Who has heard of Classic Escapes holidays

qdda5 · 27-09-2014, 04:11 PM

Hi all,
At the title says has anyone here signed up as a member of this company.
Have sat through the presentation and it looked pretty good for discount holidays.
Unfortunately there is bad feedback when you google the company.
But hoping to get some feedback here.

Thanks in advance.

Road_Warrior · 27-09-2014, 08:57 PM

Now for some reason it rings a bell, and not in a good way. I got an idea one of the TV stations did an 'expose' of this mob and it wasn't good

deesun · 27-09-2014, 10:17 PM

I want to hide under a rock here but we got suckered. Over 12 months now and we havent used 1 day as yet. the cheap weeks never seem to be where we want them, not really their fault. Wife wasnt impressed when looking for cruises and found prices were worse than what we could get on the open market. TBH when we go away we never stay in one place for more than a few days. I certainly wouldnt do it again and wouldnt advise anyone else to either. We have really had no dealings with the company as yet.

Yellow_Festiva · 28-09-2014, 07:00 AM

Is this a holiday points system similar to Worldmark?

They are not suited to everyone and can end up being restrictive and costly if not used correctly.

I did a trial run of the Worldmark / Wyndham system and knew it wasn't for us.

qdda5 · 28-09-2014, 11:01 AM

So basically a deposit depending on how long you want to be apart of the deal for. We were looking at 40 years and this enables family to go on world wide holidays for as long as you want for a fraction of the cost. Concerning part is if the accommodation is up to scratch and availability. Although we normally book at least 12 months in advance you would assume the availability would be there. We tend to travel overseas as often as we can afford it. Normally 4-5 weeks every 2 years.We can def see the savings. Did the scratch and win thing which is ok but will be interesting to see what the accom is like for the trip we one at the Gold coast.
Have to say there wasn't pressure sales involved and seemed to be fairly relaxed.So we were happy with that. Although if they did try that I would have told them we weren't interested and walked out. I find it hard to find any positive feedback with this company unless you read the testimonials on there web site.
Other concerning part is if the accommodation they provide is what they post on the site. Looks reasonable but you never know.
Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

Yellow_Festiva · 28-09-2014, 11:08 AM

What $$$ are they asking for if you don't mind me asking?

Would that cover a month of accommodation at most of their places?

What ongoing fees / costs are there to maintain membership or when you do stay with them?

Positive testimonials on their site are void IMO.

If you find lots of complaints, (especially of forums / review sites) you should also find people chiming in to say how good they are.

Having said that - even that can be scripted as I found when reviewing a travel insurance company online.

qdda5 · 28-09-2014, 01:14 PM

They want $14,950 for a 40 year membership and they pay the yearly fees for 3 years, the fees are $295 per year. The cost of accommodation we are told is $611 per week for overseas and in Australia is $511 per week. It looks like a brilliant deal but after reviewing what people are saying I am not convinced it is the right deal to get involved in.

naddis01 · 28-09-2014, 01:25 PM

How do you know what you are doing in 40 years? Maybe a change in circumstances? Maybe pushing up daisies?

It seems like a lot of money to gamble on a company with a poor reputation (assuming the feedback here is accurate).

**supershifty** · 28-09-2014, 01:58 PM

Sounds a little like the way "Timeshare" operates, I looked at it 20 odd years ago, went to the seminar but declined. The package looked good but I just wasn't fully comfortable with it. I recall the package was $15k for 20 years @ 2 weeks accommodation per year at a variety of selected places. The places on offer weren't dives, they looked pretty good, nothing below 4 star by todays standards. The real dealbreaker was the sales people - very high pressure, spidey senses started tingling. (scored a free POS microwave though)

I know of 8 couples that signed up and only 2 couples were reasonably happy.

Like naddis01 said where are you gonna be in 40 years time dead/divorced?

Also if a life event changes your circumstances - can the remainder of the package be onsold or transferred to someone else without any penalty?

I can't personally comment on Classic Escapes, but I'd be wary of the plan.

Cheers and good luck.

xxx000 · 28-09-2014, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qdda5

They want $14,950 for a 40 year membership and they pay the yearly fees for 3 years, the fees are $295 per year. The cost of accommodation we are told is $611 per week for overseas and in Australia is $511 per week. It looks like a brilliant deal but after reviewing what people are saying I am not convinced it is the right deal to get involved in.

that's a lot of $ to fork out now for a 'membership'

so there's a membership fee plus an annual fee

what about airfares?

will the company be around in 5 years, 10 years, 40 years?

sounds like massive commissions would be involved for starters

Quote:

looks like a brilliant deal

what part does?

qdda5 · 28-09-2014, 04:13 PM

The thing is we do travel overseas and spend around 4-5 weeks every couple of years overseas. Accommodation is normally around 500 a nite . So that's a lot of coin right there . The company has been around for 30 plus years and owns the accommodation outright so no concerns there. So there is where the brilliant deal comes into lt.
The weekly rent overseas is in oz dollars so even more appealing.
Just hoping the accommodation is up to par and not on the edge of some red light district. Lol.
We have the 7 day cooling off period so more time to get more some positive detail. Hopefully

xxx000 · 28-09-2014, 04:36 PM

You're believing and repeating what they say on their website

how long is the weekly rate guaranteed for? 40 years?

I'd run a mile

qdda5 · 28-09-2014, 04:45 PM

Not believing anything atm. Just gathering detail and feedback.

Yellow_Festiva · 28-09-2014, 07:26 PM

If you are dead set on joining up to this system look into the mob I referenced in post 4.

I don't think they have a cap on the years you can use it and it can be gifted to friends (accomodation) and passed on to family when you are no longer able to use it.

If you travel in a certain way and like to plan ahead it is not a bad system to be honest. I'm a last minute backpacker and don't care for mod cons so I'm the last person to be suited to this scheme.

Having said that, $15k is the bare minimum, most pay 25 to 30 grand to join.

qdda5 · 28-09-2014, 07:55 PM

Thanks for the feedback. We can gift to the family when we cark it so not worried there. They can use it as well now so is beneficial for them too. Be great if I had 50 people on this forum could confirm how good they are. Make things alot easier. But then its a little like ebay. You tend to look at the negative feedback first. Will keep digging g and see how we go.

Morexbs · 28-09-2014, 08:56 PM

If they had already been around for 40 years and had people saying great things about them I would take note but otherwise it just looks like a get rich quick scam.