Once again, a travel agency not registered with the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (AMAV) committed a scam, by defrauding, on this occasion, underage Mexican students, including dozens of Cancun residents, leaving them stranded in Europe by failing to comply with the package that had been contracted.
The situation generated anguish among the parents, after learning from their children that the trip offered as an international academic/cultural program was not going according to plan, due to non-compliance by the SET Education agency.
For the more than 200 high school students from Cancún and Playa del Carmen, as well as from other states of the country, most of them from the La Salle school, the nightmare began when they arrived in London, where they were accommodated in hostels instead of hotels.
In addition, the agency canceled several of the activities listed in the travel program, which included in some cases a trip to Italy. The departure was made on June 24 and the return was scheduled between June 8 and 11, depending on whether they had purchased the additional trip to Italy.
Parents have paid about 100,000 pesos for the trip (about 5,000 dollars) a year ago, which included certification of the English language at Oxford or Cambridge universities and some tours, including the Harry Potter tour of London.
However, as the days passed, the students informed their parents that the itinerary of the tours was not being followed, which set off alert focuses on the teachers who accompanied them, particularly those of the Cancun delegation.
Although they could not avoid being stranded in European airports waiting for their flights, the students from Cancun and Playa del Carmen finally managed to return with the travel package they had purchased due to pressure from students, parents and teachers to the company to stick to the itinerary
In this regard, the national president of the AMAV, Felipe Cervantes, announced that the association does not have information on the SET Education agency nor on the list of partners, for which reason he listed a series of recommendations to identify legitimate providers, from fraudulent ones and avoid being a victim of a scam.
Source: Reportur
