Vantage Customers May Get Travel Credit With Aurora Expeditions

Vantage Customers May Get Travel Credit With Aurora Expeditions

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.

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.

 

Subscribe to QuirkyCruise.com for monthly curated newsletters highlighting our top small cruise ship reviews, round-ups & offers!




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.

 

Don’t miss a post about small-ship cruising, subscribe to QuirkyCruise.com for monthly updates & special offers!  

© This article is protected by copyright, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the author. All Rights Reserved. QuirkyCruise.com.




About The Author

Anne Kalosh

Anne Kalosh has written about cruises for decades and her favorites involve small ships. She is the editor of Seatrade-Cruise.com and senior associate editor of Seatrade Cruise Review.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Write A Review

UnCruise BF Ad

UnCruise Ad Jan 2024

Heidi Booking Ad

QuirkyCruise Heidi Booking ad

2023 SATW Lowell Thomas QC Win

SATW Lowell Thomas Award winner

2023 SATW Lowell Thomas QC Win 2

2023 SATW Lowell Thomas QC Win for Heidi

SC & PK’s YT Channel

PK YouTube Sea Cloud

Adsense

Sign Up box

QC Sign Up Ad Sept 22

bird

Travel Without the Crowds

SATW Proud member

Adsense

About Us


Heidi and Ted HEIDI SARNA

I'm up to 78 countries and 110+ cruises worldwide, and it's the small ship journeys that I love writing about most. And so QuirkyCruise.com was born, an excellent research tool for planning your own unforgettable small ship trip.

THEODORE W. SCULL

I have traveled between all continents by sea and cruised along three dozen rivers. Ships and travel are in my blood, and so is writing. My journeys have translated into many books and many hundreds of articles.

More...

Our Small Ship Cruise Reviews & Articles

If you can imagine it, we’ve cruised it! With reviews, articles and destination overviews, we’ve got you covered.

Celebrating Victory Cruise Lines Return to the Great Lakes

Celebrating Victory Cruise Lines Return to the Great Lakes

Victory Cruise Lines Return By Peter Barnes As an occasional Quirky Cruise contributor, I was invited to a memorable dinner held at the Chef’s Dinner Table in Lower Manhattan last week to celebrate the launch of Victory Cruise Lines. John Waggoner, CEO of Victory and...

  • Subscribe

    Sign up for our monthly newsletter to get insider reviews, tips & deals on unusual & small-ship cruises.

  • * I would like to subscribe to the QuirkyCruise newsletters. QuirkyCruise.com will not sell your email. See PRIVACY POLICY