They changed their location to Buffalo Grove and name to K Travel Mart Inc. Incredibly unprofessional. Let's see, where to begin. After booking my first trip to Korea since I was a child through K Travel, I proceeded to get my itinerary and hotel bookings piecemeal and only after asking on multiple occasions.
Upon arriving at the airport for my flight I found instead of having two and a half hours prior to an international departure, I only had one and a half hours. This was because my wonderful travel agent sent me an itinerary that she created and she failed to take daylight savings into account. Nice. If my wife and I didn't decide to arrive early we probably would have missed the flight.
Next, one of the hotels she booked was under construction (literally right outside our balcony). When I asked the front desk what was going on, the representative indicated that all guests were notified of this fact prior to booking. Of course we were never notified by the agent. Great.
On to the tour. This was to be for 3 days of a 7 day trip. First, the travel agent failed to mention that the tour guides from a company called US Tour don't speak any English. I understand that everyone in the world doesn't speak English and it is silly to expect. However, I am booking a trip with a US Travel Agent from the US to Korea. Really, no English and the agent didn't see fit to mention this?
The "tour" consisted of horrible food and being shuffled from place to place to buy overpriced souvenirs. Everything was supposed to be prepaid. When we got there, there were so called optional add-ons (a visit to an old Chinese circus for example) to the tour. The option, if you chose not to pay the add-on, was sitting on the bus for over an hour. When we tried to cancel after the first day, we were told that there was a $100/person cancellation fee. What? We prepaid in full for the tour. I didn't want any refund, but to pay extra to leave? Again, the tour company indicated that this was disclosed prior to booking. Not to us, but the travel agent. Guess what? The travel agent never disclosed it to us. After many conversations with the owner of the tour company, they allowed us to cancel half of the tour without cost. They apparently make their money from commissions on the junk that are pushed on the tourists.
No assistance from K-Travel and no response to my email I sent detailing the problems that arose during the trip. You would think when someone is booking a trip halfway around the world for a short duration the travel agent would be considerate and conscientious. Not here, just a money grab. read more