Complaint Review: Explorica

 Aug-2015 We enrolled our daughter in the Explorica group tour “Northern Italy & France” with departure from Baltimore planned for 21-Jun-2016 (the Original Itinerary). Total tour cost $3612. Paid in full by Mar-2016. Mar-2016: We decided to cancel our daughter's participation in the Explorica tour. Summary of reasons for cancellation and why full reimbursement is due: •We agreed to participate and pay for the Original Itinerary (Milan start; end in Paris). •To maximize its profitability, Explorica changed the itinerary on two separate occasions to combine our daughter's group with a larger group. •Alternative Itinerary (Paris start; end in Rome) was selected and approved by teacher-sponsor / Explorica and several participating students. We were not consulted and did not give our approval for this change.

•Alternative Itinerary is sufficiently different from the Original Itinerary such that we cannot adapt our own travel plans, now finalized, to accommodate the changes •Given the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, we are not comfortable having our daughter (who is 16) travel on her own from Rome to Paris. Apr-2016 Explorica has refunded $2506, but refuses to reimburse the remainder (less deposit) of $1106. They claim the remainder is a cancellation fee. We maintain that since the Original Itinerary is no longer available for our daughter's tour, our contract with Explorica for the tour is no longer valid. Note that we have tried to alter our own travel plans, and considered other flight options for our daughter, in order to accommodate the itinerary changes that Explorica has proposed. We cannot accommodate the final Alternative Itinerary.