What out for this, seems great but if you ask them to verify there claims they say they will not until you pay in full , than once you do you find the numbers are not what they claim. Also they offer a 500 credit that changes to 100 dollar that changes to nothing . If you sign you get a free week vacation that is a voucher you need to pay for and/or take a tour.. All bait and switch. You have been warned read more

Scam alert. We attended the 90 minute presentation "how to save money on travel" to get 2 free plane tix. We had no intention of buying whatever they were selling - we know how to travel cheaply. We entered a nondescript office with no permanent sign, a trashy sales agent started off the presentation by asking everyone where their ultime DREAM destination, money no object, would be. The 1st couple said Aruba (whoa, dream big). We said Maldives and the woman, who said she was a travel agent, had no idea where that was. Then she went around the room and asked each couple how much they thought the dream trip would cost. Aruba people said $6k for 7 days. Are you kidding me? Our 14 day trip to South Africa will be around that! The the pitch begins. Global Travel is not a timeshare, it a full service travel agency that provides week long stays at 5-star resorts and condos for $119 in the US and $189 international. They have thousands around the world! Of course, when you ask for specifics they tell you that the inventory changes so much they can't guarantee anything. They said they have tons of properties in Florida, Hawaii, Cancun, etc. But even if you can't take advantage of the low weekly rate at a condo, the full-service travel agency can get you 50% off hotels around the world plus 30-40% off flights and car rentals and cruises! So after an hour about how awesome this is, they finally get down to cost. $14,900 gets you membership FOR LIFE (passed on to your kids, and grandkids). $189 is the on-time processing fee, and $389 is the yearly "activity fee". If you don't book a trip that year, you don't pay. Of course, if you only book one, that $389 could cancel out any savings. You get 2 peak weeks at the weekly $119/189 rate plus 2 off-peak weeks, booked 2-4 months in advance. You also get 2 last minute weeks at the weekly rate that cost an additional $200 to book. So we're sitting there, clearly not going to do this, but watching all the people who are eating this up. We fill out our survey with info on us I'm assuming this is so they can give us their pitch on how we can save tons, so I pick our next trips to places I highly doubt they have properties, like Russia and Laos. So then we get paired up with an agent and go to the sales room where there's a "tiki-hut" and blaring music (so you can't hear the deal the table next to you is getting). Then they announce that because this is the anniversary of this particular office (really, then why don't you even have a sign?) the price is going to roll back to what is was in 1989 - just $11,900. After another 10 minutes they annouce that the first two people to sign up can take an additional $1000 off (all the agents "wow" and clap like this is so unheard of). Our agent starts the pitch by telling us all about him and then asking all about us. We immediately say we're not intrested because, while the premise is sound, it doesn't fit our style of travel. We never stay in one place for a whole week (so if we wanted to use all 4 weeks to stay in 4 places internationally over a week or so, it would be $800. We only spent $700 for 10 days in Spain!) and we HATE large resorts/megahotels. Sales guy continues to pitch, we continue to say no. He shows us pictures of more resorts, we say "okay, nice, but we're not interested". He tries to show us how much money would could save on our upcoming South Africa trip by going with them - MY trip actually comes out cheaper! Finally he says he needs to bring his manager over for our official decline. Manager comes over and pitches some more, and then says they may have another plan that could work for us. It's only $4500 for the membership to get one peak week and one off-peak week. We say no, he says if we just put $100 down we can get started now. We say no, he and sales guy excuse themselves. Sales guy comes back with a folded piece of paper and and says manager told him not to open it. We open it and it says $2500 on it. Sales guy is all "wow, I've never seen that deal before!". Manager comes back and talks all about how low this price is and just $100 will get us started. We say no again, now put off by the desperation. Sales guy whips out our "free gift", the 2 free plane tickets that are LOADED with so many hoops it becomes clear we will never use them and practially pushes us out the door. Don't make the same mistake we did to try to get free tickets. There's always a catch and you'll have to deal with these smarmy sales guys. I feel bad for the gullible people who get suckered and and lose money, but come on people. How naive can you be? read more

This place may also operate under "Lombard Travel" or "Sentry Travel" with an address at 1919 S. Highland Ave. Building B Lombard, IL 60148 it's all a huge waste of time. Watch out for web addresses http://www.global-travel.org/ http://lombard-travel.com/ http://www.hotelandairfarefortwo.com among others. They also apparently operated at another address in Lombard: 200 W. 22nd St., Lombard, IL 60148-4864 See the BBB.org alert page for them: http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/travel-agencies-and-bureaus/global-travel-agency-in-lombard-il-75000494 read more

