UTOvacation Bewertungen 1.323

I fell for the same scam as most people on here. Paid almost $2k for trip to China which UTO cancelled. They gave us credit but we wanted a refund. We bought the insurance but were told it didn't cover cancellation since we were given credit. Wish I had complained to my credit card company but didn't think of it at the time. I feel like this company should be shut down. It's just not right what they do.

This company is running a scam. I booked with them for the China Thailand Tour and received a credit of $7000 cdn for to book a trip before Sept when the credit expires. There were 10 of us in total going so approximately $17,000 of our money they have and we can't use it...The trips are overly inflated and also in American dollars. They have changed their name on the business but are still booking trips under UTO. Check on Tour Radar for trips that are more suitably priced but do not book with this company. They are booking trips but you cannot use your credit towards these trips.. You cannot get your money back from visa as the 564 days has expired. You cannot talk to anyone and your emails go unanswered. It is a scam...I will never book with this company and will let everyone know my experience.I gave them a one star but prefer to just leave the negative review. What a terrible company to deal with..SCAM...I feel bad as I talked a bunch of friends into going.

We like many others booked the China trip for February 2023, booking the trip in September of 2022. Shortly after booking the China restrictions started piling up. So concerned with the restrictions I tried contacting UTOvacations, via phone and chat with no response. I finally emailed them in November 2022 and finally received a response. Stating my concerns they said the trip was going to be cancelled. I requested a refund due to the causes of cancellations and was told no that I would receive a credit. Not agreeing with the decision I agreed to a credit. As like the other reviews trying to rebook was absolutely ridiculous. trips have gone up 10X what they were, nothing is remotely affordable, nor would I trust booking with them EVER again. After checking their website today, trips for China are $3499 pp but say they are temporarily sold out but the the ones for $8400 pp are available...they wont get another penny out of us. Very shady company, do not trust them booking anything for you!

Same experience for us and our travel group. $2k China trip is now $9k. Will cost another $7k to rebook same trip. They will keep $2k off thousands of traveler's credits because it's not feasible to rebook. And the credit expires this year. Was good for 1 year.
Travel credit scam experience.
Like others, we were given a travel credit on cancellation of our China/Thailand tour in December 2022. The problem is they've hyperinflated their website prices (most are now upwards of US$8,000) as a scheme to ensure the credit isn't utilizable. Almost sure they'd get back in business once the expiry dates pass.

Like others, we were given a travel credit on cancellation of our China/Thailand tour in December 2022. The problem is they've hyperinflated their website prices (most are now upwards of US$8,000) as a scheme to ensure the credit isn't utilizable. Almost sure they'd get back in business once the expiry dates pass.

I would echo many of the previous reviews about UTOvacation. We booked a China trip before the pandemic, and then the pandemic hit. But instead of a refund, we were assured we could use the credits on a similar trip, which never happened. We were given a deadline to use the credits. Out of a crunch, we booked a spring trip with them to Italy after paying more. From the get-go, we felt being trapped in their unfair business model – we were forced to pay expensive tips per person, even though we know tips are not customary in Italy. They claimed it was for their tour operators and staff, but we only signed up for a couple of “included” tours. We don’t know where this money actually went to but suspect it to be a disguised fee to be added to their profit.

There were many problems during the trip, but let me highlight a few:
1. The hotels are far away from the towns, requiring extensive daily travel for sightseeing. We spent over an hour round trip each day and it became costly.

The hotel in Rome was the worst. We had to transfer two subways to get to the city center. The hotel itself was in the middle of a desolate neighborhood with not much around it and its “4-star” rating was a far cry. It doesn’t have many basic stuffs that you would expect even in a 3-star hotel, like a coffee pot or water kettle in the room. The price tells it all – it was less than $70/night!

2. On the second day in Rome, while commuting to the included sightseeing tour, my wallet was stolen while riding the subway to the city. Unfortunately, that was not the end of it…

On the Colosseum tour, after everyone was given the ticket, the entrance staff would not let my son in as they needed to know his age. We tried to pull everything we had to show that he was under 18. They would not take it. The guide told us that we should have brought our IDs with us. But with my wallet stolen the day prior and no one had told us to bring our passports on this tour (nowhere in the itinerary even mentioned anything about that!), how were we supposed to produce any documents on the spot? Their tour guide couldn’t do anything to help us!

As a result, we missed the first part of the tour, which included the highlights and best views. When we reported our experience to UTO customer service, they refused to reimburse any portion of the tour, despite us having paid tips to them beforehand!

3. They sent the included tour itinerary only a day or two before our departure date only after my repeated requests. This prevented me from making other tour arrangements timely. I had to cancel a highly sought-after ticket and repurchase a more expensive one at the last minute to make it to the included tour because they changed the tour schedule, causing losses on my end. When I reported the issue, there was no apology, just justification.

