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Lawsuit: Older Pennsylvanians Lost Thousands of Dollars in “Risk-Free” Travel Scheme Run by Vantage Travel Services

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Michelle Henry announced the filing of a lawsuit against Vantage Travel Services, Inc., and its founder, for alleged violations of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law resulting in consumer losses of thousands of dollars.

The lawsuit alleges that the Massachusetts-based travel tour operator and founder Henry Lewis engaged in deceptive and unfair business practices by promising “risk-free” travel to consumers. The promises were never fulfilled; Vantage took large sums of money from consumers and then failed to provide any refunds when consumers could not travel.

Many of the impacted consumers were sixty years old or older.

Vantage promised customers that they could, “Cancel [their] journey due to an unforeseen event — from an emergent illness to a last-minute family gathering — up to the day of departure [and] retain the full value of [their] travel investment.”

Instead, Vantage marked those plans as postponed or rescheduled and did not issue refunds.

“Vantage took advantage of older Pennsylvanians by continuing to hold their refunds hostage,” Attorney General Henry said. “If Pennsylvania consumers pay for goods or services and get nothing in return, our office will fight for those victims.”

In numerous instances, Vantage failed to fully and timely issue refunds to Pennsylvania consumers for their canceled travel tours by deeming those tours “postponed” or “rescheduled” rather than canceled. Consumers were forced to either rebook a new tour after years of delay or submit a cancellation request for a partial refund, which was subject to a per-person cancellation penalty fee of up to 100% of the purchase price.

Many of these tours had a purchase price of up to $10,000 per person, or even more in some instances.

Vantage allegedly advertised and accepted payments from consumers for tour reservations that they knew or reasonably should have known could not be fulfilled on their purchased departure date.

The lawsuit further alleges that Vantage repeatedly assured its customer base that purchasing a tour, or re-booking a tour, would be a risk-free purchase– even though booking a tour came with the very real risk of the customer being stuck with travel credits for an indefinitely “postponed” tour or a highly-delayed, partial cash refund.

Some consumers who booked tickets through Vantage are still waiting on a refund.

Any consumers who believe they or someone they know may be a victim of these practices should file a complaint with the Bureau of Consumer Protection at www.attorneygeneral.gov , call 800-441-2555, or email [email protected] .

The Complaint was filed in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and is being handled by Deputy Attorney General Kevin R. Green.

Contact the Press Office

Mailing Address: PA Office of Attorney General / Press Office 16th Floor, Strawberry Square Harrisburg, PA 17120

Phone: 717-787-5211 Fax: 717-787-8242 Email: [email protected]

AG James sues travel company for failing to refund over 100 New York customers

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing a travel company after they failed to refund cancelled tours for over 100 New York residents.

In a news release on Wednesday, James said she "received dozens of complaints" from New Yorkers against Vantage Deluxe World Travel Inc., a Boston-based travel agency that specializes in cruise vacations.

She said Vantage Travel and its owner, Henry R. Lewis, refused to refund "thousands of dollars" to New Yorkers from Westchester, Albany, New York City and Long Island for cancelled travel tours, including cancellations because of COVID-19.

The lawsuit accuses Lewis and his company of "engaging in deceptive business practices by failing to honor the company's policy to promptly refund customers who had their trips canceled or had to cancel for health reasons."

“When a trip is canceled and a refund is denied, it adds insult to injury,” James said. “My office will not let Vantage Travel get away with flouting the law and denying dozens of New Yorkers the refunds they deserve due to canceled trips. Companies that make promises to consumers must fulfill their end of the bargain or bear the consequences."

In June 2023, two lawsuits were filed against the company. According to WCVB 5, Boston's ABC News affiliate , Vantage Travel posted in April about a ransomware attack that it said "took down their call center, website, email and other internal systems." WCVB 5 said that an internal company email was sent to Vantage Travel employees informing them that all trips through Aug. 28 would be cancelled, but many customers were not informed or refunded.

After the attack, a California woman who paid $15,000 for a trip to Ireland on May 26 said she found that her airline tickets were cancelled "due to non-payment by Vantage," according to WCVB 5. They were re-issued but the trip was later postponed the day before departure. The woman sued the company in early June, saying she did not receive any refund money.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a similar lawsuit to James and was able to recover more than $1.23 million dollars for affected customers, according to WCVB 5. WCVB 5 reported that Campbell received over 800 complaints since Jan. 1, 2020. Massachusetts officials received 181 complaints just this year. Only 21 of them were from Massachusetts residents.

Vantage Travel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Massachusetts on June 29, according to Aurora Expeditions, a luxury cruise company in Sydney, Australia, who bought out the company. In an automated message on its hotline, the company said all Vantage Travel offices are currently closed.

"The company is not operating trips while the bankruptcy case is pending and has suspended all future departures," Aurora Expeditions said in the message.