I keep receiving calls from this scammy company. I attended a bridal show last month and suddenly these people start calling me. They called themselves Allegiant Tours but they have gone through so many names. When we supposedly won these same tickets a year ago we actually went to the presentation. Same office location of: 1919 Highland Ave. Building B Lombard, IL At that time, similar to other reviews, we sat for a 90 minute presentation on their travel club. Everyone there was clueless. The two presenters, first the woman, then the "manager' who "just happened to be in town" were total snake oil salesmen. After the presentation they bring you into the large room at the back and it is clear that these poor salespeople are desperate. It is clearly a job marketed to unsuspecting college students. They kept us in the cramped room showing us pictures of vacations and talking about the "amazing deal" we were getting every time they lowered the price for over 30 minutes. It was like pulling teeth to get the voucher for the airline tickets and the hotel stay out of them. When we got home we found that the original girl had lied to us. We DO have to pay taxes for these tickets....so much in fact that I'm fairly sure we were paying for the actual cost of the flight. In addition you had to send the vouchures into another company, pay money, receive other vouchers, send the NEW vouchers into the company, pay a little more, and then they will give you a schedule with huge amounts of blackout dates. For all the hassle and fussing, I'd rather spend the same amount of money booking my trip online by myself and not risk credit card theft by these charlatans masquerading as time share salesmen. read more

It looks like they are still at it. We attended a Bridal expo at the Mariot in downtown Chicago and received a call that we had won a trip. We just had to come down to Lombard (1919 S. Highland Ave, ste 210) and attend a 90 min presentation. Initially we were excited, but after just typing in the address in google, you get a whole bunch of alerts to this predatory company. One question you should ask yourself after reading this: Why are there so many different names for this company, but all in the same address and suite? Yeah, what a joke. I assume we got entered into this from one of the few travel agencies that attended the expo downtown. I wonder if Mariot even cares about this, but I would love to let them know. Lastly, it's not the kind of scam where they steal your identity or anything like that, and I'm sure its legal in some way, but its still a shame because there are plenty of legitimate travel agencies out there that do not do this. read more

Katie H. THANK YOU. My husband & I were going to endure the 90 minutes tomorrow to get "2 free airplane tickets anywhere in the USA" with NO intention of buying anything - we are graduates of the 90 minute presentations, but for some reason we almost attended this. Your review was hilarious, but so sad (for them, not you) read more

Thank you for the heads up on this scamming company! My best friend and I were both "raffle winners" of the roundtrip airfare and hotel packages, which is quite the coincidence considering I was told that only 10 brides were selected at random...After reading the negative reviews on this website and the D- rating given by the Better Business Bureau, I declined my invitation to the Northbrook office, and made it clear to the representative who contacted me that we would not be attending due to the unethical nature of these sales pitches. read more

I received a phone call from someone that said that they were not trying to sell me anything, but to come to one of their presentations and I would get two free airline tickets plus hotel accommodations anywhere in the United States. The person was the most rude individual that I have encountered on a phone call, not elicited, just your average after dinner marketing phone call, that I can remember. Well needless to say that I have been to company's presentations such as the one that this rude person was trying to get me to come to, but the kicker is that she hung up on me. One thing that I will never do and that is to ever do business with a company where one of their reps hang up on you (me). I was not unpleasant either, but I did have some questions and then this rude lady started to get personal when I told her that I was busy and would not let me get a word in edgewise only to finally hang up. I recommend that whoever reads these blog never do business with this company. The woman gave the name as Global Travel in Northbrook Illinois and I will certainly not be doing any business with them ever even if they gave a trip around the world free with airfare, hotel as well as spending money as a result of this woman. If there was a rating that was a minus rating this company would get it from me. read more

Thanks for the detailed review. I just got a call from these folks and as soon as they found out I didn't meet their eligibility requirements (single, not married) they couldn't wait to get me off the phone. I asked what their web site is and whatever they gave me didn't work... but a Google search did. Dodged this bullet... read more

I reported them to the Better Business Bureau. We also did not accept any of their sales pitches. When it came time to get our 2 free airfare tickets (can only be used in the middle of the night on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and other promised gifts, it turned out none of them was usable. read more

