Wednesday morning at 5:00 as the day begins...ironic that a Beatles song moderately applies to that which vexes us this morning.
The day began fairly early, we never sleep well when we are about to travel, and to go from Honolulu to London takes quite a bit of travel. I know, I know, London is a bit crazy of an effort from Hawaii, but it is Dad’s 70th birthday weekend, and we were looking forward to walking tours, a match, Harry Potter, and a musical in celebration of his birthday.
Were, you say? Don’t you mean are? Well, we hope so.
At 6:31 this morning, after we’d been up for a bit of a while, Dad called to tell us that he had received a call from ABC Tours saying that all the London trips had been cancelled. I was in the midst of getting ready for practicum and school, and about to be on the way for the day, so I linked him up with Wayne. Wayne went in and checked on flights with frequent flyer miles, and then wound up calling the hotel in London (as did Brother in Law Scott) to at least secure our reservations. We were in luck that frequent flyer mile requirements for London were at the minimum, so I went off to court to do work on a case, and to book flights. As I was prepping (well, primping) to go to work, the phone rang again (6:48 am), and it was some service for ABC Tours stating that they had ceased operations, and all tours heading out were cancelled. Oy.
I headed in to the CASA offices, started the day, and 8 reservations and three frequent flyer accounts later, we were at least booked on United in the event that our Virgin Atlantic flights were cancelled. That was multi-tasking.
Now we are at the airport waiting for our trip to NY. Pam will be calling Virgin tomorrow morning, 2 am EDT, to find out our status. Hopefully we will have good news when we land in EWR in the morning.
And this from Travel Weekly:
Club ABC Tours believed to have ceased operations
By Michelle Baran
Club ABC Tours is believed to have ceased operations, according to the Better Business Bureau of New Jersey.
"The BBB [on Oct. 3] received numerous calls from concerned consumers who had booked tours with the company and are reporting canceled tours or non-responsiveness by the company to any inquiries,” the BBB reported on its website.
Club ABC Tours is a vacation packager owned by Crown Travel Service of Bloomfield, N.J.
The BBB alleges that Club ABC ceased operations on Oct. 1. The Club ABC Tours website, www.clubabc.com, is down, and repeated phone calls to the company led to a message that the office is currently closed.
Emails yield an automatic response that the company will be in touch. All websites of associated ABC businesses, including Women's Travel Club in New York (www.womenstravelclub.com) and ABC Destinations (www.abcdestinations.com) are down, as well.
Travel Weekly spoke with at least one affected customer who had a two-week trip to Turkey canceled on Tuesday, 24 hours prior to departure. The customer had paid for the trip in cash and was awaiting word about how to get a refund.
The BBB advises consumers who paid for their travel arrangements by credit card to contact their credit card company and alert them about the status of Club ABC’s operations. The BBB believes that if travelers paid for insurance through Club ABC, the contract does not cover refunds in the event that Club ABC ceases operations.
Club ABC Tours is not a member of the National Tour Association or the U.S. Tour Operators Association.
