SA Expeditions: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 216 public Trustpilot reviews published 2016-05-06 to 2026-08-27. TrustScore 4.9 from 1,289 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is SA Expeditions legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that customer support is unhelpful, citing instances where requests to cut costs were ignored and budgets were exceeded without clear explanations. Others highlight issues with refunds being refused, such as keeping deposits for trips that could not be provided. Additionally, some customers feel the experience was not as described, noting that accommodations and meals were of a lower standard than expected.
How to reach SA Expeditions
These are the contact details SA Expeditions publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-24 — phone 1-415-549-8049, email [email protected], address 95 Third Street, San Francisco, 94103, US.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2016-05-03 and uses Trustpilot’s paid features. Trustpilot ranks it 14 of 79 in Tour Operator. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-24 and found 2 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Elsewhere: 5★ on Google (0 reviews)
TrustScore over time
4.9 → 4.9 across 9 census measurements since 2026-08-17. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-17 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-20 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-24 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-27 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-08 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-12 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-18 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-24 (0%, 0.0d).
What their policy promises
refund window: 90 days or more
“90 Days or More | Deposit, Minus 10% of Purchase Price”
refund window: 60-89 days
“Between 60 Days and 89 Days | Purchase Price, Minus Deposit”
refund window: 30-59 days
“Between 30 Days and 59 Days | 50% of Purchase Price of the Tour”
refund window: less than 30 days
“Less than 30 Days | None”
Quoted verbatim from the company’s own published policy (source page); complaint counts are census classifications. As of 2026-09-17.
Policy-page monitoring
We monitor this company’s published policy page for changes. No changes have been detected since we started watching on 2026-09-21.
Automated change detection on the company’s own published policy page — a record of when the page changed, not a judgement on what changed.
Review provenance: 185 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.96★, while 26 organic (uninvited) reviews average 4.50★.
61% of its 199 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 33% of this company’s complaints vs a 31% median across 122 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 162 of this company’s 1,289 Trustpilot reviews (13%) were written in the last 12 months.
Not enough reviews to establish a trend.
What are the most common complaints about SA Expeditions?
Support unhelpful
3 reports · 33% of complaints“our entire budget being blown apart with no good explanations as to why and no attempts to cut costs despite our repeated requests to do so”
The company replied on 2024-01-04: “Thank you for your candid feedback. After working together for nearly 5yrs and navigating the challenges posed by the pandemic, our team was sorry to hear that you were disappointed with the overall…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
“The agents did not had complete knowledge about the bookings”
“Communication with this agency was not very good, which was frustrating for a $9k+ trip per person.”
The company replied on 2022-07-27: “Hi Susan, We genuinely appreciate your feedback and are glad you enjoyed your time with your guide, Oscar. The Peru health form can be challenging, and while our 24hr support team is on standby to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
Refund refused
2 reports · 22% of complaints“To make matters worse, they refused to fully refund our deposit and kept $1,560 despite being unable to provide the trip they sold us.”
“They did not honor their representation and withheld $600.00.”
The company replied on 2022-01-11: “Hello Lynn, thank you for your feedback. You have received a full reimbursement for your trip deposit less the Administrative Fee, as clearly outlined in our Terms. We hope you understand that our…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
Not as described
2 reports · 22% of complaints“the hotel and dinner selections were at a level much below what we had in Quito and Mashpi”
The company replied on 2023-01-06: “Hello Carrie, We appreciate your candid feedback and are analyzing how we can improve the dining experience in Santa Cruz overall given your comments while also taking into account limited selection…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: refund.
“Excursions on each island sometimes did not match the description provided by SA Expeditions.”
Compare SA Expeditions with…
- SA Expeditions vs Expedia
- SA Expeditions vs Platypus Tours
- SA Expeditions vs US Ghost Adventures
- SA Expeditions vs Natural Habitat Adventures
- SA Expeditions vs YMT Vacations
- SA Expeditions vs Adventure Life
- SA Expeditions vs Irish Tourism
- SA Expeditions vs The Wildland Trekking Company
- SA Expeditions vs Classic Journeys
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-07.