Vantage Customers May Get Travel Credit
By Anne Kalosh
Aug 29 UPDATE by Anne Kalosh: “New Vantage Explorations to offer ‘Vantage-style' travel.”
Pacific Travel Partners, a subsidiary of Australia's Aurora Expeditions, acquired the assets — essentially, the customer list — of U.S. firm Vantage Deluxe World Travel.
This should be some comfort to past Vantage customers who may be able to get a credit for travel services they'd paid for but not received before Vantage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June.
An affiliate of Australia's Aurora Expeditions submitted the winning bid for Vantage Travel's assets, essentially, the customer list. * Photo: Aurora Expeditions
Bankruptcy Court Approval
It had been expected that the U.S. court overseeing Vantage's case would green-light the Pacific Travel Partners deal.
As my colleague Helen Hutcheon, Australasia correspondent for Seatrade Cruise News, earlier reported, the group had emerged as the top bidder, beating the previous front-runner, New Zealand’s Heritage Expeditions and its associate Nordic Hamburg.
The cash component of the winning bid was reported as $2 million, which Pacific Travel Partners hiked from its initial $1.5 million, along with 5 percent of future revenue through to 2028.
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What Was Acquired
Pacific Travel Partners did not buy the Vantage Deluxe Travel business or company or agree to employ former management of the Boston firm founded by Hank Lewis in 1983. Vantage had not owned its ships but chartered them.
Instead, Pacific Travel Partners is taking on obligations to unsecured creditors including customers who had paid for but not received travel services, by way of a credit to be used toward future travel.
Credits for Cruises with Aurora
Pacific Travel Partners will apply these credits to future travel and allow customers to use their credits to pay for up to 50% of an Aurora voyage based on the current published brochure price.
Similar Ocean Ships
Aurora Expeditions operates, on charter, Greg Mortimer and Sylvia Earle, which may seem familiar to Vantage customers who took, or planned to take, ocean cruises over the past few years as they are sisters of Ocean Odyssey and Ocean Explorer, the ships Vantage chartered.
Greg Mortimer and Sylvia Earle each carry an average of 132 passengers. They sport the distinctive Ulstein X-BOW that's touted as providing a smoother ride in rough seas and reduced noise and fuel consumption.
RELATED: Five small ship cruises with a science focus, including Sylvia Earle.
Aurora Expeditions offers adventures in Antarctica, the Arctic, “wild” Scotland, “rugged” Ireland, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal and the Atlantic islands of Cape Verde, the Azores and the Canary Islands. So, hopefully, displaced Vantage customers may find a program similar to what they had booked with Vantage.
Aurora Expeditions' operations are certified as 100 percent climate neutral.
Past Vantage customers should be getting communications soon
Pacific Travel Partners said full terms and conditions associated with the passenger credits will be communicated as soon as possible.
Going forward, Pacific Travel Partners will trade under a new business name and said it intends to start communicating with Vantage passengers to explain the process and their options over the next few weeks.
A team of customer service agents is to be put in place to deal with inquiries from all affected passengers.
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