Our daughter's large group historical tour to the East Coast was well done! They handled communication, logistics, planning (and backup planning), and provided a phenomenal experience with nearly 100 middle schoolers while ensuring outstanding tours and learning. Great job (especially with so much craziness with travel and government right now). I highly recommend them for your trips as well! read more

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Please do not understand any circumstance but this insurance. They will not give you back your money with a well qualified and documented health reason.I was just diagnosed with cancer will undergo surgery then radiation. The doctor provided the note trying to preserve a bit of privacy. This company wants more documented proof because the 2 doctors I had wrote a note were not enough. They want to know my treatments to go along with my cancer. I am thinking they are being over the top. Are they going to sell my info not sure? Please just do not get insurance you are throwing more money away with the tick you will lose.! I will continue to post reviews to help save people the grief! read more

I'm a teacher and have helped chaperone four student trips to Washington, D.C. with Global Travel and one trip with a different company. Global Travel outshines the competition in ALL aspects. They prioritize student safety; they customize our itinerary; the office staff is fantastic. The tour guides are not only extremely knowledgeable, but the also engage the students and make it fun! Hats off to Mr. T and Ms. Raquel in our recent trip to DC! read more

I won't reiterate the other negative and well thought out reviews regarding the 70% refund based on GTA's 'Standard Cancellation Policy'. We have much the same story. I have tried to contact them several times and no response. We have also contacted our Middle School and they are considering dropping GTA as a vendor. This will hurt GTA in the long run, as people will not trust them. Very short sighted of them. Seeing quotes from GTA management saying that they are going 'above and beyond' is just disgusting. Much like other people's experience, I have also received full refunds from hotels, airlines and VRBO renters because of the pandemic. GTA is the only one that is sticking to their 'Standard' policy in times when nothing is standard. Reading also that GTA is blaming their travel parters as the problem is laughable and a shallow attempt to pass the buck and claim no responsibility for their decision(s). read more

Global handled our St. Augustine trip! It was a great trip and the students and parents enjoyed learning Florida history! Global lined up the hotel and activities for us and even setup a pizza party! Great trip! read more

This smallish travel company offers individualized and personalized service that many other student tour companies do not provide. Account managers/representatives often reach out over phone (as opposed to strict email communication) and will frequently meet up with the group on tour. This level of attention is unique in the tourism industry, and it's one of the reasons my school has utilized GTA's services for the past seven years. read more

My son's camp was cancelled and we could not travel due to the quarantine and Covid 19. They told me on the phone that this claim would be covered as a trip interruption due to Covid. I filed my claim on-line with documentation and this is what they said: Your plan excludes coverage for losses due to an epidemic. Your plan does not provide coverage for losses due to an event that was known, foreseeable, intended, or expected when your plan was purchased. It's designed to protect you when there is a sudden, unexpected problem or emergency. Your insurance program provided Trip Cancellation benefits for very specific reasons. Unfortunately, cancelling your trip or having your trip cancelled/changed due to the Coronavirus are not included among those reasons. Why have insurance? I will not be using Global Travel Alliance again. read more

I am having much of the same disappointment as the other folks writing reviews. I did buy the TPP insurance at $250, and I cancelled my sons trip the day after we reviewed his 2nd trimester report, as his grades did not meet our agreement. On March 17, I cancelled the trip to NY/DC. This was before the COVID caused businesses to close and Social Distancing was not in place. This was cancelled for grades, not even yet thinking about COVID. But the TPP would not help, because the trip would eventually be cancelled for the pandemic (I guess it is cancelled, I have no idea). Here is the fun part. We live in Bozeman, MT, the same small town as the GTA offices. Do we deserve any different coverages or accomodations? No! And we are not getting them either. It is amazing how tone-deaf a company can be during these difficult times. I do not wish bad for the GTA employees, but I will be a vocal person that makes sure every chance I get, that the reputation and lack of sensitivity of the owners, founders, business leaders, and company are well known in their community. Global Travel Alliance could have been so much better ! read more

