never told me that she either wasn’t receiving the emails OR she believed that the incorrect room category was listed on the invoices.On January 21st, travel documents were mailed to Mr [redacted] and Ms [redacted] These travel documents included detailed information related to their flight and resort reservationsThe documents specifically stated that they were booked in a Deluxe Oceanview Room.When Mr [redacted] and Ms [redacted] arrived to the resort on February 8th, they were put in a Deluxe Oceanview Room – the room category that was booked for themMs [redacted] alerted the hotel staff that she was put in the wrong room categoryShe believed they had booked a Junior SuiteWhen she immediately called me at the office to tell me what happened, I informed her that she was, indeed, put in the correct room categoryShe insisted that she had upgraded to a Junior SuiteI discussed the situation with our office manager who initially made the reservation and she did not recall booking such a room category for these customersWhile Mr [redacted] and Ms [redacted] did purchase an upgraded room category, they did not upgrade to a Junior SuiteIt’s important to note that, while the resort offers a Junior Suite, the tour company used to make these reservations – Funjet Vacations – does not even offer the Junior Suite room category; so, it would never have been an option for them from the beginning.Ms [redacted] called our office earlier this week accusing us of not only booking them in the wrong room category, but overcharging them by $2,This particular amount was based on a conversation she had with another guest at the resort who, supposedly, booked an identical package as them and paid $2,lessI did not make the reservations for those particular guests, so, I cannot confirm if, indeed, their itineraries were similarEven if they were, that doesn’t mean they should have paid the same priceIn the travel business, prices can drastically change from one day to the next based on availability and other factors, so, it’s very possible they paid different prices for identical packages.In closing, Mr [redacted] and Ms [redacted] received the room they booked and paid forIf you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me

I was in charge of handling the travel arrangements for a destination
wedding group headed to Cancun, Mexico earlier this month.A wedding guest by the name of [redacted] contacted our
office to make her reservations in June 2015. Since I was out of the office
when she called, our office...

manager, Joan Lorenz, took care of her arrangements
in my absence.According to the itinerary provided to me when I returned,
Ms. [redacted] and Mr. [redacted] booked a 7 night package through Funjet Vacations
that included nonstop flights on Sun Country out of Minneapolis and a Deluxe
Oceanview Room at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Resort for $3,841.93.They paid a deposit of $359.98 on June 30th and made nine payments
after that up until their final payment on December 3rd.Each time a payment was made, a detailed invoice – including
the room category at the resort - was emailed to Ms. [redacted]. She never told
me that she either wasn’t receiving the emails OR she believed that the
incorrect room category was listed on the invoices.On January 21st, travel documents were mailed to
Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted]. These travel documents included detailed
information related to their flight and resort reservations. The documents specifically
stated that they were booked in a Deluxe Oceanview Room.When Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted] arrived to the resort on
February 8th, they were put in a Deluxe Oceanview Room – the room category that
was booked for them. Ms. [redacted] alerted the hotel staff that she was put in
the wrong room category. She believed they had booked a Junior Suite. When she immediately
called me at the office to tell me what happened, I informed her that she was,
indeed, put in the correct room category. She insisted that she had upgraded to
a Junior Suite. I discussed the situation with our office manager who initially
made the reservation and she did not recall booking such a room category for
these customers. While Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted] did purchase an upgraded
room category, they did not upgrade to a Junior Suite. It’s important to note
that, while the resort offers a Junior Suite, the tour company used to make these
reservations – Funjet Vacations – does not even offer the Junior Suite room
category; so, it would never have been an option for them from the beginning.Ms. [redacted] called our office earlier this week accusing us
of not only booking them in the wrong room category, but overcharging them by
$2,000. This particular amount was based on a conversation she had with another
guest at the resort who, supposedly, booked an identical package as them and
paid $2,000 less. I did not make the reservations for those particular guests,
so, I cannot confirm if, indeed, their itineraries were similar. Even if they were,
that doesn’t mean they should have paid the same price. In the travel business,
prices can drastically change from one day to the next based on availability
and other factors, so, it’s very possible they paid different prices for
identical packages.In closing, Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted] received the room
they booked and paid for. If you have any further questions, please feel free to
contact me.

