Road Scholar

Booked an end of April 2024 in the USA with full intentions of enjoying my first vacation since Covid. Turned out that due to work and personal reasons I was unable to attend the trip. Have been trying for nearly a month to cancel my place on that trip. Several emails to RS got the impersonal responce that due to security they could not cancel my reservation via email. Spent several hours (or more) on hold for a live person to pick up at their end to cancel my place on that trip. Nothing. I was just on hold for another 50 minutes and finally had to hang up at 4:55 so I could do other work. I cannot pick up a call-back if I'm working or driving. Needless to say, I haven't paid the balance due for that trip (due today) because I'm not going. Obviously RS is too big for it's britches and doesn't have enough staff.
My on-hold times were twice as long (or more) than every time I've needed to contact my corporate-owned primary doctor's office. I'd like to give RS a Zero rating overall, and for customer service.

My husband and I just returned from a Road Scholar program and experienced issues which the administration of this program refused to help with from day one including flight issues and a Covid Outbreak. The educational content is excellent but if something goes wrong the travel service and Covid Response team will provide inadequate support. At least 8 of our small group are positive with Covid due to lack of comprehensive protocols.

I booked a trip and put a deposit of $500 down. At the time I thought I was told that if I had to cancel that money could be used towards another trip.my knee went bad and I now need knee replacement surgery so I have to cancel the trip.when I did this I was told that there was a cancellation fee and that my money will not be refunded.I'm not worked with a company that did not honor the ability to cancel or transfer within certain time frames be careful

Road Scholar is the most "deaf" organization I've ever dealt with. First, they never think of the customer, just their bottom line. All rules are to their benefit. I cancelled a trip almost 1 year in advance and they could only say, you agreed to lose your $1200, too bad. How about referring your friends or giving us a donation? Also, provide us all your friends & families emails so we can bombard them as well. I'm so done with this company/non-profit. Buyer Beware!

Keep in mine that once RS has your money, almost no force on earth can get it all back for you. We had a cruise around the coast of Italy planned for the first 10 days of June 2020. Beginning in mid-March, we and scores of other registered participants were in a panic about being elder on-board participants during the Covid-19 pandemic, so we contacted Road Scholar and said that we had looked on the web site and were stunned that the trip had not only not been cancelled, but that RS was still looking for sign-ups! Finally, RS cancelled the trip -- but because it was cancelled in April, not in June, RS kept our $1800 down payment sent in the fall of 2019 and refunded the rest of this $10,000+ trip. RS had astronomical liability exposure -- imagine its attempt to defend wrongful death suits. I wrote a letter to the CEO, James Moses, sent it certified mail return receipt requested. But, in the end, the technical terms of the trip meant that RS got $1800 for providing NOTHING and we got holding the bag.
We have been on several trips with RS over the years, but we have vowed that RS is a bunch of mealy-mouthed goniffs who will NEVER get any of our money again.

We've been looking for new places to travel to, but didn't really know where to begin. We heard of roadscholar and searched it out online. What a great service! I love that they take you to places and plan the trip for you, including fun physical activities as well as sightseeing and cultural learning adventures. We traveled with some great people on our trip to Scotland which made the whole vacation that much better. It was amazing and we can't wait to book our next trip!

I am a new widow. I cxld my trip. They said I could go another time. My hubs is not coming back another time. I called AON. Said they need his death cert. What? Invitation to fraud. They also kept $200- which I need as dead husbands are expensive. THEY DO NOT TELL U ON THE APP THEY NEED documentation. They shelved my app and never told me! We are RS's target market. I hope ur trip goes well, but if not, expect the worst! I'm

Road Scholar will only issue medical exemptions with a doctor statement indicating that the vaccine should NOT be taken. This is an unreasonable and dangerous position as there is a widespread difference of opinion as to the safety and efficacy of existing mRNA vaccines. In the meantime, I am out $2400. Exercise caution before committing cash with these people!

Had emergent urological issues, unable to urinate, sepsis, high white cells and lactic acid, hospitalization and emergency surgery.
Tried to transfer funds to another program for a small fee; the small reasonable fee per contract is 100%. I'll truss up my testicles and wear incontinense diapers, I will NOT lose $10,000 - period.

Think twice about booking your travel through Road Scholar:
Recently I booked a trip with Road Scholar and used their travel department to book my trip. As luck would have it weather delays created a situation where I would miss most of the trip so I chose to cancel the Road Scholar trip. When I asked United if they would cancel my flight and give me a refund they agreed…until the agent discovered I had booked the flight through Road Scholar. Because I booked through a third party, I was told I had to obtain a refund from Road Scholar directly. Road Scholar refunded all but $200.00 which they said was a booking fee. News to me, never was a booking fee if canceled discussed or mentioned while booking the flight. So, my advice to anyone thinking about booking a Road Scholar flight is to make their own travel arrangements or buy trip insurance.

We were extremely dismayed and surprised to find out that - after paying over $1800 for Cancel for Any Reason travel insurance from AON / RS for a 3 week Road Scholar trip scheduled in Sept / Oct 2020, and after cancelling our trip in this unprecedented Global crisis in March - we have not been given any kind of prorated rebate on the insurance premium we paid, essentially for services unrendered.

