I guess meridian travel is not Great Escapes travel :-)  same building/room # in Lombard.  Sorry but i'm blowing off my appt :-)

Hey Bill;

Don't go. Belinda called me too. Unless you want the pressure of a time share.

Hey loving my free trip,

5 star hotel??? They told me trip was for a 3 star hotel. Get your facts right before putting incorrect info up here and nice try. Doing good for the community? Aren't you laying it on a little thick?

I got a call from Belinda also and said I won the raffle from a fishing show and its there 25th aniversery also. Needed my wifes name and income and needed to go to there agency within a couple days. My friend got the same phone call from the raffle. Tried calling Belinda and the phone # on her message at noon on a Tuesday, cant get a hold of anyone. May go there just to mess with them and get my free trip, which does not soind free. You cant even get on there website

I just received the phone call yesterday from Emily at Meridian Travel.  Same info was given as stated above in several of your posts.  The only difference is I am already a member of Global Communications for over 10 years.  We experienced the same thing years ago.  We went listened to their presentation in Rolling Meadows.  We actually bought into it.  It was a lot of $ to put down, but since we have purchased, our family of 6 has gone on vacations every summer using Global.  We have traveled in the US, because with 6 it's too expensive to fly, so we drive to our destinations.  Each year is an amazing vacation staying at beautiful condos.  Our favorite being on the beach!  Each year, we pay about $500 ($399 renewal and $96 for a weeks vacation) to go on this vacation (no matter where you choose), which is a savings for us.  If we were not a member, we would easily spend over $1,000!  It is a savings we appreciate, so that we may take these family vacations.  The people that I communicate with at Global to book our vacations are always very friendly and helpful.  The first vacation we booked was in N. Myrtle Beach, SC.  We were so nervous hoping that when we got there we would find the condo and not some shack or nothing at all.  We were thrilled when we arrived!   It is shady how they get you lured into their presentation, I admit, but if you have the $ to invest, do it!  You won't regret it.  Also, if you choose not to travel a year, you don't pay your renewal until you actually do travel.  If you don't travel for 2 years, you don't pay for 2 years.  We also have the option of putting in in our will for our children, so they can continue using the benefits.  After reading all your posts, just wanted to let you know my experience.  So, as for my new call with Emily, she obviously doesn't know that I am already a member.  I will go knowing what it is about and claim my prize!

I just got off the phone with a lady named belinda from meridian. 603-474-4678 She told me they were celebrating meridians 25th anniversary. When I told her someone else also called my cousin and said it was meridians 20th anniversary, she claimed they were new. Now I see all of you within the last year have also been told different years so I don't buy it. To top it all off I asked her when did we enter a raffle, she mentioned a wedding EXPO that i never went to!!!!! I think she figured out I wasn't stupid because all of a sudden she said I didnt win the second drawing and Hung up on me!!  For those of you on here claiming this is legit, u prob work for them so save ur preaching for somewhere else.

I got a call from Ann.    Super fishy!  I don't understand why they think we have nothing better to do.  Stop wasting people's time

I just got my call yesterday also from Emily 630 474 4680. ;( She was super nice and was surprise that I'm not happy. She said that I must be in shock, so I told her that its hard to believe that you can get something for free and I was keep asking her where is the catch?!  She said they had absolutely nothing to sell, that it was their 20th anniversary so they were giving away 20 trips to new couples to introduce them to their agency!
 I won my price at Stratford  Mall raffle in Bloomingdale.
So sad because when I submitted my name for the raffle at the mall I thought that's real thing not a scam.
Well, my appointment is tomorrow and after reading all this comments I'm not going to waste my time.

I also got a call for a free cruise and free air tickets: 847 915 9096.

The name was Peter. He sounded really fishy to me. Needless to say, we are not going to the "seminar". Company was Holiday Travels. Really? They couldn't think of a more creative name?

