DH and I have been contemplating various
ABD, mostly the South Africa one. There's a lot of pros to just going on our own but some by doing ABD.
The main hesitation of booking ABD is it states they are able to cancel at anytime. Yes the compensate us for airline rebooking to another reservation and put us on another tour or give us back the money. However, it seems like it would be hard to get excited about a trip knowing it could be axed at any time.
Has anyone had their trip canceled? Is there a certain timeframe when they know for sure if the trip will go or not?
Thanks!
That definitely has been one of the downsides of ABD. Lots of other operators guarantee the trips will go. There was a spurt of cancellations in 2009, due to the fact they'd just widely expanded the number of trips offered just prior to the economy tanking. So they had to consolidate trips that didn't have many folks signed up. That year, my Montana/Canada trip got cancelled (only 3 people had signed up). But ABD bent over backwards to accommodate me, switching me to an Alaska trip (for no extra charge) that left the day before the other trip was supposed to. They also payed to switch my airline ticket to Alaska (even though I booked it myself, and not through them). I really don't remember what they did for folks at that time who just decided to get a refund, but had purchased the airfare themselves. Perhaps it was just those who re-booked that were accommodated in that. But they cancelled that September trip in February, so there was tons of notice. And I've traveled on trips with as few as 14 people on them, so it has to be pretty low for them to cancel.
Since then, I've heard of a handful of trips that have been cancelled since then. I've assumed they were due to lack of people, but carpenta says theirs was not, so I'm not sure.
Most of us give a huge sigh of relief after the "no cancellation" date is past.
OMG, I just realized that this year's FAQ does not have anything about a "no cancellation past this date" clause any more. That's seriously sobering. The FAQ now states, in part:
We reserve the right to cancel a trip at any time prior to its commencement for any reason, such as if there are too few Guests, or if the quality of the trip or the safety of the Guests would, in our opinion, be compromised, such as may result from unforeseen circumstances (acts of God) or other circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
There used to be a clause that said they wouldn't cancel (except for things that might make the trip dangerous or affect the quality) within like 74 days of trip departure. That's gone now. I didn't even notice that until I just looked at the FAQ. Did others notice that, or am I just getting old & forgot???
Well, I can only tell you we haven't seen a *lot* of cancellations since 2009 (that we've heard of). But the FAQ does offer a certain amount of protection
if they cancel your trip due to a lack of people.
If we cancel your trip prior to its commencement because there are too few Guests: (i) we will attempt to re-book you on another departure of the same itinerary, subject to availability, and we will bear any reasonable airline re-booking charges; however, if we are unable to rebook you, we will issue a full refund of your land package price and Plan (unless you have filed a claim); and (ii) if you booked airfare through us, we will issue a full refund of your airfare; and (iii) if you did not book airfare through us, we will reimburse you for your reasonable out-of-pocket (subject to proof) airline cancellation charges or, in the case of bookings using frequent flier miles, a reasonable cancellation service fee, provided you have exercised best efforts to mitigate such charges/fees; and (iv) the aforesaid payments and/or rebooking by us shall constitute a full settlement.
carpenta, I guess that answers the question on why you were treated differently, since your trip wasn't cancelled due to too few Guests...
Sorry for the rambly answer, but I found this change while researching the wording of my answer. I must admit, I am NOT happy about this change at all.
Sayhello
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