Robert Grinnell La Posada Travel Meetup Affordable Group Travel: Domestic and International Charged me money for airfare and a tour that was not provided as promised Tucson Arizona

Mr. Grinnell’s travel group through Meetup.com advertised affordable group travel to domestic and international destinations. Since I am interested in travel, I clicked on the site which asked me to identify where I would like to travel. My destination of choice was Ireland. Mr. Grinnell sent me an email almost immediately specifically asking me to join the group travel to Ireland.

He pressed me to give him a $2,000 deposit because he said the price would increase by $400 the very next day. I questioned his authenticity in an email to him as I had never met him in person and am not familiar with his Travel Agency.  He assured me there were other travelers that had previously gone on other trips with him and to check out his web site. He also assured me that he was a “licensed” travel agent.  

However, he did not disclose that he had a complaint filed against him through the Better Business Bureau for taking money from another client in 2018 for a similar situation which was for a San Carlos trip that he did not allow the individual to attend after they had paid him for the trip.

The complaint is as follows:

“****** ******** runs a Meetup group called Affordable Group Travel in Tucson, Arizona. He also goes as La Posada Travel. In January 2018 I signed up to join a group going to San Carlos, Mexico. I was asked to sign a waiver. I did. I asked for a private room with private bath. I asked if I could bring my small dog and was told that due to issues at the border, going to and from Mexico, there could be issues and it would hold up the group. I didn't pursue at the time.

I then went to Mexico with a friend by car with my dog and saw that there was absolutely no issue at the border. I reopened the question of bringing my 9 lb dog. This time I was told that the condos did not allow dogs. I checked with a friend who lives in San Carlos and she told me she had her dog with her. I then contacted ******* at Condos Pilar and she said it would be okay to bring the dog. I approached ******** again and he was very annoyed but this time said that it was an allergy issue. I have a private room, no others in room with me.

We had an exchange of emails on the subject. I then decided I would rather not go as it was becoming too stressful and if I had to board my dog, I would have to pay several more hundreds of dollars. I placed ads on Craigslist and on FB asking if someone wanted my spot at a reduced cost. I got two takers and am waiting to see if they pan out. Simultaneously ******** removed me from the Meetup group Affordable Travel without asking.

I complained. He said I told him I had a buyer and I should chose my words carefully. I responded likewise to him. I then receive an email that I was barred from going on the trip as I would be a disturbance and danger for the others. I could sell my spot but could not go on trip. I find this appalling. He has my money yet I cannot go on the trip because we had an email exchange not to his liking.”

There were no “problems” on the Ireland trip as Mr. Grinnell has alluded to in his rebuttal. I did not know any of the people who went on the trip but am now friends with at least half of the people that went on the tour to Ireland. We keep in touch, which includes the other individual that was taken advantage of by his unethical practice of “unauthorized” payment of airline tickets with his sky miles that he earned on other trips. 

The initial cost of $5000 was to include the airline tickets and although he claims that the price had increased after the initial agreement and I had paid my $2000 deposit.  He did not have the right to raise the price after my acceptance of the offer.  Any “licensed” agent would have an ethical obligation to at least contact me to let me know that he wished to purchase the tickets with his air miles “to save money” after taking my money to purchase the tickets with the funds I had paid in good faith. He did originally ask for my frequent flyer number, I told him that I did not have one but that I would get one. (I have retained a copy of the email where that information was given to him.) 

Even if I didn’t give him a FF#, customers of an airline have up to 9 months after a trip to get a number and have the miles credited to their account, which to me is odd that a “licensed” travel agent, with the clients best interest in mind would not have considered. If air miles were not “included” why would he ask me for a FF# to begin with?

Why would he even imply that FF miles were even an option? Regardless, it is an unethical practice under any circumstance to use your own frequent flyer miles to purchase a ticket that a client paid cash for the reasonable expectation that airline tickets would be purchased with that money. Why didn’t the other clients have to pay the airline increase, why did he only choose mine and another person who did not supply a frequent flyer # to purchase airline tickets in that fashion.  Shouldn’t we all have received the same service for the same funds paid? Why wouldn’t I expect my airline tickets to be purchased the same as the other individuals on the trip?