Ryan-I'd like to thank your girlfriend, I'm not sure if shes the one who called me. But I received a similar call from Country Thunder indicating that I won a 3 day, 2 night vacation for 2, with airfare included from Meridian. I couldn't believe it, I was ecstatic!! Understandably, we couldn't travel during holidays and we had to pay the taxes (which only ended up being $150 for the two of us). I enjoyed the presentation and would love to buy into the company but don't have the extra income to do so at this time. Everyone was very friendly and when I told them I couldn't purchase at this time, they understood and did not pressure me into something I couldn't afford. They did ask me to remember them next time i'm thinking of traveling and to inform my friends of their deals. So I'm not sure what you are all talking about with rudeness from the company. I will definitely be booking travel with them again though! Our trip was incredible! We got to stay in a 5 star hotel right on the beach in San Francisco!!! I only wish was that the trip would've been longer but for $150 I'm not complaining at all! I would jump at another opportunity to go on a vacation with Meridian! This company is trying to do good for the community and made it possible for my husband and I to have a vacation when we could in no way have afforded it on our own. You should be ashamed of how your trying to make them out to be this terrible time share company that they are not. So again, THANK YOU MERIDIAN!!!

Your girlfriend works in a boiler room? It's time to find a new girlfriend.

My Girlfriend works for them and im not sure how you guys come to this conclusion. It's actually a legit deal, you dont have to buy anything and all you have to pay is the taxes for the trip. I myself have gotten calls and my parents have also gotten calls and went to some of those bogus time share things. This isnt a time share, you just have to meet the qualifications. It's a shame most of you on here are d***hits.

I received a similar call on November 6th from Emily, who's name I believe has been associated with other numbers on this site with similar calls. She stated that my fiance and I had won a 2 night stay and airfare in Vegas through a raffle that I had entered at a Chicago Bridal Expo that I had never attended. I called her back and asked a ton of questions, repeatedly asking if this was a time share and if we were guaranteed the trip regardless. She said they had absolutely nothing to sell, that it was their 20th anniversary so they were giving away 20 trips to new couples to introduce them to their agency, we would just have to sit through a 90 minute presentation about their travel packages so we could book our trip. She was quite convincing so I booked a meeting for next week. The following day I was still suspicious so when I started searching around and I found this page along with many others on 800notes, all similar phone numbers with slightly altered locations, travel company names, and it's always affiliated with global something or other. Although we sadly had our hopes up for about 12 hours, it's way too coincidental to be anything but a scam. Some of the other victims went to the presentations and stated that they were given vouchers for the airfare and trips (after being berated for 90 minutes by multiple people trying to get them to buy into a time share or their travel packages that you have to pay thousands for annually?) but you have to collect them from another sketchy website and there are black out dates for 7 days before and after each holiday, and you have to pay a processing fee when you submit the date that you would like to travel, they decline that date and then you have to submit another date with another processing fee and it keeps going. You also have to pay 15%-18% of taxes which comes to $300 for something I would not trust giving my money to and you need to show a major credit card and your annual income - who needs that to collect a prize? Hope this prevents anyone else from being duped.

Here is Emily's number (630-474-4677) and the initial email I was sent after speaking with her, complete scam.

Hi xxx Congratulations again! We are looking forward to introducing you and xxx to the travel agency. The address is:

Global Presentations
1919 S Highland Ave
Building B
Suite 210
Lombard, IL 60148

You get to choose from a few different vacation options:
2 round-trip airline tickets anywhere* in the continental USA.

Bonus
3 days 2 nights hotel accommodations.
or
3 or 4 night cruise on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian or Carnival cruise lines.

When you arrive at the office to check in with the receptionist (your confirmation code is CPI) and she?ll take care of you from there. You will need to show her 2 forms of ID, Drivers License and Credit/Debit Card (you will need to put a credit card up for hotel incidentals when you check in to the hotel, we do not need your credit card numbers, we just need to make sure that you own one before we book the trip for you). The presentation of the company will run approximately 90 minutes and you will leave the office with all the information needed to book your trip. We do not have child care at the office, so if you have children, please arrange for a sitter prior to your appointment.

Check out our website at Meridiantravelagents.com

I just got a similar call, from Katrina at 630-793-9465.  I asked her if it was a timeshare thing and she said no, that it was just a promotion for their agency to get the word about.  That we'd have to sit through about 1 1/2 hours to let us know about their business but there was no obligation.