Bankruptcy filings show Vantage owns creditors tens of millions of dollars.

Attorney General James said she received one complaint from a couple who had to cancel a fully paid trip after the husband was diagnosed with a heart condition, which prevented him from traveling. James said Vantage Travel offered a "risk-free cancellation policy," but refused to refund the couple thousands of dollars for their cancellation.

In order to avoid the terms of their policies, James said Vantage Travel would often consider full cancellations "postponements" and reschedule trips up to a year later or more.

"If a consumer did not want the rescheduled trip, Vantage Travel only offered a credit for a future trip instead of a refund for what in fact was a cancellation," James said in the news release.

Many of Vantage Travel's customers were seniors, according to the news release, and they often "paid $10,000 or more for the tour packages" but could not reach anyone at the company to ask for a refund.

James' lawsuit alleges that Lewis was aware that customers were not getting full refunds for trip cancellations but failed to address the issues. He told consumers that from July 2020 to February 2021, all trips would be "postponed due to pandemic" but did not follow up about rescheduling or options for refunds, according to court filings.

James said she will "seek full restitution for all impacted New Yorkers, civil penalties, and disgorgement."

The Office of the Attorney General encourages anyone else who was affected by Vantage Travel to file an online consumer complaint or call (800) 771-7755.

Cruise company Vantage Travel seeks bankruptcy protection after canceled, postponed trips

A Boston-based cruise operator that recently left would-be travelers out of thousands of dollars for trips that were postponed or canceled at the last minute has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Vantage World Deluxe Travel agreed to be sold to United Travel Pte. Ltd., a company from Singapore and an affiliate of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions.

In a bankruptcy filing on June 29, Gregory DelGreco, Vantage’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said that the company’s “unsecured indebtedness” to customers includes $80.3 million for trips that didn’t happen but were paid for in advance, $23 million in refunds for canceled trips and $5.4 million for approved cancellation fees.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a “substantial impact” on Vantage, DelGreco said. Revenues declined from $132 million in 2019 to $10 million the next year.

“For a number of months, its tours had been postponed, and (Vantage) was relying on cash reserves generated by pre-pandemic bookings to fund its working capital needs,” DelGreco said in a filing.

Vantage sought buyer for more than a year

Vantage CEO Henry Lewis, who founded the company 40 years ago, retained an investment banking firm in August 2021 to seek new revenue sources or even a buyer, according to David Herman, a partner at Gordian Group. 

The company had been negotiating a sale to Nordic earlier this year until Vantage was hit with a ransomware attack, Herman said. 

More: Would-be travelers out thousands of dollars after last-minute cancellations. What to do

The attack left the company without the ability to communicate with its customers or access financial documents for a potential buyer, and negotiations fell apart, DelGreco said. Nordic has since made an alternative proposal. 

Vantage also postponed its European river cruises over an “ongoing dispute” with the river cruises manager and other trips for the past several weeks because the company lacked money.

Will customers get their money back?

Vantage said it would not plan to operate any trips through the bankruptcy case.

The company set aside payments from customers it received starting May 12 to the present. That money will be transferred to the buyer, which must then “provide the travel opportunities booked by these customers, or return funds received from those bookings.”

Under proposed terms laid out in the filing, which could change, the buyer would offer a credit to Vantage customers who had made travel arrangements before May 11.

More: Loxahatchee retiree says Miami Dolphins cruise promoter scammed her, other fans

It was not clear how, if at all, would-be travelers who paid for part or all of their unfulfilled trips before May would be made whole. It was also immediately unclear whether customers could file claims with the court.

Vantage has between 10,000 and 25,000 creditors; estimated liabilities between $100 million and $500 million; and estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million, court documents show.

Hundreds of complaints filed with Florida attorney general

The Palm Beach Post documented in May how some Floridians were impacted by Vantage’s cancellations. One couple was notified at the airport that their trip to Paris, Belgium and the Netherlands was off. Travelers spent thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on these cruises offered around the world, many paying by check to receive the company’s discount.

The Florida Office of Attorney General had received 28 complaints against the company as of mid-May. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Attorney General has received more than 800 complaints and more than $1 million has been recovered for customers, according to news reports.

More: Margaritaville at Sea bringing in huge revenue for Port of Palm Beach.

Steve Miller, a Boca Raton-based bankruptcy attorney not affiliated with the case, said customers are typically lower on the list of debtors who are repaid in these scenarios.

If a customer paid by credit card, they can try to get their money back through their credit card company, he said.

“It’s not a great hope that they’ll recover (their money). There’s a chance they could,” he said.

Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at  [email protected] , call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter  @mannahhorse .