Global Travel Alliance (GTA) communication is terrible and it takes weeks to get a response to questions; without the teachers to do their work the student travel portion of the company doesn't function. If GTA does respond it's a general response and doesn't answer the questions asked. This company doesn't appear to have invested in any sort of tracking system to help track customer inquiries or cancellations or insurance claims. At the start of the pandemic GTA had a lot of posts on their Facebook page about sticking to the standard cancellation policy. Instead of addressing those posts the company appears to have removed them from Facebook. I did purchase the trip protection plan and made sure my plan was set up with Travel Insured international via GTA who is a reseller. GTA never provided me with a plan number. My claims were processed and approved but it has been 3 months and I still have no refund. Ordinarily, this is a 2 to 3 week process. read more

Worthless organization that has used the Covid-19 crisis to take financial advantage of Middle school aged kids. No refunds of the children's money even though they have not been required to pay vendors. Trip insurance will not be accepted, you can use it if weather causes a flight cancelation, not if the cancelation is caused by a pandemic. They are offering limited opportunities to reschedule that conflict with most children's schedules, such as Drivers ED, sports organizations and work. Don't use any travel agency that is partnering with this organization EVER. read more

Only offering 70% refund for cancellation due to COVID-19 (not allowing trip insurance to cover it) and giving parents about 5 days to make the final decision. Refusing to cancel the trip only 3 weeks away with the US still deep in the COVID-19 pandemic, and not giving the option to postpone. Families devastated by this loss of funds AND travel. Forcing parents to take an unfair gamble with their children and their finances. read more

This is the ONLY business I have dealt with during this pandemic to absolutely disregard the devastation COVID-19 has brought to everyone. They point to policy on every avenue. They claim they had to pay vendors and that is why they won't refund for cancelled trips. I am confident those vendors are not the issue. Not a single hotel chain or airline have been refusing refunds. This company lacks integrity and I encourage anyone who is dealing with this right now from them to escalate the issue. They have no business operating at all. Disgusting business practices! read more

If no stars was an option I'd pick that! Global Travel Alliance has been the only company I have dealt with during the pandemic that has refused to make exceptions to their refund policy. My daughter was supposed to take an 8th grade trip to D.C and New York, then COVID happened. Of course my assumption from a company who supposedly "cares for its students" would be that they would cancel the trip and I would get my money back. I purposely didn't buy the travel insurance because it didn't cover things like 'natural disaster, terrorist attacks, etc...' because those are reasons I wouldn't send my daughter and a reasonable company would cancel a trip due to those things, right? So on we go.... the beginning of March I began to reach out to Global Travel Alliance (GTA) what were their plans for the trip due to COVID? We're they going alter their refund policy like pretty much every other company in America? The Midwest representative for GTA just kept feeding me the same from the script response that I could read on their website. If I choose to cancel with more then 60 days out I would receive the standard refund of my money 70 % of my approximately 2000 dollars that I had already paid them. And that GTA was planning on the trip still happening Huh?! What? You want me to send my 14 year old daughter to some of the most populated cities in America during a pandemic while everything is shut down? A company that really cares about their students, yeah.... right. So I question further, why are they keeping 30%? Due to prepayment of to nonrefundable vendors. So I asked who are those vendors? GTA's reply was they asked not to be named. Now I'm not sure how that sits with anyone else but that sounds like a bunch of bullsh*t to me. If they said we pay for hotels, flights, and the charter bus upfront and they don't refund money maybe I'd believe that, but not they don't want to be named and they won't refund our money. So on we go, I'm full Mega Karen at this point, I'm emailing the GTA almost weekly seeing if they've changed their policy. Some times, they answer my emails, other times they don't. So I'm 64 days out from the trip that hasn't been canceled yet, and on March 24, I cancel my daughters trip because it's evident that GTA isn't going to cancel and they've come up with the alternative of a voucher program in which my daughter can go on the trip next year but my fund will only count for 75% of the cost... I WOULD HAVE TO PAY THEM MORE MONEY!!! No thanks. So fast forward about two weeks and the local news company is running a story about another local school district that is having the same issue. The news story says GTA is offering to try to give them bigger refunds. I email the GTA Midwest rep and see if that offer would be extended to our school district and he said they were trying but all they could guarantee at this point would be 70%. Ok... a glimmer of hope, but I'm not holding my breath. So the school district finally got them to cancel the trip. According to the organizer it was an ordeal. GTA then gave us 3 options- 1. We could send the kids in OCtober if there were enough kids interested with no option for refund. 2. The crappy voucher program mentioned above Or 3. Cancel. Well I had already canceled and the refund policy still had not changed. Fast forward to today almost 4 weeks since I canceled my daughters trip, I still haven't received my refund, the website says 2-3 weeks. So I inquire via GTAs chat online customer service. I already had a feeling on what they are going to say. Low and behold I was right. Their response was "due to the circumstances it is taking us longer to process refunds" . So they make no exceptions for their refund policy but I'm supposed to allow them grace in returning my money?! FFS!! This company is the worst. I would never recommend giving them a dime of your hard earned money. I was honestly excited for my daughter to go on this trip. Now I will never allow any of my other children to attend a trip put on by this company and hope my school district quits using them all together. I am normally a rational person. This has turned me into Mega Karen, the lady who needs to speak to your manager. The way this whole company has handled the COVID pandemic is a joke. They clearly only care about making money. How about keep my deposit, 200 dollars, seems fair, right? Nope about 600 dollars. And all I got out of it was a headache and the knowledge that this company doesn't care read more