A one star is way to good for them. Kate H. nailed it. Everything she said is true. We went there on 3/5/09 and has the same experience. We went to the 8 PM event, being told it was going to be 90 minute total presentation. After 165 minutes (10:45PM) we were finally out the door. The 3 day/2 night trip they bribe you with, says the flights leave between 3 to 9 pm and return between 6 am to 1 pm on the third day. So for 3 days/2 nights, you end up with about 30 hours of actual time on the ground at your site. And you need to use their hotels if you want to extend your stay. "If it sounds too good to be true, it (and this one) is. read more

SCAM!!!!! We went to the 90 minute presentation, which took up 2 1/2 hours of our day besides the 1 1/2 drive to get there. After boring us for an hour with there sales pitch on how they would save us so much money and we would be staying in roomy condos, we got to the cost, two weeks a year for life membership would cost us 9,900.00. But, there would be a yearly activity fee of 389.00 plus 159.00 per week for the condo rental. They reduced the membership cost 3 times to get us to bite, we finally just got up and walked out. read more

Thanks Katie, we were thinking of giving this a try for free plane tickets, and a 7 day Carnival cruise. Your review confirmed my suspicions about the sales pitch. However, I had not considered the restrictions making the "free gifts" useless. I called them back and said I was cancelling because of researching them on the internet. They said thank you and hung up without offering any argument or explanation. Guilty as charged. P.S. Thanks again, you saved us 2 hours of driving for disappointment. read more

Katie- Thanks for your review. Saved me the time of writing mine. These scam artists have now opened an office in Gurnee and are selling the same bag of garbage. My friend and I sat through the initial 90 minute presentation. Eighty-five minutes into it I basically called the "VP" a liar in that the individual who booked me into this b.s. guaranteed that it would take no more than 90 minutes of my time and it would not be a sales pitch for time share or a vacation package, rather this was a full service travel agent that was an airline ticket consolidator. After making my objections know, Mr. VP told us to go to the front desk, fill out a form, stating how we were misrepresented by their telephone marketer. The grumblings in the audience indicated to me that others had had the same misrepresentation. We got the same useless voucher but at least were saved the additional sales pitch. The evening was not a complete waste. We were only 10 minutes late for our dinner reservation at Mangia Trattoria in Kenosha. There we had some laughs, a great dinner...but the wine was a bit over priced. read more

Wow thanks so much for the detailed review. I actually got a similar call last week saying I won this awesome prize when I attended a bridal show. I actually sort of fell for the sales pitch since they insisted no obligation to come listen to them and then get free airline tickets. I had a feeling this was some scam and so glad I read this before wasting or time to drive to Lombard for this. I don't have patience for these type of sales tactics. I agree, for those of us who read ahead of time, we know how to travel as well and no need to waste time on buying false advertising. read more

my wife got an invitation,too? what freebies did you actually get after the presentation? Where they true in the free tickets, free #30 dinner card for two and free $300 grocery rebate? read more

this is a total scam waste of time!!!!!!! do not go boring and you know what you get at the end nothing!!!!! they should be put out of business I feel foolish even haven gone do not go under any circumstances better to watch reruns really read more

