Complaints

This profile includes complaints for 1st Class Travel's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  1st Class Travel

  3443 William St Ste B Cape Girardeau, MO 63701-9507

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  1st Class Travel

  161 West Park Mall Cape Girardeau, MO 63703

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  1st Class Travel

  3441 William St Ste A Cape Girardeau, MO 63701-9573

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/02/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I had planned a trip for June 17-June 26 through 1st Class Travel that was sponsored by ***** **** **** ****** **********. Upon arriving at ****** ************* ******* it was determined that due to the flight being changed I was not going to be able to make it to the cruise ship in time the trip was cancelled. After a couple of weeks the travel agency submitted a claim to the travel insurance company for reimbursement of the trip. I had contacted the travel agency to check on an update on the claim. They told me that any information about the claim would come through the insurance company. I contacted the insurance company who informed me that the wrong claim form had been submitted. The travel agency stated that they filled out the form they were told to fill out. Again I contacted the insurance company again and was told once more that the wrong form was used. They sent me the correct form and I took it to the travel agency to obtain the detailed information that I needed for the correct form. The lady stated that they were waiting for the insurance company to get back with them. I asked for the imformation needed for my form and she refused to furnish it to me. I understand that the insurance companies are running months behind. I am just needing the information that I am requesting in order to receive a refund of over $5000.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/13/2022

  Dear Better Business Bureau,

   

  I received your letter regarding the complaint *** **** has with our business.  I understand her frustration, the events that happened preventing her from traveling on her dream vacation should have never occurred.  However, her complaints are misplaced. While we are the local office she can come to for assistance with reservations through various vendors, assistance is all we can provide for her. The vendors she should be directing her complaints for a refund to are ********* ****** ****, ***** ********, and ****** ******* *************.  

   

  1^st Class Travel had no control over any of the flights ***** ******** cancelled on the morning of her departure for her Greece cruise, which caused her to miss a connecting flight resulting in her missing her entire cruise.  A representative from 1^st Class Travel remained at the ***** ******* ticket counter at *** ***** ******* ************* ******* for seven hours on June 17, 2022, trying to get help for her with the mess ***** ******** had made of her flights.  Even though various other airlines were flying to cities she could have connected through to make her cruise, ***** refused to put her on another airline or offer any assistance other than continually telling our representative that while they knew it looked bad for ***** just send her home.  Our representative offered alternate itineraries for flights ***** could have used for her and ***** refused to do anything at all.  

   

  1^st Class Travel also had no control over the refusal of ********* ****** ***** who booked the flights for *** **** on ***** ******** to intervene or assist in either re-accommodating *** **** on alternate flights, holding the ship’s departure to allow all those affected time to arrive, or offering any type of refund to the customer.  Even though the ***** ******* tickets were in fact refunded to ********* ****** ****, the cruise line has refused to pass the refund on to the client, forcing her instead to use her travel insurance to receive the refund, stating the cancellation occurred during a time period where the airfare booked with ***** ******** through ********* ****** *****, was in fact non-refundable and it is not *********’s fault that *****’s cancellation caused the missed connection and therefore, the missed cruise.

   

  Finally, *** ****’s travel insurance policy is between herself and ****** ******* *************. 1^st Class Travel does not receive any copies of information sent directly to clients of Travel lnsured International regarding their claims.  The claim information is private and confidential and between ****** ******* and its customers. 1^st Class Travel sells travel insurance only, and our company has a policy (which is suggested by ****** *******) of not assisting in filling out any travel insurance forms for customers because of this exact problem.  1^st Class Travel gets blamed for anything wrong with the submission or we are criticized for failing to provide the information in the way the insurance company prefers.  In this instance, because the entire ordeal was so awful for our customers and we had many clients affected by the horrific service of ***** ******** and ********* ****** ****, 1^st Class Travel, as a courtesy, began the claim for *** **** with ****** ******* ************* and sent in the initial information. *** **** has all the information she needs from us for completing the claim form for her refund and has never been restricted by either 1^st Class Travel or ****** ******* ************* in updating the information requested from the insurance company or submitting her own claim forms.  

   

  On June 29, 2022, at 1:22PM, I sent an e-mail to *** **** with instructions on how to submit the claim form herself to ****** ******* *************.  At that time, I also let her know ****** ******* ************* had told us they were not even beginning to look at claim forms for at least four weeks.  As of today, the insurance company says they are at least three months behind on processing claims. On June 30, 2022, *** **** requested 1^st Class Travel send in the claim form on her behalf.  Since this was a group of passengers and most of them had similar issues and costs, 1^st Class Travel was working with the “Bulk” sales representatives at ****** ******* to ensure we sent in the correct information on our customers’ behalf.  This process was extremely time-consuming, our office is used to less than half a dozen of our customers filing claims in a year.  However, this summer has been a complete nightmare for all travel agencies with all the airline cancellations and schedule changes, and we like the insurance companies have been completed overwhelmed with forced trip cancellations and subsequent insurance filings. 1^st Class Travel initially began the claims process with ****** ******* on behalf of *** **** on July 5, 2022.  Additional information was then submitted for her on July 21, 2022, and on August 30, 2022, *** **** told our office ****** ******* told her it was the wrong form submitted to them. However, at that time she didn’t inform us which form ****** ******* told her was needed instead.  On Friday, September 2, 2022, *** **** came into the office without an appointment, and upset the staff demanding someone fill out her forms at that very minute. Our accountant was not in the office at the time, and no one was free or had access to the necessary information to fill out the form for her at that time.  *** **** was irate and said she would give our office until Wednesday to get it done. On September 6, 2022, I e-mailed *** **** and asked her to send me what the insurance company had sent to her so I could try to find out what they were requiring.  1^st Class Travel has communicated to all our clients, multiple times, that we do not receive any notices or requests for additional information messages from ****** ******* – they go directly to the client.  Also on September 6, 2022, I offered to come into the office, even though I was on vacation, to meet with *** **** and discuss her frustrations and concerns regarding all of this, but she never responded to my offer to meet with her with a date or time.  Then on September 8, 2022, she sent me another e-mail demanding the “correct” form be sent to ****** ******* giving me a deadline of the end of business on Monday, to have it done for her.  

   

  On September 9, 2022, I updated *** **** and let her know that for the last couple of days I had been working with a Senior Claims Analyst at ****** ******* trying to determine what was needed for her claim.  Once again, this is a courtesy I am providing to *** **** because I want her to receive her refund as quickly as possible.  However, nothing I do is any different than if she was working with them directly herself.  I have no power or ability to make the claims process any different than it is for everyone, and I have no control over the refund process. Now on September 12, 2022, I have received a letter from you regarding her complaints about her insurance forms, which she can submit herself.  Now I am having to respond to this complaint too.  Our office is small with a small staff, and we are a very busy office.  *** **** is not our only customer.  We make every effort to address any issues our customers’ have and help them when possible.  We are at the mercy of other vendors and how quickly they respond to our requests, which doesn’t always match up to the time demands *** **** continues issue us.  I will be resubmitting her form to ****** ******* ************* this afternoon September 12, 2022, and I will copy *** **** on that resubmission.  In the future, *** **** will be required to address any future questions or concerns directly to ****** *******, ********* ****** *****, or ***** ********. 1^st Class Travel has done everything we can to help her with this matter.

  Sincerely,

  *****  *******