Vantage Customers Seek a Legal Voice in Bankruptcy Proceedings

• July 23, 2023

Leaders of a group known as Vantage Travel Customers Seek Restitution are asking the U. S. Bankruptcy Court to appoint a Customer Committee to grant thousands of Vantage Travel customers voice and legal representation during the tense and complex proceedings, according to a press release.

According to the statement, with over 500 signatures, the petition was submitted July 17 to the U. S. Trustee Eric Bradford.

The group said that Vantage customers, mostly senior citizens, represent the largest group of unsecured creditors with $80 million owed to them due to cancellation of cruises and tours.

“Once a Customer Committee is appointed by the court, we hope a full-scale investigation will be launched into what happened to all the advance payments made by consumers for tours and cruises that never operated,” said Robert Hert, co-founder of the Vantage customer group. “This should include thorough financial forensics into Vantage Travel, its foreign affiliates and owner Henry. R. Lewis”

The bankruptcy court also notified customers that Vantage Travel intends to sell its assets to the highest bidder with multiple companies expressing interest. Currently, there is a bid for $1 million by United Travel Pte. Ltd, a Singapore corporation which, in exchange would receive the Vantage customer list.

Court documents indicate the purchaser has agreed to provide future credit to certain customers which has been reported to be 20 percent off of the new company’s travel offering.

“This is an insult to those of us who have worked so hard and saved for years in order to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip with family members,” said Hert. “If the new owner stands to gain millions of dollars in business, it behooves them to be generous in treatment of those who have been jilted by Vantage and its questionable business practices.

“We believed our money was in safe hands. We thought we were doing everything right, especially by taking out trip protection that carried the Allianz name. It never crossed our minds that Vantage Travel might be financially unstable or that our trip protection would not cover us if they went bankrupt,” added Hert.

There are hundreds of people, predominantly seniors, gathering online who are sharing stories and asking for help in seeking restitution as the assets of Vantage are being sold to the highest bidder.

“I planned a safari trip with my 81-year-old mom since I just retired from 30 years as a teacher,” said Hert. “This was supposed to be a celebration of life and it turned into a nightmare. Not just for me, but for thousands of people like me.”

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New owner reveals plans for bankrupt Boston cruise company Vantage Travel

The new owner of a bankrupt Boston cruise company said he hopes to rebuild customers’ faith and trust in the brand with a relaunch in 2024.

Aurora Expeditions Chairman Neville Buch said Vantage Deluxe World Travel will be renamed Vantage Explorations and will offer “Vantage style” trips in the new year.

“We are fully committed to restoring value to Vantage customer creditors and at the same time delivering exceptional travel experiences. Unfortunately the speed of the process and the uncertainty of outcome until only a few weeks ago has meant that everything is ‘work in process,’” Buch said in an email to Boston 25.

The Australian-based Aurora took over Vantage’s assets this month after making a $2 million bid in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Vantage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June after coming under fire for months . Hundreds complained about a lack of refunds for canceled or postponed trips and its estimated Vantage owes $108 million to its customers.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Aurora is offering 100 percent future travel credits to Vantage customers owed money. If a customer decides to try an ocean cruise with the new company, they may use 50 percent of their travel credits at a time based on a cruise’s list price and based on “availability.” If a former Vantage customer wants to take a river or land trip, they can use 20 percent of their travel credits per trip.

The travel credits are valid through Nov. 2028 and Vantage customers may share their credits with friends and family.

“We plan on beginning communication with customer creditors in the next two weeks and hope that they will consider our offering in the spirit that it is intended,” Buch said. “For Oceangoing product we have our fleet of Infinity class ships and will expand the offering to include more Vantage style trips which we can offer right away. For river and land we are in discussion with various operators looking for the right partner which we hope to complete in the next few months.”

An Aurora spokesperson said the company is developing itineraries in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Middle East and British Isles.

“The credits are good for five years so you have plenty of time to wait and see. That would be my recommendation,” said Consumer Rescue founder Michelle Couch-Friedman. Couch-Friedman has reported extensively on Vantage’s financial issues and has been in touch with hundreds of Vantage customers. She recently wrote a consumer guide for Vantage customers and posted a Q&A with Buch .

“If you decide you’re done traveling and you don’t want the credits, the customer should still take the credits because you can give them away. You can give them to friends and family,” Couch-Friedman. “There’s no benefit to any Vantage customer to reject the credits.”

Karrie Szatek in Fairhaven said she’s not planning to use her travel credits. She said Vantage owed her around $30,000 for two overseas trips that never happened and she’s hesitant to book another trip with the new company.

“At this point, no. I want to wait and see,” she said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Willowbend co-owner to leave company

Some mashpee club members wonder about changes ahead as david southworth, founder of southworth development, sells his shares in the company to co-owner joe deitch.

MASHPEE — The founder of Southworth Development, which owns Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee, will step down from his role at the beginning of January to create a new development company. 