I knew better, but I went anyway. I was drawn, not so much by the "2 free airline tickets, blah, blah, blah," but by the $300 grocery certificate and the $250 in retail gift certificates. Those were really practical offerings that I could definitely use. More about that later. First of all, everyone I dealt with at the presentation was very nice and treated me respectfully. The program does sound like a good value, if indeed you vacation a lot. But the upfront cost (which they don't tell you about until the end of the promo) is quite prohibitive. Nonetheless, I bit. I imagined enabling my kids and grandkids to take vacations they might not otherwise be able to afford. When I said I wanted to go for it, they took me into a private office. Prior to that (after the presentation), everyone is one-on-one with a sales agent in a NOISY room with fun, upbeat music blaring so loudly that you can't think straight. In the little, quiet office, the picture becomes clearer. The first red flag came when they rolled the first year's $389 "optional one-time activity fee" and the $199 "one time processing fee" into the financed amount. I balked because several times in the presentation we were told that the activity fee should only be paid once you are ready to book travel. Neither the presenter nor the VP who "just happened" to be onsite said "except for the first year." The VP even emphasized that if we bought that night, we should not pay the activity fee unless we were ready to book travel. Not so, I learned in the private office. Soon we were joined by "the boss." My sales agent told him I was troubled by this seeming discrepancy. His response was to waive the fee entirely for the first year. I didn't get any other offers to sweeten the pot as previous reviewers did--maybe I was too eager. All through the process, I kept saying in my head, "I can't believe I'm doing this." I think the only reason I did was that I knew under the law, I would have the opportunity to cancel the transaction within 3 business days if I changed my mind. One thing they don't tell you is what the interest rate is that you'll be paying for financing. It also never shows up in the paperwork. They tell you only what your monthly payment will be. So I asked, and was then told what the monthly rate is. Of course, the monthly rate sounds ridiculously low--1.-something%. So I said, "Annual?" That was 19.-something%. It's not sounding so good anymore. I'm thinking to myself, even if this IS a good program, am I ready to commit to an $8,000 loan at this rate--after only thinking about it for 30 minutes? I was also a bit taken aback by the fact that they take your monthly payments by automatic debit. Apparently, there's no other option. You can't time the payment to coincide with deposits to your account, they just take it. Unbelievably, I continued on. With everything signed and with my attractive little book in hand, my sales agent asked me what premiums I had been offered for attending. I told her about the grocery certificate, the retail gift cards and the round-trip airfare/lodging plus meal gift card at any of their properties in the US. Right off the bat, she told me not to take the trip. She acknowledged that there were a bunch of hoops to jump through and that it wasn't worth it. Kudos to her for her honesty on that. She said she'd give me 2 extra "stars" for additional vacation discounts instead. Then she took me out front to give me my other premiums. They are legitimate, but there is a catch. The $300 in grocery certificate? That's actually a rebate program. First you have to pay $12.95 to participate in the program. Then you have to log and submit receipts on a monthly basis in order to then get a $20.00 rebate--per month for 15 months. Okay, so maybe $300 is $300 (or, in this case, $300 is $287.05), but this monthly hassle makes it highly unlikely that anyone will follow through. Hardly was it the month of free groceries that I had hoped driven to Northbrook for! Then there was the $250.00 in retail gift cards. I had never heard of any of the places the cards were for! After I got home, I looked at the whole thing realistically, and while it still appealed to me, I realized that I had made a colossal mistake. Today I called the company and told them I needed to cancel and why. Again, they were very nice. They told me I could fax my cancellation to them and follow up by mailing the book back. The lady I talked to even agreed with me that it would be better to cancel if I'm not really sure, and maybe I can reconsider it another time. No high pressure at all. So I faxed my cancellation and mailed the book to arrive by the end of the 3rd business day. It cost $10.00 to send, but it seemed a small price to pay for what might have been a devastating move on my part, financially. Lesson learned, for now. If anyone catches me about to do something like this again, STOP ME! read more

We went thru almost the same pitch today in Mooresville, NC. As the person said above, the "travel vouchers" have so many extra costs and restrictions that they are worthless. Went thru 3 manager before they gave us the worthless vouchers. Never again!!!! read more

