Boston-based Vantage Deluxe World Travel has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while selling its operation to United Travel. This comes in the middle of an ongoing investigation into the company and after 70 retrenchments, a lawsuit for refunds, postponed cruises and hundreds of customer complaints.
Vantage laid off its employees on June 20 after it was reported that the company had been postponing all its cruises until August 28. US consumer watchdog Consumer Rescue, however, noticed that Vantage had continued contacting clients about future cruises as recently as June 26, resulting in 478 complaints.
The company attributes its drop in revenue to the global pandemic. It submitted evidence that it had lost up to US$29 million (R542 million) in 2020 alone. “While revenue rebounded somewhat in subsequent years, it remained well below pre-pandemic levels, resulting in continuing losses despite [our] attempts to downsize operations and reduce costs," Vantage said.
According to travel website The Points Guy, Vantage is the latest cruise operator in a string of 12 around the world to have closed after the start of the pandemic in 2020.
The buyer of Vantage is the Singaporean company, United Travel, an affiliate of New Zealand-based cruise company, Heritage Expeditions and ship management company, Nordic Hamburg. “Vantage has sought customary relief from the court to preserve the status quo pending completion of the sale. Vantage has sought approval to complete the sale promptly, subject to any higher and better offers that may be submitted through the court-supervised sale process,” United wrote in a statement.
This follows the submission of a lawsuit by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office against Vantage, accusing the company of deceptive and unfair business practices and for taking advantage of ageing customers by delaying refunds.