David Southworth sold his shares in the company he started 15 years ago to co-owner Joe Deitch. 

“I just felt like it was a good opportunity for me to move on and continue to develop and operate these types of communities,” Southworth said.

Southworth will continue living at Willowbend, and his son Tommy will take over operating Southworth Development on a day-to-day basis, Southworth said. 

In 1991 Southworth worked with Paul Fireman, former CEO of Reebok, to create the company Willowbend Development, which built the country club in Mashpee. Fireman retired from the company in 2005, and Southworth renamed it Southworth Development. 

Deitch, the founder and chairman of a broker-dealer firm called Commonwealth Financial Network, joined the company in 2006 as chairman and co-owner. 

Through the years Southworth Development created multiple residential resort and hospitality communities and clubs in locations ranging from Haverhill and New Hampshire to the Bahamas and Scotland. 

In 2012 Southworth Development purchased Willowbend Country Club from Fireman, who had retained ownership after his retirement. 

Southworth thinks Willowbend will continue operating the way it always has. He said he was extremely proud of how much Willowbend has grown through the years.

“There’s a wonderful membership here, and there’s a great staff, great management,” he said. “I think they should be fine. And if I ever saw something that I thought needed tweaking, I’d pick up the phone and call my son.” 

Paul Foster, a former executive at Reebok, watched Willowbend grow to where it is today and became acquainted with Southworth through Fireman. 

“(Southworth) became the most beloved person at Willowbend,” Foster said. “Everybody is just a great fan of David’s, because of what he does, maintaining the most beautiful spot there is to go to play golf. … I think it’s a sad day to see David not having the involvement that he has had over the years.” 

Hank Lewis, founder of Vantage Deluxe World Travel who bought property at Willowbend last summer, was surprised to learn that Southworth was leaving. 

Lewis was a member of the club 25 or 30 years ago when Fireman owned it, and he watched it evolve through the years. 

“It was a little more upscale in the old days, but today I think it’s the best value on the Cape,” he said. 

Author Martin Sandler, a Cotuit resident who is a member of the club, said Southworth’s leaving will be a great loss to the community. 

“He is not only such a great leader, he is such a wonderful human being," Sandler said. "What we can take heart in is that he sold it to Joe Deitch, who is equally a great human being.” 

Sandler does not think the club will “miss a beat” when Southworth leaves, thanks to Deitch and manager Craig Fleming. 

“David has done a very good job with Willowbend,” said Peter Lynch, the retired CEO of Winn-Dixie supermarkets and a former president of Star Market. “I’m concerned that he’s leaving. I always trusted David and what he was doing. In the end, I’ll look forward to what the new team is going to do.” 

Lynch said he was concerned because it is a change, and he is not sure what is going to happen with that change.

Como Audio CEO and founder Tom DeVesto, a Cotuit resident who has been a member of the club for 25 years, was not happy to hear that Southworth is leaving. He said since Southworth owned the club the gyms have improved and the grounds have been well-cared-for. 

“I’m sorry to hear about it,” he said. “It doesn’t seem great. … I wish David would stay.”

“David is a dear friend and we are totally supportive of him and his next adventure,” Deitch said. 

Deitch said he has been running Willowbend alongside Southworth since 2012 and is looking forward to working with Southworth’s son. Deitch’s son Matthew also joined the organization about two years ago and will continue working at Willowbend. 

“We’re only getting stronger,” Deitch said.

Contact Jessica Hill at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @jess_hillyeah.

Vantage lays off employees weeks after announcing it was up for sale

Vantage Travel, a longtime Boston cruise and tour company, has laid off an unspecified number of employees, weeks after the company said it was negotiating a sale, according to interviews with multiple laid-off employees and a copy of an internal e-mail.

The former employees said they were informed at a virtual meeting last week that a hoped-for sale of the travel company had not happened, at least not on the expected timetable, leading to the layoffs. It is unknown whether a sale is still possible.

For years, Vantage has come under fierce and sustained criticism from customers for years-long delays in refunds for canceled trips, some dating back to the beginning of the pandemic. In April, Vantage customers began publicly complaining about last-minute cancellations of long-planned — and paid for — trips.

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The former employees said news of the layoffs was delivered on June 20 by top Vantage managers at a virtual meeting of sales and other employees, most of whom worked remotely dealing with customers and prospective customers on the phone as part of the company’s “call center.” About 15 people attended that meeting. The total number of employees laid off could not be determined.

In an e-mail to employees, a Vantage human resources manager said that “as this is a layoff, all are eligible for unemployment benefits,” while covering other issues relating to the layoffs, such as the date of their final paycheck and health care insurance options. Employees were also asked to return laptops.

“I just want to thank all of you for your hard work, dedication and patience especially during the last few months,” the manager said. “I wish you the best of luck going forward.”