Global Travel (Global Discovery Vacations, United Travel Network or whatever they call themselves now have all been located at 1935 Shermer Rd Suite 100 Northbrook, IL 60662). We had a bad experience. I would suggest not attending your "90 minute" presentation. Katie H gave accurate details. You leave with a brochure from Millennium Travel of Port Orange, Florida. There is a $100 ($50 times 2 people) refundable cashiers check required to receive your "free" travel package, $30 dinner card, and $150 gasoline rebate. I haven't seen anything about the $300 in groceries. You must mail in the check and form within 21 days certified mail. You must choose 3 dates for your travel, allowing at least 45 days between choices. Arrivals must be on a Monday or Tuesday. There are so many hoops and restrictions (and more money, as I've learned from other internet searches) that I'm not going to send in for my "free" gifts. It took 3 hours before we were out the door. I thought it was very high pressure with 3 "travel agents" playing tag team on us. One of the details that sunk in later is the $119/$189 per week fee and the $389 annual "renewal fee" will be increased by 10% on a regular basis. So after a few 10% increases, your trips are costing more and more. The travel package didn't fit the way we travel. I would give Global Travel and Millennium Travel a negative 5 star rating. Don't waste your time. Here is another review I found on the internet: Ripoff Report Verified Safe We received a mailing for 'two round trip airline tickets to any major international airport anywhere in the continental USA'. We just had to listen to a 90 minute presentation about a new travel agency opening up in Northbrook. I specifically asked if we would be forced to purchase anything and the girl said no. I inquired about the tickets. I asked if we would receive them at the completion of the presentation and if my daughter could be one of the people using the tickets. They said yes absolutely. I asked why they would want to give away free tickets. They said it's an incentive to have you come and learn about the Travel Network program and it's a thankyou for coming. We were told by Tony who presented that this was a no obligation presentation to tell us about this travel agency and that at the end of the presentation we would receive our FREE two round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the USA, good for one year with no blackout dates just for our time. The goal being we would be so impressed with the travel agency that we would refer them to our friends. The presentation offered a membership travel program for the low-low membership price of $14,900 but if you joined tonight it would be $11,900 and then it miraculously dropped down to $6,900 for lifetime travel at discounted rates through Global Services and even more because I was a professional nurse I could even save more money for the even lower rate of $5,800 over 5 years. When they let us out of the presentation room we were escorted to another room. Each couple was introduced to their very own travel consultant, seated at a very small table, in a room of 30 tables. There was loud music and our 90 minutes was now turning into 1 hour and 15 minutes. They brought over a manager to try and persuade us some more after we repeatedly told them we were not interested. In the meantime announcements and applauses were made after a couple signed on and their names and trips were posted on a big board at the front of the room. We declined the membership and asked for our free gift for attending, the airline tickets. The girl working with us stood up abruptly, went to the front desk, grabbed a certificate and signed it illegibly (as I found out later the signature must be printed clearly on the form...it was not). We were given a form to redeem our tickets that had to be completed in 30 days. The catch the form asks for a $50.00 deposit by cashiers check only to be sent to an address certified mail per ticket. The other catch is that you can only use the tickets on TUESDAYS! How rediculous! This was a total waste of our time! I hope by telling my story that someone will be saved the headache of this horrible experience. Maria Hinsdale, Illinois U.S.A. read more

Wow! Talk about creeeeeeepy! My husband and I went to their stupid presentation out of curiousity and then were subjected to the pressurized sales pitch. We travel cheaply, have a trailer and get military discounts, flights etc. It didn't matter what we said they had an answer for it. It ended up that they brought a 3rd person over to speak with us who said well just tell me why you aren't interested and then we'll get you out of here. At that point we were really fed up and I said I am actually getting out of here now and we left. What a weird experience. DON'T GO!!! read more

Thanks to Katie H. for her in-depth review of this scam. I recd call from Global yesterday and asked several times if this was a timeshare and they said "no." But I know you don't get something for nothing. I was still suspicious because she told me we had "won" the vacation after attending the home show in February, and then wanted to set up the appt that would take about 90 minutes. When she asked if we wanted to come in at 6 pm or 8 pm, it sounded like she was filling time slots; not just meeting to set up a free vacation. I won't be attending the meeting, needless to say! Again, thanks Katie H and Yelp! read more

They also seem to operate under Continental Travel Agents. Got an email saying I won via a raffle I was automatically registered for when registered for a bridal show. The email itself was totally suspect, as it said free tickets form US Airways in the subject, but then said United in the email text... Tried to google & yelp the company -- nada. Went to the website in the email, and it was totally crappy for many reasons. Said was at Yorktown Mall, Lombard, but they weren't in the Yorktown Mall directory... Some links for various specials just redirected to pic of the special, with the globaltravel.org website, which is how I ended up here. Thanks Katie H! read more

THANK YOU KATIE H. !!! I just received the infamous phone call that I have won a raffle that I entered at a local mall. The woman's name is Laura, very nice, she proceeded to tell my what a great prize I had won. Two air fare round trip tickets, along with hotel expenses paid for. Oh wait it gets better. She told me that I can choose from many destinations including ALL INCLUSIVE PACKAGES. I then told her that this was alot to give away just for no reason other than a simple raffle. She told me that if we enjoyed the trip then maybe we could use their services in the future. I asked her many times if she was sure that this was not a time-share presentation which I wanted no part of. She then assured me over and over again that it wasn't. Well I was skeptic but set up an appointment for Friday, April 30, 2010, thinking that I would research this further via the web. My husband right away told me "it's a scam". He was right! I am so glad I looked this up on the internet. Thank you for giving us a very informative review Katie H. I really appreciate that you took the time to write it. I will definitely cancel my appointment and save my husband and myself from enduring such a horrible experience. read more