An Important Announcement for STA Travel Customers who have booked a G Adventures Tour before AUG 19, 2020
Unfortunately, as you are aware, STA Travel has ceased trading, which has likely impacted your G Adventures booking. This includes travel plans booked with us in the future, as well as any past travel plans whereby your tour was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We encourage all affected customers to reach out to G Adventures to discuss their bookings, regardless of the questions and answers below. G Adventures’ primary goal is to assist as many STA Travel customers as possible, and will do everything possible to offer goodwill options to assist customers with rebooking their travel plans directly with G Adventures.
Please have all booking documentation and payment receipts on hand when reaching out to G Adventures so we can advise as quickly and accurately as possible.
Travellers are asked to contact us by email at sta.support@gadventures.com or to call us at the following numbers:
From the UK: 0344 272 0000
From Germany: 0800 397 334 368
From Switzerland: 0848 447 445
From: Austria: 01 2676 444
North America: 1 877 277 9854
From Australia: 1 300 796 618
From Outside North America, Australia and the UK: +1 416 260 0999
Q&A for STA Travel passengers (excluding UK & Europe)
Q Who holds the relationship with the customer?
A STA Travel holds the relationship with the customer and not G Adventures.
Q Who holds an STA Travel customer's money? What about deposits, part payments and full
payments or money for prior bookings that have been suspended?
A STA Travel holds all funds from bookings that include G Adventures tours and other products. No funds
are remitted to G Adventures until after the customer participates in the G Adventures tour. In the vast majority of cases G Adventures has not received any funds from STA Travel for any suspended bookings.
Q Why has STA Travel not paid G Adventures?
A STA Travel has long established relationships with its suppliers, including G Adventures. For over 40 years, STA Travel have taken the view that they hold onto the customers’ money until after the customer’s departure, this was to support STA Travel’s relationship with the customer and to ensure that customers’ money was protected through STA Travel if a supplier was to become insolvent.
Q I have an existing Life Time Deposit (LTD) with G Adventures, is this still valid?
A If your LTD is as a result of a suspended booking due to COVID then unfortunately not, as the customer deposits given to STA Travel were never passed on to G Adventures.
If you have an LTD that was issued as a result of you cancelling your trip prior to January 2020, then your LTD may still be held by G Adventures and active.
In all cases, please contact G Adventures (with your booking documents on hand) to discuss the status of your LTD.
Q My tour was suspended and I was told I received a 110% Travel Credit, is this still valid?
A Unfortunately, no it is not. The 110% Travel credit was an STA Travel credit and not a G Adventures travel credit. G Adventures has agreed to honour STA Travel credits for future rebookings on the condition payment was received by STA Travel for those credits, but as no payment was received by G Adventures those credits are no longer valid.
If you are in any doubt, please contact G Adventures (with your booking documents on hand) to review your booking.
Q I received a communication from my STA Travel expert detailing a correspondence showing that I
have a G Adventures 110% Travel Credit. Is this valid?
A Unfortunately, no it is not. Communication between G Adventures and the booking agent clearly showed
that these were only valid on payments being made to G Adventures, which did not happen.
We understand that losing money is an extremely frustrating situation to be in and we may be able to offset some of these loses in certain cases, so please contact G Adventures (with your booking documents on hand) to discuss your booking.
Q I was on a trip that was suspended in early March 2020 at the start of the COVID pandemic, how
do I get my partial refund for this trip?
A Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases STA Travel had not yet passed on payments to G Adventures for suspender trips. This means that G Adventures is not able to provide partial refunds for suspended tours as G Adventures did not receive the funds you paid to STA Travel, including payments for the partial trips that you experienced.
In these cases, please review the information provided by your local STA Travel branch regarding how you should make a claim for recovery of any refund amounts owed, and contact G Adventures with your booking documents to inquire about goodwill offers we are able to make to assist you.
Q STA Travel’s website advised me to contact my credit card provider or bank to claim for my losses, or to contact the airline or supplier regarding future bookings. Why was I advised to contact G Adventures if they do not hold the payments for my booking?
A Whilst G Adventures are not able to honour bookings made via STA Travel where we did not receive the customer’s funds, we are committed to looking at each individual case and doing whatever is possible to assist affected STA Travel customers, including offering some level of goodwill where it is possible to do so. Please contact G Adventures (with your booking documents on hand) to discuss your booking.
Q Can I still participate in my upcoming G Adventures trip booked through STA Travel?
A Unfortunately not. As no funds were received from STA Travel for your booking, and as a result of STA’s entering into administration, these bookings are no longer valid. Although we have not received any funds from STA Travel, we are committed to looking at each individual case and doing whatever is possible to assist you with your forward travel plans, including offering some level of goodwill where it is possible to do so. Please contact G Adventures (with your booking documents on hand) to discuss your options.