Former employees interviewed by the Globe asked that their names not be used to avoid possibly negative repercussions during a difficult time as they seek unemployment compensation.

A summary of what the former employees and contractors told the Globe, plus a copy of the internal e-mail, was sent to Vantage executives on Tuesday with a request for comment. The executives did not immediately respond to the request.

Vantage has made little public comment since April, when customers first began contacting the Globe to complain about last-minute cancellation of ocean and river cruises in Europe and elsewhere around the world. Some cancellations came within a few days of scheduled departures.

But on June 9 the company did respond to Globe inquiries by revealing it was in negotiations for the sale of the company.

“At this time, Vantage Deluxe World Travel is engaged in sensitive negotiations for a sale of the company,” Rossella Mercuri, Vantage general counsel, said in the e-mail.

Mercuri declined to comment further, citing “confidentiality agreements governing our negotiations.”

It was a stunning revelation for a company that has been a travel mainstay in Boston for 40 years, apparently prompted by the leak of a purported internal memo saying scheduled trips were suspended for at least 90 days “in light of our impending transaction.”

What it meant was that Vantage, after years of unflattering publicity, apparently had decided it was time to get what it could in a sale and let new owners step in.

The purported memo said Vantage had decided to dock two of its ships — “the Ocean Vessels” — in Caen, France, “until we have a better idea of the timeline for restarting operations.”

The purported internal memo had surfaced on June 2 on Consumer Rescue , a consumer advocacy website. Michelle Couch-Friedman, who operates the website, sent a copy of the five-sentence memo to the Globe, which sent it with questions to Vantage.

Couch-Friedman also recently reported about layoffs at Vantage, saying that as of June 20 she began “receiving messages from Vantage employees who attended a meeting … and were informed that the entire team was being laid off.”

Vantage could owe customers millions of dollars in refunds, based on the more than 800 complaints that have piled up at the office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. That office has mediated on behalf of about 80 Massachusetts residents, recovering more than $1.2 million in refunds. (The office accepts complaints from out-of-state consumers but urges them to contact their own state’s attorney general for assistance.)

Most demands for refunds are for $10,000 or more, meaning Vantage could owe millions of dollars, based on the number of complaints filed with the attorney general’s office.

Vantage could also owe money to suppliers and vendors. One contractor who works overseas setting up trips said in an interview that his contract was abruptly canceled last week. He said he is owed thousands of dollars.

Vantage, founded in 1983 by Hank Lewis, is small in comparison to such industry behemoths as Carnival and Royal Caribbean, which operate enormous ships capable of carrying many thousands of travelers. Vantage’s most popular ships are outfitted for fewer than 180 passengers, and its ocean and river cruises, and land expeditions emphasize cultural exploration for “discerning travelers,” according to its website. It also caters to women traveling solo.

In late 2021, Vantage marked a hopeful milestone when it celebrated with a champagne christening the launch of the $70 million Ocean Explorer in Boston Harbor. (One year later, it launched Ocean Explorer’s sister ship, Ocean Odyssey. Vantage has long-term leases on the ships.)

But the glitzy launch exposed another side of the Vantage story. It caught the attention of two local couples who had been fighting for about 18 months for $46,000 owed to them by Vantage for a canceled safari to Africa. After the Globe asked questions , on their behalf, Vantage refunded the couples’ money.

Aruni Soni can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her @AruniSoni .

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Mccarter: 50 years ago tonight, i was there when hank aaron made history.

• Monday, April 8, 2024
• Mark McCarter

If you ever saw one of Hank Aaron’s home runs – and I was fortunate to see a couple dozen of them in person – you’ll know he didn’t hit those long, high moon-shot home runs. They were mostly crisp, efficient line drives. Nothing that threatened life and limb in the upper decks, the way the artificially inflated, steroid-era Samsons did.

My friend Tommy Hicks, in a wonderful series this week in Mobile’s Lagniappe newspaper, quoted Dusty Baker, an Aaron teammate and friend before he became well-known as a manager. “I never saw Hank Aaron hit a tape measure home run,” Baker said. “I asked him one time if he had like a gauge in his bat because we’d go to Chicago and he’d hit it in the basket on the outfield wall). We’d go to the Astrodome and he’d hit in in the front row. I remember, he used to always tell me, it’s not how far, it’s how many.”

The “how many” is the topic du jour as we ponder the late Henry Louis Aaron.

He awoke the morning of April 8, 1974 with 714 home runs, the same as Babe Ruth, for the most home runs in a major league career.

At 9:10 Eastern time that night, Aaron hit No. 715, off the Dodgers’ Al Downing.

