Abercrombie & Kent USA, LLC - Downers Grove, Illinois

Pierre T.

A&K REVIEW OF JAPAN TRIP
Guides were simply accompaniers, gave the basic of information ( that you can read on the museum signs), were not the most fluent in English and usually shabbily dressed. The Kyoto guide was not bad, the transport guide to airport return was exceptional in helping (Misaki)). They were all very nice, respectful and helpful, just not very informative for the amount of time they spent with us. Most of the time they simply talked to the driver. I would expect guides working for A&K would be more learned in the history and more fluent. Comments like “this is a bank, this is a school” really don’t cut it.

The activities were very standard tourist attractions (except for the manga, samurai (best activity) and noodle making activities) . The sushi making was stupid, just showed us how to press fish onto a rice ball. Nothing about the prep of rice (as advertised in the A&K itinerary), the way to cut fish, other things about sushi i.e. wasabi, etiquette, etc. Nevertheless the guy was very sweet and very funny.

My son was very excited to go to the main Pokémon store in Tokyo (as in the itinerary), but we were taken to a small Pokémon store in a mall.

Hotels were very good. The Ritz in Kyoto and Gora Kadan were excellent. St Regis was not on par with the others.

Meals reservations I believe were made by the hotel concierge. (The cancellation policies are ridiculous) The restaurants were good, but not exceptional. The best restaurant was at the Kyoto Ritz Hotel. Would not recommend Hamayashi in Osaka, the chef is the antithesis of personable.

It would have been helpful to know that this is the time of year when thousands of school children go on their school trip and every site and museum was unbelievably crowded.

Ground transportation for the most part was very good.

Overall we had a good and interesting time, but what it really comes down to is that for 60K (without airfare and dinners) I would have thought it would be more tailored and most importantly that the guides would be more educational, communicative and interesting. We met several other A&K travelers at the hotels and they pretty much were on the same itinerary as us.

I believe I would have done a much better job myself with as, or more, luxurious accommodations with some leg work for less than 30K. As a goof, I entered “Arrange an ultra-luxury 9 day trip to Japan and price it out” on an AI platform. See below what AI came up with in less than 15 seconds! A very similar trip for $21000 (which included a $2000 shopping spree) !

I would suggest that for the kind of money that A&K charges, there would be more tailored itineraries with better guides. Maybe one on one communications with someone in Japan would be helpful prior to the itinerary.

Bottom line: definitely not worth going with A&K, I consider it a rip off. Doing a chatgpt search for super luxury 10 day trip to Japan came up with better ideas for 21K! which included a $2000 spending spree for an afternoon!

BY THE WAY: I GAVE VIRTUOSO AND A&K EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS MY CONCERNS AND IT IS NOW 5 MONTHS FROM NUMEROUS EMAILS WITHOUT A RESPONSE, SO THERE YOU GO....EVEN THOUGH I HATE BADMOUTHING PEOPLE, MY THOUGHTS MADE PUBLIC

Date of experience: May 26, 2024

TrailBlazer7

This is a terrible company. They are extremely over-priced. Any one of their vacation offerings can be easily booked for less than half of what A&K charges. Also, they will not stop sending me catalogs. I have complained to the company 3 times to stop sending advertising to my residence and the catalogs just keep coming. When I spoke to the representative on the phone the last time, he promised that they would no longer send catalogs to my house. He lied, and I just threw another 3 catalogs in the recycle bin. What does it take to get this company to stop sending me that junk

Linda L.

We have just finished 12 days 7:28-8/8 Kenya and Tanzania Africa holiday. A&K has pride itself to be a luxury tour operator which is definitely not our experiences. It’s more like flying economy plus. Issues are 1. A&K cars are old and have lots of wear. 2. We were stuck at a air strip in Kenya border for over 2 hours. The local representative of A&K did not give us updates and told us it’s operation issues in different cities (Arusha and Nairobi). I kept on calling the A&K customer service lines and was promised he would call back and he never did. 3. 1st Guides in Anbrosi English is difficult to understand. 4. Many members in our group all have stomach issues during our trip. 5. Our departure from our last spot was moved up about 2.5 hours and from our perspective, it’s for A&K convenience and cut short of our enjoyment 6. Our main guide instead of apologizing to guests to mid-handling and poor A&K operations, he keeps on saying “Let me tell you…”….this is my 3rd trip to Africa and have travelled over 110+ countries around the world and this supposed “luxury” experience has to be the worst. Our fellow travel members ran into various issues and very unfortunate.

