Wisconsin Alumni Association

I have wanted to go to Cuba for several years and have looked at many, many tours. They are all expensive, but then the offer from the Wisconsin Alumni Association came and they seemed very reasonably priced. NOT!
Prices were not prominently disclosed which makes trying to budget a joke. Like $ 459 for the airfare ($ 2.55 per mile flown!). All of the other tours I looked at disclosed the complete price up front so you knew how much it was going to cost before you committed. The costs I saw in the printed materials was $ 3,470. Total cost came in at a whopping $ 4,529. More than a grand higher than I anticipated and hundreds of dollars higher than even the WAA estimated. In my many telephone conversations with the Association or Catherine Mack at AHI travel NO ONE ever made it clear the $ 600 deposit made to WAA was their fee and that the total cost of the trip would be in addition to that fee. I did not see that disclosed anywhere in the materials sent to me.
So I had budgeted about $ 2,200 after my $ 1,200 deposit and in fact the amount is $ 3,329. What is really screwy is it took them until 6 weeks before you leave to send out the final billing (they can’t figure this out any sooner?). Since I have bought my airfare to Miami already to cancel now would be too costly. As such, I am very begrudgingly going to Cuba.
A WORD OF WARNING: If you are a first time user of WAA Travel services READ every last word they send you, then reread again and then call and ask lots of questions. For the prices they charge this is no bargain trip and frankly many of the other options I looked at are far better. Explore those as WAA has very very disappointed and our departure date is still six weeks away.
What a lousy way to run a travel business. Absolutely lousy. ‘Worst experience I have ever had with a travel agency and I am very well traveled.