4. The guides for the included tours didn’t have a clear mark or flag for us to identify them easily in a crowded gathering place. It didn’t feel professional at all. It took us some time to find them, especially in Rome.

These are just some examples of the poor organization and management of this trip.
What made it worse was their poor customer service. Every time we reported an issue or concern, they didn’t try to solve it but only tried to justify it.
We feel our experience on this trip wasn't worth the expensive money we paid; let alone the undeserving “tips” they forced us to pay in advance.

This could have been a dream trip, but it turned out to be a free-fall disappointing one! We won't do business with this company again and will strongly warn others against it!

I booked a trip in March '23 for a Japan vacation in May '24 including a few days in Tokyo followed by a Celebrity cruise around Japan with a stop in South Korea. I paid for excursions (final payment submitted in November '23) in each port and transportation from hotel to starting port and end port to airport.

Two weeks before departure, I received an email informing me that the excursions and transportation were not available and suggesting alternate excursions.

After several attempts to speak with a representative, I finally received a phone call. After prodding, they finally confessed that they had failed to book the excursions I had reserved in March '23 and paid for in advance.

No apology, no offer to compensate for their failure to process my request.

Because of their failure to book, the trip was much less satisfying than originally planned.

I had to find ways to book tours in each port and arrange transportation on my own within 2 weeks of departure.

They agreed to refund the funds they had in possession for months but had to wait 60 days before they would process.

At least show some remorse and offer something to compensate for the situation.

Do not book with UTO!! I booked and China ended up with continued restrictions. I stupidly took the credit thinking I would just rebook later. For the amount that I paid for 5 people I cannot even afford one person to go to China. There is no one to answer phones. The online chat response is basically - cannot help you. I cannot extend my credit, I cannot get my money back, I cannot go on a trip without spending another $2600 and that doesn't even include airfare. I see other companies with similar trips that are half the cost. Do not by UTO at all.

Warning to Future Travelers: Avoid U to Vacation (New Pioneer Travel) - Unethical Practices and Numerous Complaints

If you're considering booking with U to Vacation or their alternate brand, New Pioneer Travel, be warned: this company has a disturbing track record of mistreating customers and engaging in unethical practices, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In my case, I paid $2,395 for a China trip that was canceled due to the pandemic. U to Vacation issued a travel credit with an expiration date that proved unreasonable given the circumstances. They failed to communicate proactively or offer flexibility, causing the credit to expire before I could use it. When I sought a solution, they dismissed my concerns, hiding behind the fine print and disregarding the extraordinary situation that was beyond my control.

Sadly, my experience is not unique. Hundreds of similar reviews and complaints reveal a pattern of U to Vacation prioritizing their bottom line over their customers' well-being. They consistently demonstrate a lack of empathy and refuse to provide fair solutions, even in the face of unprecedented challenges like a global pandemic.

Now, it appears that U to Vacation is attempting to escape their tarnished reputation by operating under the name "New Pioneer Travel." However, the company's unethical practices remain the same.

To protect yourself from frustration, financial loss, and disrespectful treatment, I strongly urge you to avoid doing business with U to Vacation or New Pioneer Travel. Instead, choose a travel company with a proven commitment to customer service, transparency, and fairness, even during difficult times.

We booked a trip using a cancellation credit from 2020. I had a small balance on the trip payment, $200 due six months before the trip. I never got any reminders to pay it. I called in late September to ask a question about the trip and they said they cancelled it for non payment. I said I didn't get any reminders...they said it was my problem for not remembering. What kind of business nowadays doesn't send reminders of these types? Anyway, I said, I booked the upgraded breakfast package, which was $200. Can we cancel that and consider this paid? Nope. Still cancelled. They gave me a credit for the cost I had put towards the trip so far, which is about $1200 USD. However, the prices of all of their tours skyrocketed to several thousand, or all the trips are "sold out." I think I just lost all of my money to them with no retribution on their end.

I purchased a special deal trip to China but the trip was canceled due to pandemic. My deposit was converted to credit. I am seeking a refund of my travel credit that I feel is unusable due to increased prices and misleading promotions. The company representatives, Joanna and Candice, explain that the travel credit is non-refundable and encourage me to wait for "future promotions". I have been watching their website site for special deals for almost a year now. Even if the prices of $399, $699, $899 did show up, they were impossible to be reserved and had no available dates with a calendar appearing in the browser!
I expressed my frustration over the expiration date on the credit and the lack of equivalent deals to my initial purchase. I am frustrated with the lack of fair deals compared to my initial purchase. If deals do exist and get released, I should not be checking the website daily, but instead should be emailed on priority with an offer to book such a deal ahead of other customers.