This is in response to the complaint (#[redacted]) filed by [redacted] on February 20, 2015.  The  [redacted]’s did contact Higgins Travel Leaders to get prices and eventually book a trip to attend a friend’s wedding in Mexico.  It is not possible for me to address the pricing issues...

because airfares and accommodations pricing fluctuate daily and sometimes even multiple times each day.  Because travel agencies are a third party between our vendors and clients, we don’t make the rules or set the prices ourselves, we are just required to follow the rules and pricing put in place by our vendors.  In this case, when the [redacted]’s asked to cancel their trip, [redacted] told them what the cancel policy was. Which was $400 as stated by the vendor.  The [redacted]’s state in their complaint that an emailed invoice was not received, but our customer database management system shows that an email was sent.  Clearly, this was not received by the [redacted]’s and we have no way of tracking down an emailed invoice once we send the email.  Like all emails, we assume they are received unless the party in which we are sending the email lets us know that they did not receive it. I will not address the multiple comments in the complaint about “poor customer service,” “unprofessionalism,” and “incompetence” of any of my employees, other than to say that Higgins Travel Leaders has booked other parties involved with this wedding group, including the bride herself in which I personally had a conversation with, and they are happy with my company and my employee’s handling of the arrangements being made. Ultimately, the [redacted]’s did receive what they were looking for, which was $400 deposit to be returned to them, by disputing the charge on their credit card.  The reservation they were holding with Higgins Travel Leaders was cancelled and Higgins Travel Leaders had to cover the $400 cancel fee as it was applied by Apple Vacations. Please let me know if you need anything else from me. Regards, [redacted]

Review: My husband and I worked with Higgins Travel to book a trip to Mexico for a friend's wedding. My husband was initially in charge of taking care of this and his contact was [redacted] at Higgins travel. The day we decided we were going on the trip for sure, he called [redacted] to get prices. He then called me to decide which package we would purchase. When he called [redacted] back to book that day, it took her two days to return his call. In that time, the price went up $280. Because [redacted] reassured my husband that the prices would only continue to rise, he booked. We were never sent an itinerary for the trip or a receipt. My husband called multiple times to obtain this; [redacted] said she would email the information but never followed through. We receive promotional emails from the agency, so we know they have the correct email address. Almost a month later, a friend was booking the trip for her and her husband and found the trip for over $700 less than what we paid. I decided to inquire with [redacted] about how much it would cost to cancel our current reservation as she did not provide my husband with this information when he booked this trip and we did not have any documents for this trip that would provide this information. I called that day and did get through to [redacted] right away. She informed me she did not know how much it would cost to cancel but that she would get back to me that day. She did not get back to me that day. By the time she actually called me back the following day, the price had gone up once again. If [redacted] had called me back to tell me there would be a $400 cancellation fee, I would have cancelled and rebooked, saving us $300. When I confronted [redacted] about her poor customer service and the fact that she had cost us a lot of money, she was very rude and insisted that she had done nothing wrong. When I was clearly not getting anywhere with [redacted], I asked to speak to her manager. Her [redacted], [redacted], acted about as professionally as [redacted] had. She made it very clear that she did not care about the situation and would be doing absolutely nothing to resolve it. At this point, we are demanding our deposit back and for the reservation to be cancelled upon return of the deposit. If [redacted] had followed through and called me back the day she was supposed to, this would have never happened. Unfortunately, that was not the case. [redacted]'s incompetence in her job cost us, the customers, money.Desired Settlement: Refund of our $400 deposit because of incompetence/failure to provide service on the travel agency's part and cancellation of the reservation.