Dennis

My wife and I have travelled with A&K many times over the years, with destinations spanning the globe. Throughout our travels, we've had but a handful of negative experiences.
Recently however we had to cancel an extensive trip to Africa due to dire health issues. We requested the cancellation exactly 2 months ago. We are still waiting on the return of our $25k+ deposit.
In booking the trip, the deposit was charged to our card within 30 minutes. In cancelling, it is taking over two months for the credit to appear. What a scam. What a way to treat heretofore loyal customers.

Clare M.

This is a despicable company do not use them. We are retirees and saved our money for a once in a lifetime trip to Uganda in October of 2022. About a week prior to our departure we found out about the Ebola outbreak and then a few days latter, the US's decision to redirect all the incoming passengers from Uganda to 5 specially equipped airports which can screen the passengers and track them for 21 days. A&K never contacted us about the Ebola or the airport situation and had no information to share with us. When we called them, they said everything was OK even though all the news and CDC reports indicated otherwise. Due to my husband's health and the total lack of communication and care from A&K, his doctor advised us not to go. We asked A&K if they could put us on another trip to anywhere or move us to another Uganda date. They flat out said no and they took every last penny of our money and did nothing to help us. We know that other tour companies refunded or rebooked the Uganda trips. I don't know how they can sleep at night knowing they took all our money when they could have easily refunded part of it or move it to another tour. Do not book with A&K. Update12/30/22 After reading A&K's response I must state that they are not being forthright. 1.They state that they have to pay their vendors---as of this date, my travel agent has NOT been paid her commission. 2. They state they refunded the deposit for another trip what they didn't say is that we had to hire a lawyer to get our future deposit back as they did not return calls to either me or my travel agent. As stated, despicable. Do not use.

Catherine ?.

Just finished a 12 dayKenya/Tanzania trip with A&K. Due to the premium season booked, the parks selected were good, allowing us seeing all the animals and Mara rive crossing. Hotels arranged were good, except without US power plug and USB in some hotels.
However we had unpleasant experience due to poor operations by A&K: a 14 people group were stuck in an airstrip at noon for couple hours and no one from AK communicated to us proactively. We managed to reach out to local AK office as well as headquarter, found out broken operations. Half of the group tourists had stomach issue due to food (advise not to eat uncooked food, fruits, swimming either ). Toyota land cruise car used was somewhat rusty and very bumpy on the road ( not suggest to take if you have back problem).
Overall, this is a sub luxury tour or economy plus tour.
Keeping branding with luxury term will damage A&K’s reputation and end to lose customers.

susan S.

Never received any help and was a solo traveler to Mongolia in July great trip but no help when stranded in Istanbul sleeped in the lounge could not get any help from AK when flight canceled i had to sort it out still not been reimburse for i night in ub as flight was 4hr late leaving Istanbul so pd extra night which they said they reimburse me what a joke lol Susan Brenkus will never go solo with them. national geographic 200% better they are top notch customers service

Jane J.

My husband and I signed up for a trip of a lifetime African safari with Abercrombie & Kent. The trip was set for September. At this point, it has not cancelled, but it looks like it is highly unlikely that it will go forward because of the Coronavirus. We have paid a deposit of insurance money and gorilla permit money totalling about $4,000. We've been told that if the trip is cancelled by Abercrombie & Kent, through no fault of our own, that they will NOT refund this deposit. They are offering to let us transfer this over to next year; however, I feel that is inadequate. If they cancel a trip, they should refund all money paid. Highly disappointed in this company. Would never book a future trip with them.