AG James sues travel company for failing to refund over 100 New York customers

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing a travel company after they failed to refund cancelled tours for over 100 New York residents.

In a news release on Wednesday, James said she "received dozens of complaints" from New Yorkers against Vantage Deluxe World Travel Inc., a Boston-based travel agency that specializes in cruise vacations.

She said Vantage Travel and its owner, Henry R. Lewis, refused to refund "thousands of dollars" to New Yorkers from Westchester, Albany, New York City and Long Island for cancelled travel tours, including cancellations because of COVID-19.

The lawsuit accuses Lewis and his company of "engaging in deceptive business practices by failing to honor the company's policy to promptly refund customers who had their trips canceled or had to cancel for health reasons."

“When a trip is canceled and a refund is denied, it adds insult to injury,” James said. “My office will not let Vantage Travel get away with flouting the law and denying dozens of New Yorkers the refunds they deserve due to canceled trips. Companies that make promises to consumers must fulfill their end of the bargain or bear the consequences."

In June 2023, two lawsuits were filed against the company. According to WCVB 5, Boston's ABC News affiliate, Vantage Travel posted in April about a ransomware attack that it said "took down their call center, website, email and other internal systems." WCVB 5 said that an internal company email was sent to Vantage Travel employees informing them that all trips through Aug. 28 would be cancelled, but many customers were not informed or refunded.

After the attack, a California woman who paid $15,000 for a trip to Ireland on May 26 said she found that her airline tickets were cancelled "due to non-payment by Vantage," according to WCVB 5. They were re-issued but the trip was later postponed the day before departure. The woman sued the company in early June, saying she did not receive any refund money.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a similar lawsuit to James and was able to recover more than $1.23 million dollars for affected customers, according to WCVB 5. WCVB 5 reported that Campbell received over 800 complaints since Jan. 1, 2020. Massachusetts officials received 181 complaints just this year. Only 21 of them were from Massachusetts residents.

Vantage Travel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Massachusetts on June 29, according to Aurora Expeditions, a luxury cruise company in Sydney, Australia, who bought out the company. In an automated message on its hotline, the company said all Vantage Travel offices are currently closed.

"The company is not operating trips while the bankruptcy case is pending and has suspended all future departures," Aurora Expeditions said in the message.

Bankruptcy filings show Vantage owns creditors tens of millions of dollars.

Attorney General James said she received one complaint from a couple who had to cancel a fully paid trip after the husband was diagnosed with a heart condition, which prevented him from traveling. James said Vantage Travel offered a "risk-free cancellation policy," but refused to refund the couple thousands of dollars for their cancellation.

In order to avoid the terms of their policies, James said Vantage Travel would often consider full cancellations "postponements" and reschedule trips up to a year later or more.

"If a consumer did not want the rescheduled trip, Vantage Travel only offered a credit for a future trip instead of a refund for what in fact was a cancellation," James said in the news release.

Many of Vantage Travel's customers were seniors, according to the news release, and they often "paid $10,000 or more for the tour packages" but could not reach anyone at the company to ask for a refund.

James' lawsuit alleges that Lewis was aware that customers were not getting full refunds for trip cancellations but failed to address the issues. He told consumers that from July 2020 to February 2021, all trips would be "postponed due to pandemic" but did not follow up about rescheduling or options for refunds, according to court filings.

James said she will "seek full restitution for all impacted New Yorkers, civil penalties, and disgorgement."

The Office of the Attorney General encourages anyone else who was affected by Vantage Travel to file an online consumer complaint or call (800) 771-7755.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Vantage Deluxe World Travel sued over cancelled tours not refunded