We live in Washington state, and received an invitation to hear about a travel club. Call me uninformed, but I had never heard of this, and was curious to find out what a travel club provided.
They stated on their invitation that they are not a time share or vacation ownership organization, and that for attending, you would receive a free trip, with us paying taxes and other fees which may apply (port charges, etc.). When I called to arrange a time, I asked where they got our name, and was told from lists of recent travel arrangements!
We have belonged to a discount travel service for over 10 years, and have been happy with our 5% rebate and other benefits of belonging, so we were interested in hearing about this program.
We should have known better!!!
After quite a long presentation, we decided that it was WAY too much money, with no way to know if you would get anything good out of the club, so we did not buy in.
We got a voucher for a trip to Hawaii, sent it in to Holiday Travel, and received back a letter stating we would need to pay $116 in taxes, and a "processing fee" of $398!!! This money must be sent within 21 days of the letter, with no guarantee of when you might get to go! So they want all of this money, and you will not know if you get your trip until 60 days prior to your selected dates (they give you two picks of dates).
We were told that Holiday Travel handles all game-show winnings for trips. We knew we would have to pay taxes and any other fees that might apply, But who in his right mind would send off $514 with nothing even planned??!! Surely not us!!!
This "Travel to Go" has other information events planned for Washington state. I cannot recommend a company who would deal with such a rip-off travel agency to handle their "gifts'!!!
We have learned our lesson - nothing is free or even sort-of free when you go to hear about travel clubs!!! And it just happens that this month's AARP bulletin had a "scam alert" article about travel club rip-offs!!! Very interesting!
We were lucky to keep our money for planning our own trips - watch out!!
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