Overall the trip was good. We saw everything that we wanted to see. Our tour guide and driver were very nice and friendly. The only issue I had was the logistics. UTO would gouge you for every thing. First, my sister forgot to upload her passport details and without any reminder UTO charged them a fee. Initially , they wanted $400 but were able to reduce to $200.00. This is strictly profit making. Most agents would send you a reminder. Second, our flight experience was stressful. They put us in the cheapest flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt with Condor. We missed our connecting flight as UTO sent us a schedule which has only an hour window to our connecting flight and Frankfurt airport is very busy. We had to check in to the next flight available and when we got yo Vienna, our luggage weren’t there so we had to wait for a few hours at the airport for our luggage to arrive. No compensation was offered. Luckily our tour guide was kind enough ti wait for us until our luggage arrived. Not a good way yo start a vacation.

I am experiencing the exact same problem as Wilhelm
Reese. I have a $3500 credit from a trip to China that I was "shut out of" in the fall of 2023, due to no fault on my part. I consider the credit to be worthless due to UTO's policy of only extending discounted deals to people that do not have a credit.

UTO vacations STOLE more than $1700 USD from us and many others.
WTHeck is this then????? I called TICO and got pooped upon!!!
"Help UTO give your money back by filing a complaint with TICO.If you are one of the many people who had their China + something else trip cancelled for one of many reasons UTO gave, help UTO give your money back by filing a complaint with the agency Travel Industry Council of Ontario (as listed on bottom left of UTO's website in blue and green tico.ca). They have helped some people already and knows of this company's practice.Like many others, I had a trip to China & Thailand all paid for from a promotional sale. UTO cancelled it and does not offer refunds, only future travel credit. 3 months after filing a complaint, UTO reached out to me on where to send my refund."
I am ready to travel to where UTO is located and do whatever I can to get back my money.....

Another victim of UTO's travel "credit" after a paid-for China trip couldn't be done. They jacked up prices to absurd levels for future trips, so any credit was essentially worthless. Looking at their site right now, shows things like 7 days in Bolivia for $9,000/ person. That's about 3 times the current price of a 9 or 10 day Rick Steves tour in Italy, for the low quality minimalist UTO excursion.
My impression is that they arranged a "clever" way to avoid having anybody book tours with credits until all their outstanding credits had expired. Since they're in Canada, there's little an American can do about their thefts.

If I could give this company zero stars I would! We also booked a trip to China and Japan last year that was canceled. We were told we had credit for future travel, but they didn’t inform us that the credit would only last one year. As everyone else has said the price of their offers now are outrageously high, and I refuse to give them any more of our money. They should run out of business. Do not use UTO travel.

Avoid!!! This business is set up to steal your money. They cancelled a fully paid Tour to China during Covid lock down and offered only future travel credit as compensation. It’s impossible to use this credit because they quadrupled their prices on everything else that they offer so you have to pay them even more money in order to book again and of course who wants to risk that? Then you ask for you money back again and they say No but they’ll extend the expiration date on your (unusable) travel credit if you write a favourable and positive (eg fake) review on Tripadvisor for the company which I refused to do. There is no way to get your money back.

We had paid in full for a China/Japan trip in 2023 and were waiting on one of our group member's passport to arrive to upload the info. UTO cancelled our trip without telling us or asking about the missing passport info 5.5 months out. When we tried entering passport info we were shocked to find out our trip was cancelled and were told we had a year to use a "credit" but trips have been marked up considerably in that time and none compare in price. Also, none of the prices on the website are accurate. For ex, if it says a trip is $3900, when you click on it, it says the cheapest is >$9000 per person. Very disappointed and a waste of our money. Customer service is unhelpful and does a lot of blaming. Unfortunately we may be out almost $5000. Don't wast your money- use other travel companies!

One more negative for UTO. Paid for upgraded hotel rooms and got parking lot views . We spent two days on trains when a two hour flight was available. Dumped at train station with no assistance. Will never use again. Glad it wasn't my first tour, I would never tour again if it was.

My friends and I purchased a China Price Buster 10 Days - USA Depart Jan 23, 2020 from this company for $299 at the time International flights and accommodations were included in the price we would be responsible for our own visas and compulsory gratuities. Then COVID-19 happened so all trips were cancelled. We were able to use our credit towards another trip in 2021 to Thailand that was cancelled due to inflation. That was then rescheduled in Jan 9-2023 for a March 8, 2023 for a trip to China and Thailand, we paid an additional $602 for the price difference of $300 mandatory gratuities per traveller. We were told a few weeks before departure that our flights were not booked and that departure date is sold out. The funds were then converted to travel credit on June 21, 2023 that expire June 21, 2024. I was told that there would be more price buster trips and to subscribe to the newsletter which I had been for the last 3 years at that time. Now I am a month away from the credit expiring and the trip prices have for the same exact itinerary is 10x the price from last year. There are no travel dates available when I click the book now.
At this point this company has inflated their prices, tricked us into paying more, has cancelled our trip and not provided refunds. It has been over 4 years of trying to work with this company to no avail. Scammers and need to refund the credits.