I always wonder about these things because if we always disregard them as a scam and we were to really win a prize (like the car) but didn't trust it, we'd never win, right?  It sounds though from everyone else that has posted, that this one is one to steer clear of.  But let us know if anyone actually attends one of these things.  She said we'd have to get back to her by the end of next week about setting up an appt.

We went to Septemberfest in achaumburg.  We got a call from Kaye at 630-793-9465 saying we won a vegas trip or wherever we wanted to go.  Company is in ROlling Meadows.  Set up an appt for this Friday.  We have been throgh Time share stuff and we are weary of this.

We too, " entered" @ Septemberfest,, and Jessica called twice to tell us that we won a trip to Las Vegas.
We immediately thought "SCAM", but  she called again,
assuring us that it was legit.
It gets interesting here: Why is a travel.agency
NOT returning calls on a Fri. evening our a Sat.
afternoon  ????
Thats when I really smelled "SCAM" & googled
Meridian World Travel  Il.
The 630.474.9550 came up with your previous posts.
The only difference here is the.phone #....
We got the call through 630.474.9359....
Just be careful & don't fall for this crap.

My boyfriend and I also entered the raffle at Septemberfest and were called about a trip to Vegas. Emily spoke to me for about ten minutes and told me the drawing would be the next day. Five minutes later they called my boyfriend who made an appointment to attend a presentation. We have attended these things before so we looked up meridian and everything looked alright. We went to the presentation and it turned out the presentation was through global connections, an extremely shady time share vacation package. As i said we have attended global connections presentations before and so we weren't allowed in and were not given our prize. I have tried calling all numbers for meridian i can find to no avail. It is a scam. Global connections is shady and apparently they are now also operating as meridian world travel. Proceed with visio caution.

Yep just received the same call that I won a "Vegas trip" from a raffle @ Septemberfest! I'm one of ten for the car or gift card raffle as well! Really?

Hmm...we got this same call. We had also entered to win a car at Spetemberfest. The woman I spoke with said we had won a 3 night / 2 day trip to Vegas. I asked her how many people were chosen and she said 20 to celebrate their 20th anniversary. I agreed to go to the presentation, but this seems very fishy. I'm sure if we should go, but the idea of a free vacation sounds so great! Has anyone gone to this presentation on Rowling?

Got a call from 630-793-9940 about a 3 day-2 night trip to Las Vegas, NV or anywhere in US. We were at Septemberfest and filled out a form at a Breast Cancer Awareness to win a car.

Called identified herself as Noelle from Meridian World Travel in Rolling Meadows. She said that we had won a free 3-day, 2-night vacation including airfare and hotel as part of Meridian's 25th anniversary. The address we were given is 1895 Rohlwing Road in Rolling Meadows. However, for a company that claims to have been in business for 25 years, it seems odd that there is no record of this business in Rolling Meadows. Based on what other posters have been posting here, it seems this company does business under multiple names in multiple cities.

suck it lol

Sabrina called me as well.   What a croc.   I dont believe it.  Her number was 6302169577.   I entered at country thunder in twin lakes wi.

this is probably a scam. auto show i was one of 20 out of 300 raffle tickets picked.

Fro free travel voucher.  i "just" pay the taxes.

1.5 hours with appointment only my wife has to go its in the "rules"

the telephone number sabrina called from was 630-793-9849

suck it

Meridian Travel Agency, Crystal Lake at 630-474-9950

We received a call also from the infamous "Jessica" regarding a trip we won to Vegas from an entry placed at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show. Played out the call and told her I would get back to her. Did an immediate search on the number above and found just what I was expecting - a scam.

America Travel Agency, Crystal Lake at 630-474-9950

We received calls from "Jessica" who claims we won a free trip to Vegas including flight from a raffle we entered at the Chicago Auto Show.  No obligation, no cost, congratulations, etc.

Off course, there is an obligation to attend a one hour, informative meeting about the company at a designated time, place etc.

Definitely a SCAM.  Ignore all calls and claims.
Caller: America Travel Agency