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What Vantage Travel customers need to know before rejecting their credits

Michelle Couch-Friedman

Consumer reporter and ombudsman

January 21, 2024

Confusion remains high for the former customers of the bankrupt tour operator Vantage Deluxe World Travel. The legalese in each notification from the bankruptcy court invariably brings a new wave of bewilderment for those unsecured creditors. 

That confusion has now reached a fever pitch. In the past month, hundreds of Vantage Travel customers have formally “opted out” of the only sure thing they’ll receive from the bankruptcy: future travel credits provided by Aurora Expeditions.

This sudden influx of requests to reject those travel credits is rooted in a general misunderstanding of what opting out actually means in this situation.

Throughout the past year, my team at Consumer Rescue has been on a mission to provide factual information and support to the victims of Vantage Travel’s bankruptcy. 

We’ve fielded thousands of questions, attended nearly every bankruptcy hearing, reviewed hundreds of documents, investigated odd challenges to valid credit card disputes , and directly facilitated the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars to former customers of Vantage Deluxe World Travel. 

As a result, I can say it’s absolutely ill-advised for former customers to give up their travel credits right now. There is no benefit to anyone to reject what was awarded to them via the bankruptcy proceedings thus far.

Let me explain.

What did Vantage Travel customers get out of the bankruptcy?

To understand what’s going on today, you have to understand what’s already happened. For those unfamiliar with the Vantage Travel bankruptcy, here is a quick recap.

When Vantage Travel went bankrupt , it owed nearly 10,000 customers refunds and/or travel protection payments . The grand total owed? A stunning $108 million. That’s money that, in all likelihood, is gone and will never be recovered. 

However, there was a small light at the end of the bankruptcy tunnel for Vantage Travel customers.

In August, Pacific Travel Partners won the bid in bankruptcy court to purchase the remnants of Vantage Travel. 

Of particular value to Aurora Expeditions, the parent company of the newly formed Pacific Travel, was Vantage’s customer list. As per the sale agreement, Vantage Travel customers will receive future travel credits equal to the value of the refund owed to them at the time of the bankruptcy.

Those future travel credits can be used, with limitations as outlined in the sale agreement approved by the bankruptcy court. 

Pacific Travel Partners bought the remnants of Vantage Deluxe World Travel in bankruptcy court

You can read the specific details of Pacific Travel’s purchase of the remnants of Vantage Travel in my report . But here’s the abbreviated summary:

• The travel credits, issued by Aurora Expeditions, are equal to 100 percent of what Vantage Travel owed to each customer.
• The expiration date on the travel credits is Nov. 30, 2028.
• The credits can be used to pay for up to 50 percent of the cost of a non-discounted ocean cruise with Aurora Expeditions or with Pacific Travel (which is operating as Vantage Explorations ).
• Although there are no river cruises available today, these are planned for the future. Credits can be used to pay for up to 20 percent of the cost of these trips. 
• At this time, Vantage Explorations has added some new “trekking” adventures to the line up. Vantage Travel customers can use their credits to pay for up to 20 percent of the cost of these tours.
• Customers can continue to redeem their credits as per the agreement until the credits are exhausted or expired.
• These credits are transferable. That is to say, they can be given away to friends and family, but they can’t be sold. 
• Under no circumstances will these credits be converted to a cash refund. 

Vantage Travel customers hoped for a refund

As far as bankruptcy outcomes go for consumers, this one is considered better than most. In fact, the original bidder for the customer list of Vantage Travel intended only to provide former customers a one time opportunity to pay for up to 20 percent of a future journey with credits. As I discussed with Jason Law at Boston 25 last August , the final sale agreement is a decidedly better deal than was first expected for Vantage customers.

But, of course, every Vantage customer was hoping to receive a full cash refund or a replacement trip at no additional cost. 

Logically, that would be fair. Unfortunately, that isn’t how bankruptcy works.

Vantage Deluxe World Travel no longer exists and there isn’t any money to provide refunds to customers.

It has been very hard for Vantage Travel customers to come to terms with the harsh reality of the situation. The bankrupt tour operator owes secured and unsecured creditors (customers) nearly $170 million. There is no money to pay that tab. If there was, Vantage wouldn’t have gone out of business in the first place. 

Further, Aurora Expeditions is not affiliated with Vantage Travel and did not agree to take on its $170 million debt. 