Of those couple dozen Aaron homers I saw in person, this was the most memorable. The Braves are marking the 50th anniversary of this historic homer on Monday, and are graciously welcoming back with free admission anyone who has proof of being among the 53,000-plus at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium on April 8, 1974. There can’t be that many of us geezers still left from that night. I suspect other fans will note our presence in the neighborhood of Truist Park by a volume of turn signals blinking nonstop, even as we progress steadily forward in traffic.

A couple of internal “wow” moments for me. First, it feels odd to realize that a newspaper career that sputtered along for nearly 40 years would have a “most memorable” sort of event so early on the journey. (I should have quit then while I was ahead, a sentiment that’d be endorsed by countless readers.) I was just a 19-year-old kid sportswriter in Chattanooga, tagging along with his sports editor and blessed with press credentials. Second, sobering to realize that very few typists on hand that night in the press box are still vertical, much less covering sports.

One of the other sportswriters that night was Mike McKenzie, then writing for The Atlanta Journal and a predecessor of mine at the late Huntsville Times. McKenzie remembered his coverage of “The Chase” as having “many fun, original anecdotes (as opposed to mass media scenes).” Another “wow” realization there, to think how the Aaron chase would have played out if ESPN had been around. My lord, we’d have all been buried under the hype like volcano victims. One McKenzie memory: Lewis Grizzard, soon to become a Southern icon as columnist, was then the Journal sports editor. His assigned reporters to stand at concourse exits, and seconds after the historic homer, they were to bolt into restrooms and other crannies to find any poor devil of a fan whose bladder had forced him to miss the homer. They found no such soul, happily.

My own memories: Godawful traffic mismanaged by Atlanta police. Cold weather. Celebrity sightings, like Sammy Davis Jr. and Pearl Bailey. The sight of those two teenage yahoos who jumped from the stands and sullied Aaron’s home run trot. (I do wonder sometimes, as I often reflect on that night, how many are original memories and how many of them were constructed after so many replays and so much reading.) Unrelated to that night specifically but inexorably tied to it, the many pinch-me occasions in future years when I was able to spend time with the great man.

Looking back, it’s almost as if the home couldn’t have not happened that night (excuse the double negative). There was just so much electricity and anticipation. It’s not like Hank was one of those players with the flair for the dramatic and would automatically deliver, but there was so much in place. I don’t remember that the stadium was exceptionally loud or raucous. It was chilly, and maybe folks were trying to keep warm. But it was like 53,000 people quietly holding onto their thoughts. It’s was not like – thank heavens – there was Twitter with everybody typing in some “is it going to happen next inning?” kind of stuff.

I do remember the home run. To backtrack to the top of this blog, and the trademark for Aaron home runs, as soon as the ball got up in the air, from my perspective it wasn’t definite that it was going out. The outfielder, Bill Buckner, was still tracking the ball, it was a relatively low liner that glided into the bullpen. I think I wrote something poetic (or hokey) for the next day’s paper that it “barely cleared the fence, lifted by the hopes of 53,000 fans.”

Perhaps that notion was further influenced by the postgame comments from Downing, this victim of fate.

“When he first hit it,” Downing said, “I didn’t think it might be going but it kept carrying, carrying.”

Fifty years later, that home run keeps carrying, carrying. It is a memory I’ve carried, a memory that carries me back to celebrate its history among other fortunate witnesses, that I hope will forever carry the legacy of a classy, gifted gentleman who wrote still another page for himself in baseball’s record book 50 years ago.

Mark McCarter was a sportswriter for 17 years at The Chattanooga News-Free Press and 2012 inductee into the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame. He is the author of four books, including “Never A Bad Game: 50 Years of the Southern League.” He currently resides in Huntsville, where he worked as a sports columnist for The Huntsville Times.

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In 1974, Hank Aaron broke the most hallowed record in baseball. I can still hear the echo.

Aaron’s greatness as a player is assured, along with his greatness as a symbol of triumph in the face of deep racial animus

Copyright Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.

A line drive is always a tricky thing. As an 11-year-old Little League first baseman, that was a truth I knew from experience. Sometimes they shot off the bat with such ferocity that it tested my reflexes to get my glove on them as I fought against the instinct to simply get out of the way. Occasionally, they were hit so solidly that they had no spin, and would come at me fluttering, like a Phil Niekro knuckleball. And other times, they would spin like a curveball, cracking off the bat at chest level and dipping to my feet by the time they reached my glove.

But none of my Little League experience could even begin to prepare me for the moment in the spring of 1970 when a line drive hit off the bat of Henry “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron came screaming at me from 350 feet away.

To celebrate the end of the school year, my class had gone on a field trip to Atlanta Stadium to watch the Braves play a day game. Our tickets put us in the front row of the left-field bleachers. Aaron stepped up to bat for the third time in the sixth or seventh inning. At that point, he’d passed the career 500-home-run mark, but any talk of Aaron reaching Babe Ruth’s seemingly unattainable 714 was still in the whispering stage. Instead, the focus was on Aaron knocking on the door to become only the ninth member of the career 3,000-hit club.