I asked to use my credit card for the tour because I get points on my credit card for travel. He did tell me that I would have to pay a 3% fee, however, he did not pay for the Ireland tour through SmarTours until February 27, 2019, even though he received all the money in advance of the date the money was due. The SmarTour invoice indicates he chose not to use an e-check and instead pay for the tour for the travelers with three different credit cards, not the Paypal account he told me he had to pay the additional 3% fee on and again claims in his rebuttal.  In fact, a discount would have been available in the amount of $1,000 had he chosen to pay with an e-check and not an additional 3% as he claims. Still an invalid excuse for his irresponsible actions.

As for the allegation of how air miles are calculated by airlines. I pulled up my account online and tried to purchase air miles to add to my account.  Why he did not check this before making an untrue statement is beyond comprehension.  The airline only sells air miles in blocks of 2000 at a rate of $0.35 per mile.  Therefore, I would need to replace the miles that were stolen from my account by paying an additional $1,400.00 to make it whole for the 4000 miles I did not receive credit for on the trip.  Which, by the way, I told him that he needed to make it right and I offered to let him transfer the 4000 air miles into my account to make me whole, which he refused to do and instead offered me $0.01 per mile.  The offer was not only ridiculous and outrageous but an insult.

As far as his joining us on the trip to make it more enjoyable, I didn’t pay for him to accompany me, nor did I choose his company.  His claim that he could waive the baggage fees is false because I did pay a $75 baggage fee that I have not been reimbursed for as of this date.

I admit the trip home was not the most pleasant and I do not hold him accountable in any way for flight delays because those things do happen. I did overhear one of the other clients on the plane chastising him very loudly for telling her to contact the airline directly to change her flight.  Yet, she was not removed from the meetup site and she is scheduled to go to New York on another trip with him.  Why he chooses to exclude me from the meetup site and take money I paid to attend Mt. Lemmon does not make sense and is absurd that he would make an accusation that I could not go for safety reasons. I never threatened anyone’s safety, nor did I threaten him in any way, I simply asked him to make me whole (I have retained all communications with him for proof that his claims are false).  Similar to the other client that did not agree with him, he chose to take our money, then exclude us from trips that we paid for is wrong and unethical. If we were that much of a safety risk, he should have refunded our money like any reasonable business person or filed a report with authorities.

As for the pride he takes in organizing trips, he should also take pride in getting away with gouging people.  The invoice for my tour was $2,899.00 plus round-trip air fare from Tucson to New York.  Since he paid for my airline tickets with his frequent flyer miles, he profited $2,101.00 for an 11-day Ireland tour.  That is close to a 50% mark up in price. It is an outrage to think he is pretending to be a travel agent, providing “affordable group travel.” Then attempting to put the blame on the client for his unethical business practices is too sad for words.

My goal in filing this report is to let others know of the scandalous actions this person takes to make money. Then turns around and fantasizes that he is looking out for their best interest, which is completely false. I certainly hope this will prevent someone else who has spent their hard-earned money on a chance of a life time trip to seek a travel agent other than this one, who has only treated me, and others unfairly then accused us of being a threat to others.  

I have a private travel group through Meetup.com, and Carol Hawkins was a member. Our group goes on one to two trips every month, and we have over 1600 members. For each trip, at least half of the participants are returning travelers. Therefore, we welcome several new people each time.

As you can imagine, we get quite the assortment of personalities and expectations, and 98% of the time, everything is great. But, occasionally, there are some members who are just not happy or who don't get along well in a group setting. Carol Hawkins is one of those people who didn't function well in our group travel setting. She was unable to cope with the delays, missed connections, and added overnight in Los Angeles. The ability to be flexible and not easily frustrated when traveling in a group, especially international, is almost a required skill these days.

On occasion, this type of situation arises. When it does, I have the difficult decision of removing the member from our group. It's necessary to ensure a positive and happy travel experience for everyone. In this case, Carol did not react well to being removed. It is clearly stated in the waiver she signed last year that the group “reserves the right not to accept or retain as a tour participant any person whose condition or general deportment impedes the operation of the tour or affects the rights, welfare, or enjoyment of other tour participants.”

It was clear with her combative emails post trip that she would be a problem on future trips as well, which included the 5 day Mt Lemmon weekend a couple weeks later. With the last minute change for the Mt Lemmon cabin, I was unable to find someone to fill her spots. Her funds were non-recoverable, as the cabin owner still had to be paid the full rental amount.