But despite this fact, on nearly a daily basis, I receive requests from Vantage Travel customers asking how they can choose a refund instead of credits. 

The blunt answer is: You can’t. 

It seemed we were making progress getting that message across to the former customers… until last month. 

That’s when a new wrinkle was added to this consumer catastrophe and reignited the flame of confusion.

Will a Consumer Deposit Claim lead to a refund for Vantage Travel customers?

At the end of December, Vantage Travel claimants received a notice from the Bankruptcy Court. It informed them of the Court’s approval of the company’s liquidation plan.  That notice also provided customers with an address where they could inform the Creditor Trustee that they had decided to waive the travel credit and take a distribution under the plan.

To Former Customers of the Debtor: The debtor has previously notified you of your eligibility to utilize the Travel Credit provided by Pacific Travel Partners, Inc (“Pacific”). The Plan provides that customers who accept the Travel Credit will waive any distribution under the Plan and the Creditor Trust (as defined in the Plan), and the amount of your claim will be reduced by the amount of the Travel Credit that has been used or remains subject to your use. Information on the distributions under the Plan and the Creditor Trust was set forth in the Disclosure Statement previously sent to you. A copy of the Disclosure Statement is also on the Stretto website maintained for the Debtor’s Chapter 11 case. U.S. Bankruptcy Court to former customers of Vantage Deluxe World Travel

This wording led many recipients to erroneously assume they were now in line for a cash “distribution.” That is as long as they waived their rights to their travel credits.  

So that’s exactly what hundreds of former Vantage Travel customers immediately did in their confusion.

What does this notice really mean?

As a consumer advocate and reporter, I’ve followed the unraveling of Vantage Travel for years –and reported on the situation to many media outlets . I’m not unfamiliar with legal jargon and I thought I had a firm grasp of all the details of the bankruptcy proceedings. But this blurb confused even me. When I started receiving excited emails from Vantage customers who hoped I could interpret it, I couldn’t.

So I went to the Debtor’s attorney, Michael Goldberg and the Trustee of the bankruptcy estate, Stephen Gray, for clarification. 

What follows is a summary (in layman’s terms) of my interview via Zoom with Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Gray. We discussed the details of the priority claims and what opting out really means to Vantage Travel customers.

Note: For the sake of clarity: The legal counsel of both the Debtor and the Trustee have reviewed and fact-checked the next sections.

Who qualifies for a priority claim in this bankruptcy?

At the end of last year, Judge Bostwick approved an order that would possibly provide some limited refunds to Vantage Travel customers who had filed “Priority Claims.” But there are multiple stipulations and limitations to this “Consumer Deposit Claim” order. Here are the bullet point takeaways:

• To be eligible, a Vantage customer must have already filed a 410 Notice of Claim with the bankruptcy court, expressly claiming priority treatment. 
• Legally, the cap on a priority claim is $3,350. But in the vast majority of cases the deposit amount required by Vantage was only $500 or $1,000 per customer. The only dollar figure the Court will consider as a priority claim in this bankruptcy case, is the initial deposit.
• Customers who paid for their travel arrangements in full do not qualify for a priority claim.
• The only situation in which Vantage customers are entitled to a priority claim is where they made only an initial deposit, but did not prepay for the trip in full. For example, if a customer’s trip cost $40,000 and they made an initial deposit of $500 and then subsequently paid the remaining balance of $39,500, they would have no priority claim for any amount. 
•  All Vantage Travel customers who timely filed a priority claim have until June 30, 2025 to determine whether they should opt out or keep their credits. 
•  It is highly unlikely that there will be  any cash distribution on claims before the third quarter of 2025.

Where will the money come from to pay priority claims?

Oh, one last critical part of the above equation: There is currently no money to distribute. The only way any priority claims will be processed is if Mr. Gray, the trustee, can recover money to do so.

Some of those funds will come from Vantage’s remaining assets – for example, funds currently being held in reserve by the company’s credit card processors and bank, or insurance claims.  Some recoveries may depend on Mr. Gray bringing litigation, which has an uncertain outcome. But the bottom line is that the recovery process will need more time before payments to customers can be determined. 