We had the policy for less than 3 months and it was well in advance of the trip. It is certainly not fair or reasonable for AON / RS to take such advantage of this Global crisis to make a profit because of something that we couldn't control.

All we ask for is a significant rebate on the Insurance premium, not unlike many other Insurance companies actions that have been taken voluntarily in support of their customer base. For example, If I had paid my annual auto insurance in advance and then sold my auto a few months later I would be given a prorated rebate. I don't understand how Aon / RS can think to do otherwise.

If this can't be resolved fairly then we will never agin book any travel with ROAD SCHOLAR.

Road Scholar offers trip protection plans from AON Travel Insurance. DO NOT BUY those plans. Read the reviews of AON Travel and you will see why I say that. We bought a plan and before we filed a claim we called AON and were told it would take 4 - 6 weeks to receive payment. It has now been 128 days and we are still waiting. When we contact the company we always get the same reply of "please give us 30 days". Whether we call or email, the reply is always the same.

My wife has been on a few Road Scholar trips and has generally enjoyed herself. However, she booked another trip several months ago and paid for part of it then (as she recalls). A few months later, Road Scholar contacts her via email to ask if she is interested in seeing what a flight would cost booked through them. My 69-year-old wife, who does have a few memory issues, thought it would be good to get a quote from them to compare to the cost of the flight she had already booked. Another week or more goes by, we are at our daughters wedding in Mexico, when she gets a bill from them. She thinks it is for the cost of the trip, not to book a flight. She pays over $2,000. When we get home and she reads all of her emails, she discovers it was for the flight she had already booked with someone else. She calls RS and, after first refusing to return anything (they claim she agreed to the booking even though she never agreed or signed anything) they refund everything g but $500, which is a lot to a retired couple. When she tells this to her friend, the friend responds that the same thing happened to her sister-in-law! It makes me wonder if Road Scholar isn't intentionally taking advantage of older people? Regardless, we will never go on a trip with them again and we will encourage all our friends to avoid them as well. Good luck if you elect to deal with them!

For two days I have attempting to contact customer service and the travel department to no avail. I keep receiving the tired old message that due to increased interest, we are to leave our telephone number and wait to hear from them. Obviously, they do not have adequate staff to respond to our inquiries. I am a veteran traveler and have traveled with other companies who are much better staffed. There is no excuse for their lack of service. The management needs to address this grievance.

After my wife came down with Covid (along with several others), Roads Scholar asked us to leave the tour. They left us in the remote town of St. Anthony, Newfoundland, last June, to find our own way home (no offer of assistance). So far they have ignored our effort to recover any of our tour costs and the considerable expense of getting home.

My grandson and I paid $12,548 for a grandparent/grandchild tour in Iceland. We were stranded in the Chicago airport along with 11 other people trying to get to Iceland for Road Scholar tours on July 1.
The emergency phone number just kept all of us on hold for hours in the wee hours of July 2.
My grandson and I got sent to Dulles, to Amsterdam, and then were refused the Iceland flight. We spent a fourth day in Amsterdam and then begged to return home. Our luggage was lost for a week.
They offered a $500 credit for their failure to deliver us to Iceland for the tour.

Scheduled WINTER IN SICILY trip. Program #*******. We were ready to go, received an email of final preps, not a call. Both of us were covid tested on Wednesday, received our negative results Thursday
Email said to be tested 72 hrs ahead. To us that was 3 days, we leave Saturday, felt good. Upon arriving at airport, we were told we had been out of compliance testing by a couple of hours. NO BODY TOLD US THE AIRPORT COUNTS 72 HOURS AS TO THE EXACT HOUR WERE SUBMITTED OUR TEST! We panicked with only about 1.5 hours tobe tested again. Left airport, went to 3 locations - all closed. So, we missed our flights. Tried to contact roadscholar, called, offices closed for weekend due to being short handed. As seniors we felt betrayed. Days later roadscholar contacted us. Eventually they gave us some credit for another trip. Not near what we shelled out for the trip Plus loss of thousands of dollars in air flights. They contend it is our fault, nobody told us how airlines count the test hours.
Leery of another trip with roadscholar after this huge disappointment.

I did the San Miguel Allende (SMA) trip and it was just okay. It started out bad when no one was at the airport to meet us at the time we were told to be there. The airport was about two hours from SMA so this was not a small issue. I finally called RS and the person showed up an hour late with the attitude of "I'm here now!" The lectures were old and canned from a US expat who screamed in a small room. I am hard of hearing and had to remove my hearing aides because of the pain caused by his large lecture room voice. I asked the tour director to ask him to moderate his voice and she said there was nothing she could do. Less than a third of the people went to the lectures because there was so little content. This was during the entire immigration and border detention problems! What a wonderful opportunity for current events. Why aren't lectures done by real locals - it would be so much better than hearing it from a US perspective. That is all we get at home. Essentially there was little education on what was billed as an educational tour. The tour director was very disorganized to the point of walking us a couple miles to the wrong restaurant and then walking us all back. It was very hard on the elderly participants. You were on your own if you had food allergies in spite of the fact that RS asks about this in advance and I also informed the tour director. She showed up at my table almost hysterical about 10 minutes after I was served something I was allergic to. Luckily my travel companion tasted it before I did and took my dish away. One local guide mentioned the plays he was in, and recited from them, ad nauseum, while we sat in the hot sun and learned almost nothing. RS could not even manage to send me a review form and finally just took my review over the phone. This was not what I had expected and it turns out others were very disappointed too as everyone was give a $200 credit toward a future trip. I will give them one more try and am hoping the tour is not cancelled due to COVID-19. I had heard such good things about RS. I was very disappointed.