I was seated next to Mr. Simmons, the only Black teacher in my recently integrated elementary school, and we were both aware that we were in prime home run territory. During each of Aaron’s previous at-bats, we had leaned forward in anticipation, and this third time was no exception. Still, we were in momentary disbelief when we heard a loud crack of the bat and saw the ball launch from home plate.

Aaron seldom hit the kind of towering home runs associated with Ruth and Willie Mays and the other more flamboyant sluggers. His homers were usually line drives. At first the ball seemed headed to left-center field. Then, like a golf shot with spin, it began to curve. At a certain point, I realized that it was headed straight for me, and as it neared, I began to feel the excitement of anticipation coupled with the chill of fear: That ball was traveling fast, and I’d unfortunately decided beforehand that it was no longer cool to bring my glove to a Braves game.

As the ball neared us, Mr. Simmons and I each cupped our hands and reached out over the rail. My calculations were slightly off, and instead of me, it went straight to him. The ball hit his hands with a force that would cause them to stay swollen and bruised for a week. For a moment, he’d seemingly caught it. Then it bounced off his hands and fell harmlessly to the ground 20 feet below us.

The shouts of joy around us suddenly turned into a collective groan.

That shared moment strengthened the bond between Mr. Simmons and me. And I came to understand that Henry Aaron and his quest meant something to Mr. Simmons that I could never experience because I wasn’t Black. At that time, Aaron wasn’t even my favorite player. He didn’t make spectacular leaping catches like Mickey Mantle, and didn’t lose his cap as he galloped after fly balls, like Mays. Aaron moved about the field with an apparently casual ease that I only later recognized as graceful elegance.

But for Mr. Simmons and other Black Americans of his era, Henry Aaron was a powerful symbolic figure: a Black man challenging the records of White baseball players at a time when Black Americans were challenging White society for equality.

Of course, as he chased Babe Ruth, Aaron also became a powerful symbolic figure to White racists who considered it an abomination that a Black player would dare break such a hallowed record.

In the days before social media, it took effort to express racist vitriol to a celebrity. Someone first had to write it down on a piece of paper, fold that paper into an envelope, find the correct address and jot it down on the envelope, put a stamp on it, and then carry it to the post office. Aaron received bags upon bags of hate mail—the U.S. Postal Service said he received 930,000 letters during the chase, and many of them contained death threats and pure racial hate . He publicly carried the burden with considerable grace, but it was a burden unmatched in the history of sports.

It was 50 years ago this month—April 8, 1974—that Henry Aaron hit his 715th career home run off pitcher Al Downing in Atlanta, breaking Ruth’s 39-year record. When he finally reached that summit, it seemed less a cause for celebration for Aaron than reason for a long sigh of relief: The chase was finally over.

Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center/Boyd Lewis

“It really made me see for the first time a clear picture of what this country is about,” Aaron later told the New York Times . “My kids had to live like they were in prison because of kidnap threats, and I had to live like a pig in a slaughter camp. I had to duck. I had to go out the back door of the ballparks. I had to have a police escort with me all the time. I was getting threatening letters every single day. All of these things have put a bad taste in my mouth, and it won’t go away. They carved a piece of my heart away.”

Aaron retired in 1976 as the all-time home run king, with 755. He still holds the major league records for most career RBIs, extra base hits, and total bases. He is one of only five players to have at least 17 seasons with 150 or more hits. He’s third in all-time hits, behind only two players—Pete Rose and Ty Cobb. He is now second on the all-time home runs list, behind a player with a steroid-sized asterisk next to his name. His greatness as a player is assured, along with his greatness as a symbol of triumph in the face of deep racial animus.

Mr. Simmons and I were unwitting symbols as well: a Black teacher and the White student he mentored, at a time when the racial tensions swirling around us were at an apex. We shared many moments, but it was a scorching line drive that bound us in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time.

Henry Aaron was Mr. Simmons’s hero. He’s my hero, too.

An exhibition on the life of Henry Aaron opens April 9 at Atlanta History Center and will run through September 2025. The Atlanta Braves will mark the 50th anniversary of Aaron’s 715th home run on April 8 at Truist Park.

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Why would anyone want to buy Vantage Travel? There are some good reasons.

A fter months of punishing publicity over canceled trips and long-delayed refunds, Vantage Travel, the Boston-based cruise line company, confirmed last week that it was up for sale.

It was a stunning revelation for a company that has been a travel mainstay in Boston for 40 years, prompted by the leak of a purported internal memo saying scheduled trips were suspended “in light of our impending transaction.”

Vantage apparently decided it was time to get what it could in a sale and let new owners step in.