How a Vantage Travel customer can check if they qualify for a Priority Claim

If you’re unsure if you filed a priority claim or if you qualify, here’s how to quickly find out:

• Did you pay off your trip in full? If you did, then you don’t qualify and you don’t need to go to the next step.
• Go to the Vantage Travel claims page in Stretto .
• In the search field, type in your last name and find your 410 Form.
• Click on the plus sign and see if there is a dollar amount in the priority claim field. If there isn’t then you don’t qualify for priority claim status. 

The vast majority of the hundreds of Vantage customers who opted out of thousands and thousands of dollars in travel credits in the past several weeks do not qualify for a priority claim. Which leads me to believe that most of those people opted-out because they didn’t understand the notice.

The reality is that the number of Vantage customers who qualify as a priority claimant is miniscule. In fact, I recently randomly checked over 100 claims in Stretto and not even one person qualified.

What is the real value of the travel credits?

There is another segment of Vantage Travel customers who are opting out because they misunderstand the value of their credits. Too many times to count, I’ve found posts in our private Facebook group , received emails or phone calls from customers with sizable credits who tell me they’re “worthless.”

This almost always stems from the customer’s misunderstanding as to how they can spend their credits. This confusion leads to a poorly constructed math equation.

To determine whether you want to keep or reject your travel credits, it is crucial to “do the math,” correctly .  

A frequent misunderstanding among Vantage customers is that they can only spend 50 percent of their credits on each trip. If that were true, it would make it quite difficult to get any real value out of these credits. 

But that isn’t the case.

Pay for up to half your cruise with travel credits

Vantage Travel customers can use credits to pay for up to 50 percent of the cost of an ocean cruise with Aurora Expeditions or Vantage Explorations. That means if they’ve got $10,000 in credits, they can spend it all on one trip as long as the base cost is more than $20,000.

Of course, if you’ve got a very low value travel credit, you may not find any real benefit to spending it with the new company. 

The other frequent complaint I receive is that Aurora Expeditions only takes passengers to cold weather climates.

While that is historically true, the cruise line is currently expanding their geographical coverage. The company is adding destinations to their schedules via Vantage Explorations with more itineraries on the way. You can review all the newest cruises which expand into warm weather climates in Europe and Latin America on the Vantage Explorations website.

Vantage Explorations is a brand new company, just launching. And the good news is that those credits are good for 5 years. That will give Vantage Explorations plenty of time to develop into a tour operator more closely aligned with the former company in terms of trips. 

And don’t forget, you can give those travel credits away as gifts as well.

The bottom line for Vantage Travel bankruptcy victims

No Vantage Travel customer should feel compelled to make a decision about opting out at this time. 

There is no rush and there is zero benefit to rejecting those credits (or using them) in 2024. No one is getting an express ticket to the head of some mythical Vantage Travel refund line by opting out. And, by waiting until the June 30, 2025 deadline for opting out, Vantage customers can see how the Aurora Expeditions /Vantage Explorations trip schedules develop in the coming months.

Every Vantage Travel customer has until June 30, 2025 to take a breath, let things settle, thoroughly read through all the documents and articles, ask questions and then make a decision about those credits. Formally opting out is legally binding and is a decision that shouldn’t be made hastily, because it can’t be changed later. 

If you’re a Vantage Travel customer who believes you made a mistake opting out in the past several weeks, you can contact me or Mr. Gray, the trustee, for a limited time to reset your decision. 

Mr. Gray intends to reach out to all of the Vantage customers who opted out directly, to assist anyone who does want to change their opt-out decision.  He has emphasized to me his desire to make sure that the Vantage customers get the most from their claims under the current circumstances of the bankruptcy case.( Michelle Couch-Friedman , Consumer Rescue)

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What to know about Vantage Travel, the embattled Boston cruise ship company

Boston-based luxury cruise company Vantage Travel made headlines this week for a spate of last-minute trip cancellations , spoiling travel plans for customers who were given a wide range of explanations for the disruptions.

In the case of this week’s cancellation of a 10-day European “spring tulips” cruise , which begins and ends in Amsterdam, the company blamed a “possible ransomware attack.” Two other tulips cruises have been abruptly scrapped in the last month: A customer on one said Vantage told her the ship was in drydock for repairs and wouldn’t be ready in time for the trip, and a ticketholder on the other said she was told “the boat had some damage issues on the river.” Another cruise, this one along the Nile River in Egypt, was cancelled because “people on the ground were seeing signs of unrest,” a customer said.