A friend and I are supposed to complete payment for our trip by Sept. 30, but we can't get anyone at Road Scholar to give us our flight information. Flights are included in the package. I am quite reluctant to pay $4600 for a trip to Cambodia when I don't know how long my layovers will be. The fastest flights are almost 24 hours Others are 30 hours and above. My friend has called, emailed and left voice messages multiple times in the last few weeks, all to no avail. This is not acceptable.

The Primary Group Leader was excellent. The secondary group leader introduced politics 3 times during the trip then sent this email after the trip. This was our 14th and probably final trip with RS. I don't want political commentary on vacation!

Hello Road Scholars once again,
During our Great Deserts tour, I spoke briefly about issues w e face concerning water. Attached is a 1-page digest of what 4 other scientists and I have proposed. I ask that you read it and that you then contact your State and National Representatives and Senators asking that they work to implement advanced technology pilot plants so that we as a nation can address the current human and environmental health issues associated with synthetic compounds in our water. I recommend to your reading Dr. Shanna Swan, 2020 Countdown. Most of the chemicals she talks about are already in our water and our water infrastructure is not able to destroy and/or remove them.
Take care and please contact NAU Road Scholar (aka Bruce Banker) if you'd like to do another tour with me or any of our other exceptional leaders.
Bryan

Avoid tour if Bryan is involved!

I had thought I was all set for a trip for myself and companion - we're less than 6 weeks out. However, after paying in full over a month ago, I was sent email with no explanation to pay more. It took over 5 hours to receive a call back, and then they said it's just additional airfare charge - look for the current airfare price on our site. The current airfare charge on their site is twice what airfare cost back when I booked, and 50% more than the current price for similiar flights on travelocity. Seems like a bait and switch to me, with uncaring folks on the phone today. Agents are unable to say why I was shown as paid in full, with 2 reservations, until this morning.

We recently traveled to Madeira for a medium rated activity level trip. Our guide was fantastic, providing enthusiastic and knowledgable information about the natural features and flora of the region as well as sociological and political contexts of present day life on the island.

Unfortunately, my wife became ill the morning of our scheduled return flight to Lisbon, from where we were to make connections to fly home (U.S.). Our guide was extremely helpful and communicative regarding our circumstances, but the process he was instructed to use to support us in this situation was seriously flawed.

He gave us an 8 page Road Scholar instruction sheet outlining the process by which we would be covered for expenses of our delayed and rebooked travel. The process is administered by something called "On Call." It turns out that this outfit is the same as "Emergency Assistance Plus", a travel insurance company.

We were required to seek medical care and have the attending physician fill out FOUR of the pages (in English) with results of medical examination, including vital signs, blood test results and a medical diagnosis. One form was essentially an affidavit requiring the physician to assert that the patient was unfit to travel. All four required signatures, email and telephone contact numbers.

Our guide advised us to go to the local public hospital emergency room, which we did. The situation at the hospital was chaotic to the point of nightmarish. My wife on a gurney with an I. V. in a hallway with other patients, most of whom were in much more serious medical issues. We observed one poor soul not 5 feet away who suffered a seizure and was bleeding from his mouth, probably from biting his tongue. It took fully 5 minutes before any medical staff intervened and attempted to navigate his gurney through the maze of other beds in the hallway.

Needless to say, the likelihood of ever even being examined by a Dr., let alone having him fill out a 4 page form, was an impossibility. We left the facility and ultimately made our own arrangements for return travel to the U.S. at considerable $ expense to us.

Upon contacting "On Call" upon our return, their response was to again send us the Road Scholar 8 page form originally presented to us. It seems that it is necessary now to get a Portuguese doctor whom we never saw and who didn't examine my wife to my wife to provide 4 pages of information from our home in Colorado.

We admit to our naivety in going to a public hospital in a foreign country, but given that many Road Scholar trips take place abroad, the process they've contracted for through "On Call"/Emergency Assistance Plus is a joke. We were hung out to dry with zero returned communication for hours. The communication we received was useless at best, and if it weren't so insulting, it could be considered ironic.

Just landed for a road scholar trip, in a strange city, running late and worried you'll miss your transfer shuttle?

Who ya gonna call?

Not Road Scholar! They place no importance on this important aspect of customer service. At least they didn't when I took my trip to Santa Fe. The "emergency" call center didn't know who was supposed to meet us at the airport-didn't have any names-didn't know if they were still there or when they were leaving.

Really? I think that is what technology is for. Unforgivable, Road scholar. You can do better.