But who would buy such a battered company?

One hint may be found in the short statement the company released under pressure about its ongoing negotiations for a sale.

“Our primary goal,” it said of the sale, “is to obtain the best outcome for our customers.”

That may seem odd and off-putting from a company that dragged its feet on refunding potentially millions of dollars for trips canceled during the pandemic and since.

But the most valuable thing Vantage may have is the goodwill of loyal customers — or at least what’s left of it, according to marketing experts.

“Yes, it’s a badly tarnished brand at the moment,” said Tobe Berkovitz, a veteran media consultant and professor emeritus at Boston University. “But it has a great customer base that could be extremely valuable to the right buyer.”

Berkovitz said the “number one thing for the buyer to do is to make good on refunds to begin regaining trust. If you don’t do that, there’s no hope.”

A company pledging to pay off the refunds “could sweep in and buy Vantage” at a steep discount, he said.

Vantage declined comment, citing “confidentiality provisions governing our negotiations.”

Besides a loyal customer base, Vantage has other valuable assets, including long-term leases on ships and operational expertise, but its brand, built up over decades, may be the most valuable, according to Andrew Smith, a marketing professor at Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Business.

“While the company’s reputation may have lost some of its gleam, it can be rehabilitated by a new owner who can attribute past failings to the old ownership group,” Smith said.

But to keep existing customers and add new ones would require “consistently high-quality service,” he said.

“If a new owner communicates and demonstrates that the recent issues are in the past, they can earn back customer trust over time,” said.

Typically, in this type of crisis, “customers want apologies, solutions, and explanations,” Smith said. A buyer trying to turn things around “needs the financial and operational capacity” to make the necessary changes, he said.

Andrew Wilson, also a marketing professor at Sawyer Business School, said the Vantage meltdown probably led the current owner to put the company up for sale because continuing damage to its brand could at some point “become beyond repair.”

From a buyer’s point of view, this “is an opportunity to acquire new customers at a discount, and the very fact of the firm changing hands is the beginning of a solution,” he said.

Wilson said competition for customers in the high-end travel market is intense. “Existing relationships with (prospective travelers) is extremely valuable,” he said.

Vantage, founded in 1983 by Hank Lewis, is small in comparison to such industry behemoths as Carnival and Royal Caribbean, which operate enormous ships capable of carrying many thousands of travelers. Vantage’s most popular ships are outfitted for fewer than 180 passengers, and its ocean and river cruises and land expeditions emphasize cultural exploration for “discerning travelers,” according to its website. It also caters to women traveling solo.

Some Vantage customers have repeatedly traveled with the company for decades, including the Cape Cod woman who contacted the Globe in April to complain that Vantage canceled her European river cruise two days before it was to begin. She said she had frequently traveled with Vantage and always had “a lovely time.”

In late 2021, Vantage marked a hopeful milestone when it celebrated with a champagne christening the launch of the $70 million Ocean Explorer in Boston Harbor. (One year later, it launched Ocean Explorer’s sister ship, Ocean Odyssey. Vantage has long-term leases on the ships.)

But the glitzy launch exposed another side of the Vantage story. It caught the attention of two local couples who had been fighting for about 18 months for $46,000 owed to them by Vantage for a canceled safari to Africa. (After the Globe asked questions , on their behalf, Vantage refunded the couples’ money.)

At about that time, Vantage also caught the attention of Christopher Elliott, whose nationally-syndicated “travel troubleshooting” column appears regularly in the Globe. He called Vantage “one of the most complained-about companies, according to our records.” Last summer, Vantage came under criticism for delayed refunds in the New York Times.

Meanwhile, more than 800 complaints have piled up at the office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. That office has mediated on behalf of about 80 Massachusetts residents, recovering more than $1.2 million in refunds. (The office accepts complaints from out-of-state consumers but urges them to contact their own state’s attorney general for assistance.)

Most demands for refunds are for $10,000 or more, meaning Vantage likely owes millions of dollars based on the number of complaints filed with the attorney general’s office.

More than a dozen people have complained to the Globe in recent months about last-minute cancellations of trips long-planned and fully paid for.

When first asked about cancellations by the Globe in late April, Vantage disclosed it had experienced a “data security incident” and had hired a “leading national forensic firm” to investigate, though it did not explicitly link the cancellations to the security incident. (It later said no cancellations were linked to the incident.)

That data security incident knocked out the company’s website and call center, leaving many booked travelers unable to confirm their trips. Both were restored about a week later.

But more cancellations continued in May and into June.

The purported internal memo surfaced on June 2 on Consumer Rescue , a consumer advocacy website. Apparently sent to Vantage employees on June 1, it said the company had to postpone departures through the summer and had docked Ocean Explorer and Ocean Odyssey in Caen, France, “until we have a better idea of the timeline for restarting operations.”