Answers about refunds, meanwhile, are in short supply. All travelers really know at this point is that Vantage’s website and call center are down, and many of them are, for the moment, out thousands of dollars.

Here are five things to know about the embattled cruise ship operator, its history in Boston, and what may be on the horizon.

1. The company has been in Boston for four decades

Vantage Travel launched in 1983, starting with tours to Australia and New Zealand, according to an archived version of the company’s website . Initially based in Brookline, the company later moved its headquarters to Bulfinch Triangle in Boston and currently has an office on Canal Street. Its fleet of about 20 ships — a combination of owned and leased vessels — sail to all seven continents.

The company advertises an all-inclusive experience, pledging on its website to handle everything “from airline tickets to hotel reservations, transfers and baggage handling,” with some bookings costing tens of thousands of dollars.

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Most of the ships are relatively small: The $70 million Ocean Explorer, which debuted in 2021 , accommodates about 160 passengers. To date, Vantage has sent half a million travelers around the world, according to the company’s Linkedin profile.

2. Vantage’s owner has had run-ins with the law before

Vantage Travel founder and CEO Henry Lewis is no stranger to controversy and has been named as both a plaintiff and a defendant in a number of lawsuits over the years , according to court records.

One high-profile case involved Lewis and his brother, Alan Lewis , who ran another travel agency, Grand Circle Travel, before his death last year at 74 .

In 2007, the brothers donated some of their shares of the Paul Gauguin, a cruise liner, to the Boston Foundation, a local philanthropy. But about a year later, Henry Lewis “devised a scheme intended to force TBF into selling its shares ... at a discounted price” to a corporation he was operating under, according to a 2011 court ruling . In the end, the court ruled against Henry and ordered him to pay the Boston Foundation $29.2 million for its shares.

Also during this time period, a planned merger of Grand Circle and Vantage fell through , with Henry Lewis accusing his brother of shady business practices. The brothers stopped speaking and filed competing lawsuits.

“I had a lot of faith in his word,” Henry said in a 2009 interview with the Globe . “Now, I learned not to trust anybody. Not even your brother.”

3. Both employee and customers have criticized the company

Besides the jilted customers who have spoken out recently about the canceled trips, the company’s digital footprint is littered with grievances stretching back years. On TripAdvisor, a website where people can leave reviews of companies, Vantage has racked up more than 50 one-star reviews . Many users warn people not to book with the company, describing protracted wait times for refunds for canceled trips and difficult customer service experiences.

“If you book with this company you might as well throw your money down the toilet,” wrote one user last year.

Many former workers also condemn the company, according to the anonymous employee review website GlassDoor . A number of people who said they used to work there described a “toxic” work environment.

“The owner is belligerent and regularly yells and is rude and dismissive to employees,” wrote one user in 2018.

“‘Do you have any sense of self worth?’ If yes, do not work at Vantage,” wrote another in 2019.

4. The Massachusetts Attorney General has gotten involved

On Tuesday, the state Attorney General’s office released updated data about Vantage. The number of complaints filed against the company from Massachusetts residents? More than 700, mostly for trips canceled due to the pandemic . The office said it has secured more than $1.2 million in refunds for more than 80 customers,

“We encourage Massachusetts residents having trouble seeking refunds from Vantage to file a complaint with our office online,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office said. “Out-of-state consumers are encouraged to file with their state attorney general.”

5. Some trips are still “expected to embark as scheduled.”

Despite the controversy, three upcoming trips are still “expected to embark as scheduled,” according to a temporary website Vantage set up . This includes a trip scheduled to embark Thursday from Boston to Montreal, a cruise from Greece to Italy on Friday, and a Holland to Switzerland voyage early next month.

The page, which points to “a data security incident” as the cause of the cancellations, asks customers to email [email protected] for additional information.

“We will update this site daily with additional information on future trips,” the page says.

Sean P. Murphy of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Dana Gerber can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her @danagerber6 .

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Energy Dept. Aims to Speed Up Permits for Power Lines

The Biden administration has expressed growing alarm that efforts to fight climate change could falter unless the electric grids are quickly expanded.

By Brad Plumer

Reporting from Washington

The Biden administration on Thursday finalized a rule meant to speed up federal permits for major transmission lines, part of a broader push to expand America’s electric grids.

