Have you ever had an ABD cancelled due to a low number?

[Jason Martin]

Just made the final payment for 120 days out on our first ABD. They mentioned that they had a low number registered and they were not at enough to guarantee the departure? If you have dealt with this, how soon do they typically make the final call, and what reaccomodations do they offer if a trip is cancelled?

 

[sayhello]

I've only had one trip cancelled due to low numbers (there were only 3 people signed up) and that was during the horrid economic downturn of 2009, after ABD had just made a huge expansion of the number of trips offered. But they cancelled 7 months in advance.

ABD will work with you to reschedule you on a different departure. They will pay for the costs to re-book your flights (within reason, but "reason" was pretty high in my case). If you booked the airfare through ABD, then switching flights is all just handled through them. You can ask for a full refund, but that wouldn't include your airfare if you didn't book it through ABD.

Did they tell you how many people were on your trip (if they didn't, they will if you ask). We've had folks here report going on trips with as few as 10 people I believe, if not less. I've heard a couple of times they only had one Adventure Guide instead of two, but they still went. ABD doesn't want to cancel trips. But sometimes it's not economically feasible. They're not going to run a trip at a huge loss. Whether that's right or not is up for debate, but it's how ABD does things.

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[MrsW]

We are booked on the Montana Adventure departing on August 26. As of today, with 11 guests signed up, the trip is still not official. I was told that the decision either way would be made by the 60 day prior date. It was also suggested by ABD that booking my flights with them would allow for the easiest resolution should the trip be cancelled. In our case, rescheduling to a different departure day is not a possible option. Keeping our fingers crossed.

 

[carpenta]

WE had our Italy trip canceled with 36 people ready to go 60 days to go....

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

WE had our Italy trip canceled with 36 people ready to go 60 days to go....

??? What was the reason given to explain that?

 

[RebelHawk]

We are booked on the Montana Adventure departing on August 26. As of today, with 11 guests signed up, the trip is still not official. I was told that the decision either way would be made by the 60 day prior date. It was also suggested by ABD that booking my flights with them would allow for the easiest resolution should the trip be cancelled. In our case, rescheduling to a different departure day is not a possible option. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Oh, we just missed going on the trip with another DISer by days. We're doing the Adult Only Montana trip leaving on the 22nd of this year. I hadn't noticed that they have overlapping adult only trips scheduled. I'll ask our TA to check how many people have booked our dates and report back. Maybe they'll cancel one of the dates and try to combine the two, of course that sounds like it will not help you if your dates are canceled.

 

[carpenta]

??? What was the reason given to explain that?

NONE!!!! All they (ABD) did is notify us of the cancelation. No reimbursement for airline fees. No other communication other than the cancelation notice. Not a nice way to treat your LOYAL customer(s). It was at that time I started looking at other family trip companies.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

NONE!!!! All they (ABD) did is notify us of the cancelation. No reimbursement for airline fees. No other communication other than the cancelation notice. Not a nice way to treat your LOYAL customer(s). It was at that time I started looking at other family trip companies.

Wow! Certainly gives me pause. I’m researching 2019 trips and ABD has been high on the list, but this is concerning. I’ve recently emailed Classic Journeys and they guarantee a departure for the Grand Canyon itinerary I'm looking at with just 4 people. I can’t imagine what it would be like to plan and look forward to a trip only to have it canceled so late in the game with no explanation. I’d look elsewhere, too.

 

[laceltris3]

NONE!!!! All they (ABD) did is notify us of the cancelation. No reimbursement for airline fees. No other communication other than the cancelation notice. Not a nice way to treat your LOYAL customer(s). It was at that time I started looking at other family trip companies.

Your story was why it took me so long to book our first ABD, and is another area where ABD lags their competitors. One thing I particularly like about Tauck is how, in addition to no dynamic pricing, they open up additional dates as what they have fills up. Last year, I was looking at Ireland the second week of June for this summer, since trips were originally scheduled every other week with the initial rollout. Then the week I wanted was suddenly sold out, and they opened up the weeks before and after. They slowly added dates in the "in-between" weeks until they were limited availability or sold out for the whole summer. Doing that seems to limit the risk of something like the ABD WDW trip fiasco where they put out a ton of dates, without knowing the demand at that price point, and then just cancelled all of them and scrapped the whole thing.

We chose a river cruise for our first ABD, which I am assuming they would be less likely to cancel, given their contract with AMA. They seem more likely to offer late discounts to fill it up a few months out.

 

[DCPhotoGal]

We haven't had any trips canceled on us, but I do follow the numbers carefully. On one of ours trips there were only 8 people booked after the final payment was due (including the 4 in my family), and the other 4 were all adults, so I asked to switch to a trip with more people since our original trip seemed at high risk for cancellation, and my kids really wanted to travel with other kids. Despite the fact that they kept saying they couldn't guarantee that the trip would run, they didn't want to allow me to proactively move my dates. They said I had to wait until they officially canceled it. Finally I appealed to a few levels of management and they agreed to move our reservation at the same price to another trip, but I had to pay the airline change fees. I was happy we made the move, as the group we ended up with had several other pre-teens and my girls enjoyed it.