Business

Response:

This is in response to the complaint (#[redacted]) filed by [redacted] on February 20, 2015. The [redacted]’s did contact Higgins Travel Leaders to get prices and eventually book a trip to attend a friend’s wedding in Mexico. It is not possible for me to address the pricing issues because airfares and accommodations pricing fluctuate daily and sometimes even multiple times each day. Because travel agencies are a third party between our vendors and clients, we don’t make the rules or set the prices ourselves, we are just required to follow the rules and pricing put in place by our vendors. In this case, when the [redacted]’s asked to cancel their trip, [redacted] told them what the cancel policy was. Which was $400 as stated by the vendor. The [redacted]’s state in their complaint that an emailed invoice was not received, but our customer database management system shows that an email was sent. Clearly, this was not received by the [redacted]’s and we have no way of tracking down an emailed invoice once we send the email. Like all emails, we assume they are received unless the party in which we are sending the email lets us know that they did not receive it. I will not address the multiple comments in the complaint about “poor customer service,” “unprofessionalism,” and “incompetence” of any of my employees, other than to say that Higgins Travel Leaders has booked other parties involved with this wedding group, including the bride herself in which I personally had a conversation with, and they are happy with my company and my employee’s handling of the arrangements being made. Ultimately, the [redacted]’s did receive what they were looking for, which was $400 deposit to be returned to them, by disputing the charge on their credit card. The reservation they were holding with Higgins Travel Leaders was cancelled and Higgins Travel Leaders had to cover the $400 cancel fee as it was applied by Apple Vacations. Please let me know if you need anything else from me. Regards, [redacted]

Review: Purchased a vacation, did not receive room paid for. $2000 overpaid should've been the upgraded room, as we understood, company arguing with us . many more smaller issues, we either want refund $$ or another booking doneto make up differenceDesired Settlement: Either another booked vacation or refunded difference, also this doesn't happen to anyone

Business

Response:

I was in charge of handling the travel arrangements for a destination

wedding group headed to Cancun, Mexico earlier this month.A wedding guest by the name of [redacted] contacted our

office to make her reservations in June 2015. Since I was out of the office

when she called, our office manager, Joan Lorenz, took care of her arrangements

in my absence.According to the itinerary provided to me when I returned,

Ms. [redacted] and Mr. [redacted] booked a 7 night package through Funjet Vacations

that included nonstop flights on Sun Country out of Minneapolis and a Deluxe

Oceanview Room at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Resort for $3,841.93.They paid a deposit of $359.98 on June 30th and made nine payments

after that up until their final payment on December 3rd.Each time a payment was made, a detailed invoice – including

the room category at the resort - was emailed to Ms. [redacted]. She never told

me that she either wasn’t receiving the emails OR she believed that the

incorrect room category was listed on the invoices.On January 21st, travel documents were mailed to

Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted]. These travel documents included detailed

information related to their flight and resort reservations. The documents specifically

stated that they were booked in a Deluxe Oceanview Room.When Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted] arrived to the resort on

February 8th, they were put in a Deluxe Oceanview Room – the room category that

was booked for them. Ms. [redacted] alerted the hotel staff that she was put in

the wrong room category. She believed they had booked a Junior Suite. When she immediately

called me at the office to tell me what happened, I informed her that she was,

indeed, put in the correct room category. She insisted that she had upgraded to

a Junior Suite. I discussed the situation with our office manager who initially

made the reservation and she did not recall booking such a room category for

these customers. While Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted] did purchase an upgraded

room category, they did not upgrade to a Junior Suite. It’s important to note

that, while the resort offers a Junior Suite, the tour company used to make these

reservations – Funjet Vacations – does not even offer the Junior Suite room

category; so, it would never have been an option for them from the beginning.Ms. [redacted] called our office earlier this week accusing us

of not only booking them in the wrong room category, but overcharging them by

$2,000. This particular amount was based on a conversation she had with another

guest at the resort who, supposedly, booked an identical package as them and

paid $2,000 less. I did not make the reservations for those particular guests,

so, I cannot confirm if, indeed, their itineraries were similar. Even if they were,

that doesn’t mean they should have paid the same price. In the travel business,

prices can drastically change from one day to the next based on availability

and other factors, so, it’s very possible they paid different prices for

identical packages.In closing, Mr. [redacted] and Ms. [redacted] received the room

they booked and paid for. If you have any further questions, please feel free to

contact me.