Administration officials are increasingly worried that their plans to fight climate change could falter unless the nation can quickly add vast amounts of grid capacity to handle more wind and solar power and to better tolerate extreme weather. The pace of construction for high-voltage power lines has sharply slowed since 2013, and building new lines can take a decade or more because of permitting delays and local opposition.

The Energy Department is trying to use the limited tools at its disposal to pour roughly $20 billion into grid upgrades and to streamline approvals for new lines. But experts say a rapid, large-scale grid expansion may ultimately depend on Congress.

Under the rule announced on Thursday, the Energy Department would take over as the lead agency in charge of federal environmental reviews for certain interstate power lines and would aim to issue necessary permits within two years. Currently, the federal approval process can take four years or more and often involves multiple agencies each conducting their own separate reviews.

“We need to build new transmission projects more quickly, as everybody knows,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said. The new reforms are “a huge improvement from the status quo, where developers routinely have to navigate several independent permitting processes throughout the federal government.”

The permitting changes would only affect lines that require federal review, like those that cross federally owned land. Such projects made up 26 percent of all transmission line miles added between 2010 and 2020. To qualify, developers would need to create a plan to engage with the public much earlier in the process.

Experts said the change could be significant for power lines in the West, where the federal government owns nearly half the land and permitting can be arduous. It took developers 17 years to win approval for one major line, known as SunZia , that was designed to connect an enormous wind farm in New Mexico to homes and businesses in Arizona and California.

“Federal permitting isn’t the only thing holding back transmission, but if they can cut times down by even a year, and if we have fewer projects that take a decade or more, that’s a big win,” said Megan Gibson, the chief counsel at the Niskanen Center, a research organization that recently conducted two studies on federal transmission permitting.

The rule would not affect state environmental reviews, which can sometimes be an even bigger hurdle to transmission developers who are facing complaints and lawsuits over spoiled views and damage to ecosystems.

Other changes to grid policy could soon be on the way.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees electricity markets, is expected in May to finalize a major rule that would encourage utilities and grid operators to do more long-term transmission planning, something that is relatively rare today. Depending on how the rule is written, it could also help resolve disputes between states over who should pay for costly new transmission lines — which is often the biggest sticking point for many projects.

“I’ve called that rule the biggest energy policy in the country,” said Rob Gramlich, the president of the consulting group Grid Strategies. “Figuring out who should pay for transmission has always been the hardest part.”

Separately, the Department of Energy is trying to help utilities squeeze more capacity out of the existing grid. That includes “grid-enhancing technologies” such as sensors that allow energy companies to send more power through existing lines without overloading them and advanced controls that allow operators to ease congestion on the grid. It also includes replacing existing lines with advanced conductors , which can potentially double capacity along existing routes. The Energy Department is currently offering $3.9 billion in funding that could go toward these and other solutions.

Many of these technologies could be deployed in just a few years, agency officials said in a recent report on grid modernization , buying time for developers to construct the larger transmission lines that would be needed in the future.

Congress has also given federal regulators the authority to override objections from states for certain power lines deemed to be in the national interest, a potentially contentious move. The Biden administration has yet to wield this power, though it is working to identify potential sites that could qualify.

“We’ve been trying to maximize every nook and cranny of what we can do right now,” said Maria Robinson, head of the Energy Department’s Grid Deployment Office.

Still, experts say, there is only so much the administration can do to expand the grid without help from Congress. To date, lawmakers have struggled to agree on ways to reform the system.

In the House and Senate, Democrats have proposed various bills that would mandate greater grid connectivity between regions or place more permitting authority in the hands of federal regulators . But some utilities and Republicans have criticized those proposals as taking control away from states.

Elsewhere, energy companies have asked Congress to enact permitting reforms that would set stricter time limits on challenges and lawsuits from opponents of new projects. But environmentalists are wary that those changes could also benefit fossil fuel projects such as pipelines.

At a recent conference in New York, David Crane, the under secretary for infrastructure at the Energy Department, said that if he could “wave a magic wand” he would ask Congress for permitting reform to advance renewable energy and transmission projects.

“I would say to people on the left who oppose permitting reform because they think it will lead to more unmitigated fossil-fuel-fired infrastructure, at this point it seems very clear from my vantage point that without permitting reform, what we are hindering is new zero-carbon energy sources,” he said.

Brad Plumer is a Times reporter who covers technology and policy efforts to address global warming. More about Brad Plumer

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