 

[Bobo912]

I had a trip cancelled due to low booking. It was in 2009 when the economy tanked and ABD cancelled 7 months prior to the tour date. I hadn't booked the air yet and I didn't have any constraints on when I took time off from work, so it was easy for me to just switch to a different itinerary. With the cancellation coming that far ahead, it was no big deal (just a little disappointment), but I would be more upset if they cancelled with shorter notice or if I had to rebook the airfare.

 

[sayhello]

I had a trip cancelled due to low booking. It was in 2009 when the economy tanked and ABD cancelled 7 months prior to the tour date. I hadn't booked the air yet and I didn't have any constraints on when I took time off from work, so it was easy for me to just switch to a different itinerary. With the cancellation coming that far ahead, it was no big deal (just a little disappointment), but I would be more upset if they cancelled with shorter notice or if I had to rebook the airfare.

I also had a trip cancelled due to low booking in 2009 during the economic downturn, with 7 months' warning. It was the Montana/Canada trip. It's the only one of 9 trips I've done that got cancelled. I *had* already booked my airfare, and not through ABD. The big difference then was, my trip was in September, so several other people had already had their trips for earlier in the year cancelled before mine was, so it wasn't that big of a shock. (Only 3 people had signed up for it.)

I couldn't change when my vacation was back then. So I looked around, and found a different itinerary that I'd like to do, that left the day before my Montana/Canada trip was supposed to (Alaska). So when ABD did call me to tell me my trip had been cancelled, I told them I couldn't move the date, and proposed switching to the Alaska trip. They agreed to that (the trips were the same length, and similar in price). They even paid to switch my airfare from Montana/Alberta to Fairbanks/Anchorage. So, overall, I think they did well by me. But I didn't have any non-refundable pre- or post-trip things booked, either.

I still don't understand what happened to carpenta. I don't understand why ABD felt telling them nothing was preferable to telling them the truth, even if it maybe wasn't a reason they'd have liked. Some information is better than none. Even if the answer was "We had a private party that wanted that date, and they paid us a ton of money", that's still better than being told nothing. Just my opinion...

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[BluesTraveler]

DH and I have a hiking trip booked with Backroads in the fall. Their policy is that a trip goes with a minimum of 4 people. If for some reason only the 2 of us are booked, we can either move our deposit, or the trip will still go with an additional $500 per person fee (but still the 2 guides, everything else still the same). If, in the time between us paying the additional $$ more people are added, they refund the amount. That's an amazing policy, I think.

 

[RebelHawk]

We are booked on the Montana Adventure departing on August 26. As of today, with 11 guests signed up, the trip is still not official. I was told that the decision either way would be made by the 60 day prior date. It was also suggested by ABD that booking my flights with them would allow for the easiest resolution should the trip be cancelled. In our case, rescheduling to a different departure day is not a possible option. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Looks like there are currently only 8 people booked on the 22 Aug Adult Only Montana trip. This sounds like a perfect option for ABD to merge these trips to get enough people to go if they don't fill up.

 

[sayhello]

Looks like there are currently only 8 people booked on the 22 Aug Adult Only Montana trip. This sounds like a perfect option for ABD to merge these trips to get enough people to go if they don't fill up.

I'm sure they would do that rather than cancelling them both!

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[lucky1]

whew.. this thread made me go look and our ABD (med cruise add on) is wait listed now which I hope means they have met their criteria for holding

 

[sayhello]

whew.. this thread made me go look and our ABD (med cruise add on) is wait listed now which I hope means they have met their criteria for holding

It probably does, but if it was me, and I wanted to know, I'd call ABD (or DCL) to find out for sure!

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[mathgeek]

whew.. this thread made me go look and our ABD (med cruise add on) is wait listed now which I hope means they have met their criteria for holding

It probably does, but if it was me, and I wanted to know, I'd call ABD (or DCL) to find out for sure!

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Remind me again, what does "holding" mean?

My Med cruise add on also shows up on the ABD website as waitlisted. I called yesterday to check to see if it's guaranteed to go since my window opened up for excursions, and I wanted to have back up excursions planned in case the add-on got cancelled. The Vacationista told me that it is a full trip with 44 guests and a wait list, and that I'm one of the lucky ones who called early enough to get in.

 

[lucky1]

Remind me again, what does "holding" mean?

My Med cruise add on also shows up on the ABD website as waitlisted. I called yesterday to check to see if it's guaranteed to go since my window opened up for excursions, and I wanted to have back up excursions planned in case the add-on got cancelled. The Vacationista told me that it is a full trip with 44 guests and a wait list, and that I'm one of the lucky ones who called early enough to get in.

Are you on the May 26 or June 30th cruise?

 

[sayhello]

Are you on the May 26 or June 30th cruise?

If you're talking about the 7 night Med cruise add-on, both of those dates are listed as waitlist only on ABD's website:

https://www.adventuresbydisney.com/europe/mediterranean-cruises-vacations/rates-dates/

ETA: Whoops, I guess you already said that. Sorry!

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