If I could give this company a negative star I'd jump at the chance. Our son was scheduled for a school trip to DC/NYC in June 2020. Unfortunately with the current pandemic things have changed. So let me inform you of what happens when you have a trip paid for through Global Travel Alliance. First they have a cancellation policy. It specifically states in the event of a pandemic you won't receive a full refund. Depending on the day you cancel is how much money will be refunded. It starts at 70%, drops to 50% and then 0%. Now, let's say they cancel the trip you would think you'd receive all your money back correct? Nope, it's the same percentages. Now add in the extra money for the protection plan, what does that provide in these circumstances, yep you guessed it, nothing! I have contacted the VP Ryan Sparzak to ask for refunds for all affected by the pandemic, he points directly to the policy. Doesn't matter that this company will probably receive a bailout or assistance from the government. It doesn't matter that DOT is making airlines fully refund air travel, it doesn't matter that hotels are fully refunding their customer. What matters is this company is profiting off of families who cannot send their children into a hotbed of CoronaVirus. What matters is this company has no morals. This company is showing compete negligence in a time where stay at home orders are in place, where nothing is open, where people are actually losing life and all they do is point to their policy. These are kids that some have worked throughout the summer, done babysitting, walked dogs, completed chores etc to help pay for this trip, only to be ripped off by Global Travel Alliance. This is disgraceful. This is why people lose faith in large money hungry companies. Policy over doing the right thing. It speaks volumes. https://www.wowt.com/content/news/Called-off-middle-school-summer-trips-leave-parents-footing-cancellation-bills-569530671.html read more

I'm giving it 0 stars and would go negative if there was that feature. I could not send without giving it 1 and so realize that is not a true answer and they deserve none. We just paid top dollar to this company for our 8th grade trip to DC. What a disaster. They hire a bus company called Empire Coaches. They are not a reputable company and I cannot believe that after the bus broke down and you had children and parents hiking through a homeless camp to get to the tomb of the unknown soldier that you would send a bus that has 650,000 miles on it with no heat and no electricity versus the bus that broke down that had 350,000 miles on it with no heat no electricity and a back door that would not close which was a safety and emergency issue that instead of taking the bus off the road at that point in time we had to have one of the guides hold the back door shut also the back closet's would not lock and a large bulk 50 pound block of wood fell out of the closet and almost hit A person in the head. My safe didn't work at hotel and I had to carry purse and valuables all day in the freezing cold. We had to walk extensive lengths and cross highways and homeless camps as a result of the bus breaking down and major route. Also the bus driver didn't even know the height of the bus and could not go under a bridge and we all had to hike again and call the police only to learn that the bus could pass through and then the bus drives right by us freezing and hiking on the side of a major road. The drivers were two old guys that drove too many hours and were swerving in and out of the lanes hitting the notification on the road that you were off your lane and people were beeping at the bus that he was driving in their lane. It was a nightmare and dangerous. The breakfast at the hotel stunk. My son and I didn't eat nor would we ever eat at a golden coral. I would have rather ate a peanut butter sandwich than pull into that dump, yet you send us twice? The only response you send to me from your company is that your so surprised and have not had any issues in the past, when that is a lie and I know at least 10 parents that all have issues and were emailing you as well. What a cover up and we want our money back, not your lame emails. Don't ever use this company or travel anywhere with them as a group. It's a scam! read more