Jade Travel Ltd

My partner and I had a terrible experience with Jade Travel. We had purchased a travel package through Jade Travel with an itinerary going from Toronto to Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, and then returning to Toronto. At the airport in Hong Kong, as we were trying to check into our flight to Taipei, I was informed that I was not allowed onto the flight due to Taiwan restrictions on passport expiry (Taiwan requires a passport with over 6 months duration until expiration at the time of entry). My passport was set to expire in 5 and a half months. Jade Travel had not warned anyone in our group of six about this requirement for entry into Taiwan. As a result, I was stranded in Hong Kong for an additional 4 days. I contacted Jade Travel that evening to make arrangements to resume my itinerary to Tokyo, and ask our travel agent, Jacqueline Hau, why she had not informed us of the Taiwan passport requirement, to which she replied that she had “asked if our passports were valid,” which they were given that they would not expire for months after our return to Canada. We explained our situation and our immediate need to re-route our itinerary to go from Hong Kong to Tokyo (skipping Taipei), for which she charged us for new tickets as well as re-routing penalties. We authorized payment over the phone and confirmed the credit card information. The next day, we woke up to emails from Jacqueline stating that she was waiting for payment confirmation for our new tickets and that the seats were NOT being held for us. We were forced to wait the entire day for Jade Travel to open (due to the time difference, of which Jacqueline was made aware of in our conversation the previous evening) and reconfirm that we indeed needed to leave Hong Kong. Jacqueline knew that we were stuck in Hong Kong due to the passport limitation that she never informed us of, that we needed new flights to re-route our itinerary, and still did not think to hold our tickets, despite the fact that we authorized payment over the phone with her. We have never had such a stressful, frustrating, and overall terrible experience with a travel agency before. Every travel agency that we have ever gone to in the past has always checked our passport information, reminded us of any special requirements needed to enter the country, and has held flight tickets for even unconfirmed itineraries to ensure a successful trip. Jade Travel did none of these things. Moreover, not once did we receive an apology from Jade Travel, so in the future, they will receive none of my business. Please don’t make the same mistake I did in booking with Jade Travel.