Is This A Scam?
 

My fiancee's parents found a deal for a 7 day trip to turkey, which apparently includes airfare, 4/5 star accommodation, breakfast, lunch, tour, yada yada yada. It's usually $2k, but since they are subscribers of something, they get it for $1k/pp. Only downside is they have to go in November...

Seems too good to be true... Something is setting off my "scam/timeshare" warning. I can't find anything (good or bad) about the company when I google it, I just wind up back at their site.

Then again maybe airfare to Turkey is usually cheap and occupancies are low at that time of year. I'm not sure.

Here's a link:

http://www.my-ae-travel.com/cms/

Thoughts?

Did they find it by going to that site or did they get some sort of mailer or phone call about the deal? Often times the deals that people get by mail or over the phone involve paying some sort of "processing" fee up front and then they book their trip and it ends up being based on availability, or needs to be booked through their "partner" and in the end is more expensive than if they had booked themselves.

I don't know anything about the company in question, but think if the deal is truly 50% less than anything they've found elsewhere there might be reason to question things. If they're looking at spending $1,000+ per person they shouldn't have to settle for dates they really don't want. Not that they should get prime season for tha kind of money, but it's already a decent chunk of change and once they've committed that much they really should consider how much more it would be for dates they want.

Of course being a FT'er perhaps you have the miles they need for a flight so they can save on that end and use their money on the land portion. :cool:

The package of amenities on offer (air, hotels, food, tour, etc.) cannot possibly be delivered profitably for $1,000 per person. Period. Either the operator is in such distress that it's raising cash with a fire sale, or there's something fishy going on. In either case I'd back away.

Some discussion of the company on Trip Advisor, too.

According to the domain info, the website was registered back in July 2011 and is owned by someone in Germany.

The mailing address is
American European Travel, Inc.
75 Broad Street, 21st Floor
New York, NY 10004

Coincidentally, this same address/floor is also home to the German American Chamber of Commerce and the Munich International Trade Fairs Office.

5 Star Hotels in Turkey are not necessarily international standard 5 Star Hotels - you get what you pay for

I believe they just started rolling out the ads in the papers and brochures in the past few weeks, so it's too early for that many people to have actually used them yet and help with comments.

There's lots of questions on the various travel websites, very few answers.

Don't know if it's a good or bad company, just think it's way too early to tell at this point. Even on their facebook they only have four people who have used their services.

I don't really know if $2k is the "par" price, that's part of why I'm asking. $2k is what they are offering, but to loyal readers of (apparently many newspapers), $1k is being offered. (I say apparently many, because the discussion on TripAdvisor mentions Chicago Tribune; in her case it was Washington Post).

If indeed a trip of similar quality can be had in say September for $1.2K, that is meaningful info... But it sounds like a lot of days and a lot of services for that price.

I'm trying to figure out the angle, but I don't see it. I can't imagine they're selling timeshares in Turkey, but....?

Stay away. Too many cheap deals like this only end in disaster or hidden charges. Don't risk it

I think it can be done for around this price, but it will be on the edge.

Turkey is a cheap country. November is very much low season.

Airfare is ca. $500, with discounting potential for a group.

4* Hotels are not the same standard as the USA and can start from $30 with breakfast - which will be a cold buffet of cheese, bread, tomatoes, cucumber, etc. Hotels will be cheaper outside of Istanbul and cheaper with a group booking. Note, they do not name accommodation.

Bus travel is cheap and chartering a bus for a week will not be expensive. There is a LOT of time on this bus!

A local guide, who may be called on to do all the tours will cost maybe $500 for the week (plus tips from those generous Americans)

So, the advertised programme could be delivered for a profit. Just don't expect to stay in the top name hotels and to be enjoying expensive fish dinners by the sea.

Yeah, if they got a big stack of K fares, $30 hotels, etc - $1k might be their breakeven. It doesn't seem too unreasonable.

TBH I don't care if the accommodations aren't marvelous, the food is boring, etc. I care mostly about my health and well being (and that of my wallet) - if it's a glorified shakedown, I'll pass. But otherwise...?

Probably there will be extra fees and taxes but seems feasible for a travel agency to offer this price in November.

There are couple of people that left positive comments on their facebook page. Looks like it's some German guy who started the company and he "likes" Playboy. Anyways, new companies will offer great deals to attract customers but they can also go bust anytime. You never know.

One huge red flag for me by the way was when I was looking at their website, they had a paypal link, but did not see any information about paying with credit cards. I did not spend much time searching around though.

I would be very cautious of anybody who did not take credit cards, as with Paypal or checks, etc, the options to get your money back are significantly less than disputing it with your credit card company.

Their terms also list a fairly long list of conditions they can raise their prices even after they have final payment including things such as

the additional transport costs demanded by the transport company for the means of transport are divided by the number of seats of the agreed means of transport

So if they can't fill up the bus, everybody on the bus has to pay more.

It may be standard language in tour agreements, but they seem to have a long list of reasons they can start collecting additional money from you once you get there.

Having revisited the website, this does seem to be a "one trick pony" of a company. No other tours, destinations or packages on offer. No credit card payments and some very selective feedback. Each supporting piece highlights another sales point......

Also the videos.... were they describing the tour on offer (seems to use a different tour name), or were they collected in Turkey by their local agents from Pax completing another of the tours arranged by the local agents?

Still don't think it's an outright scam - just a small startup/shoestring operation. However, I would only pay by card to ensure I was covered in the event of non-delivery.

$1k/pp from the USA? Airfare alone is close to $800 from NYC, how are they going to provide accommodation, meals etc. sounds too good to be true... I think the cheapest through a travel agency would be at least $1500/pp. after all the travel agency has to have their markup as well and can't sell you the tour at cost!

Well, I don't know this company.

But I am aware of the point that many "tours" in Turkey include a visit to a carpet factory which tries to sell you overpriced carpets in a very pushy way.

It's not the way I want to spend my vacations.