Carol first contacted me on August 28, 2018 to join our “13” day Ireland trip. In fact, she was the 13th and last person to inquire and sign up. She admitted that she did not read the entire trip post and asked me numerous questions that were answered in the Meetup posting. I told her about the deposit, payments, information and documents I needed to book her, and that I did have a roommate for her to avoid a single supplement charge.

I had asked her for her Delta frequent flyer number so she could look up her flight info online, and she stated that she did not have one. She also asked if she could use her credit card for the deposit. I said “yes” but there is a 3% charge she would have to add since I use Paypal (and that is the fee they charge me). I asked her if she would like to use Paypal for a 3% charge or Zelle from her bank for free. She chose Zelle. I never demanded her deposit, future payments, or paying off the remaining balance in cash. Nowhere does it say “cash only”. In fact, at least one other person on this trip chose to use a credit card through Paypal and pay the fee.

Our group trip included “roundtrip airfare, taxes, and fees” to/from Tucson and Ireland. Frequent flyer miles were never promised or listed as “included” for this trip, and Carol's ticket was not the only one purchased with miles. As Carol mentioned, I had told her that the domestic airfare had gone up {by $191.85} since the trip had originally been priced. Purchasing her air with miles avoided that increase to be borne by her. With this being her first trip, I decided to save her that additional money. There was no “fraud” or deception at any time. She received everything that she paid for and that was listed on the website, as did everyone else.

Frequent flyer mile accumulation is, unfortunately, calculated these days by U.S. Air carriers as a multiplier of 5 miles times the number of dollars spent of the actual fare. They do not award miles for the taxes and fees portion of the ticket. If I had charged Carol the extra $191.85 to get a ticket with a fare value of $749.76 (the current price when hers was purchased), she would have received 3748 miles. The redeemable value of miles by U.S. Carriers is $.01/mile. Therefore, by spending an extra $191.85, she would have gotten $37.48 in Delta miles. She asked for me to “make it right” so I had offered her $40.00 (more than the value of these miles), which she refused. Her additional net cost would have been $154.37 to get these miles.

One of the benefits of traveling with our private Tucson-based travel group vs booking directly through a travel agency is I escort the Tucson group the entire time. This helps for all flights and connections, transfers, in case of issues along the way, communication with the tour company, safety in numbers, and increased enjoyment with familiar faces from start to finish. Plus, I am able to get everyone baggage fee waivers, saving each person the added expense of $70-$80 roundtrip. Each trip has it's own possibility of additional savings as a group. I work incredibly hard and with passion to secure the best deals or savings from airlines, hotels, rental cars, restaurants, and tour operators, just to name a few.

On the way home, our initial flight out of Ireland was delayed so we would be missing our connection in New York. I spent 2 hours on the phone in Ireland rebooking all of our connections so we could get home that night. I was able to get half the group routed through Salt Lake City and the other half through LAX with me. Due to limited seating, our group wasn't able to fly together to get home that night on the same flights. Had I not called from Ireland, we would have been stranded in New York.

Those of us who went through LAX were once again delayed. A 2 hour delay in NY resulted in us missing our flight home to Tucson that night. This was a very unfortunate situation that does happen when traveling. We had to spend the night in hotel rooms that I was able to get financially covered by Delta. Plus, I was able to get us meal vouchers, a privilege no longer offered to passengers. Since Carol and some of the others wanted to get home sooner, they were booked on an American Airlines flight around 8am. Delta was able to book me on a Delta flight later in the morning.

Unfortunately, the next morning, the American flight was canceled and they were put on standby for the next available American flight. Carol knew she had travel insurance so she could have purchased that ticket she mentioned and gotten fully refunded for that ticket if she couldn't wait for the later American flight option. Her ticket being purchased by miles had absolutely nothing to do with flying stand by or any lack of quality treatment by the airline or myself.

I feel Carol is exaggerating and providing misinformation in her complaint. I have email conversations saved to substantiate my response.

As the organizer and guide for this travel group, I take pride in putting together thoroughly planned and well executed trips, including detailed postings of the trips. And the pre-mixer that occurs prior to all trips at a local restaurant is where I go over all aspects of the trip details and have the opportunity to meet the new people and for all of the travelers to meet each other. My motivation for planning these adventures the last 6 years through the Meetup group is the reward of going on each and every trip.

It is with sincere disappointment that this complaint has been filed. Thank you for taking the time to read my entire response.