Thomson Family Adventure

[TeeKo]

Just thought I would share our current experience.
We booked a trip to Ireland through Thomson in 2019 to travel summer 2020. Our PIF date was 3/20/2020. Last year, Thomson offered the opportunity to just push the date of travel back by one year. They kept the deposit and we did not pay in full.
It has been radio silence since last year. Not a peep. Online, Thomson Family doesn’t even advertise Ireland as a destination for 2021/2022.

As 3/20/2021 approaches, I decided to reach out to check on status. They have greatly reduced their hours and it took 48 hours for an e-mail reply during a business week. I learned that the two employees who had been my point people for previous trips no longer work for Thomson.
The person who replied to my inquiry said there are two other families booked on our trip (my family is a group of 7) and that they are still planning to go forward with the trip...BUT will know more in a month. The trip is for a late June departure. We haven’t bought plane tickets yet.
Currently, there is a caution advisory for travel to Ireland, a required two week quarantine on entering, and restrictions on moving around their country.
Seems like this year, TFA has kept the PIF date very nebulous to avoid having folks back out. TFA is one of those travel groups that promise going forward even if you are they only family. I’m a little worried for TFA.

 

[lpm23]

We are supposed to be going on a Thomson trip next month to Utah. I can let you know what happens with that.

 

[TeeKo]

Have you PIF?

I wondered about transferring to a North American tour.

 

[Calfan]

We had a fantastic experience with our Thomson trip to China in 2016, but it seems like the pandemic has affected them adversely. We were booked to travel to Japan with them in 2020. Our fabulous travel agent really went to bat for us and got us a full refund of our $8k in deposits rather than pushing the deposits forward toward a future trip. (We had made a deposit of $5k in 2017 to reserve 2017 pricing for our 2020 trip, and then we had made some smaller additional deposits for custom add-ons to Mt. Fuji and Hiroshima.) I'm still sad we weren't able to make that trip, but really really happy based on the above that we received a full refund.

 

[TeeKo]

We had made our deposit in 2019 after a fabulous TFA trip to the Canadian Rockies. We have $8k in the Ireland deposit that’s been sitting for two years now.

 

[Woodview]

I live in Cork.

We are in Lockdown till at least May this year

There is VERY little Chance of you flying into Ireland this summer .

ALL Hotels are CLOSED to Anyone that is not an essential worker , or a person who has a special pass

ALL bars are closed till May . FOOD shops are open

At the moment WE ARE NOT ALLOWED to Travel beyond a 4 ( four ) mile distance from your Home

MASKS are compulsory when going into shops ( AS is Waiting your turn to enter )

We have been told to " Stay at home " this year for summer holidays .

NOTE ALL Travel AGENT shops are Closed but I believe some Travel agents are working from home.

........................

If one does manage to Arrive into Ireland ( NORTH Ireland is Belfast & U.K. )

you could be required to Isolate yourselves in a designated Hotel AT YOUR OWN EXPENCE

which could be $ 2500 .00 Each

........................................

I have had my First Vaccination ( Pfizer ) last week & 2nd one on 30th March


AGAIN I think it is unlikely that your trip will go ahead

SO I would CANCEL & look for Return of Deposit ( NOT VOUCHER OR Change of Date )

 

[Woodview]

If you have Google Earth ......... Look up Ireland .... Then Cork ...... then Douglas Shopping Centre

And we are near by.

If you wish message me ( I will phone you back from 353 21 ........................ )

 

[TeeKo]

I hear what you are saying. I can’t cancel without losing my deposit. We are in the game of chicken to see who backs down first. They aren’t pushing the issue by asking for PIF. I suspect TFA will ultimately have no choice but to cancel. In our group of seven, there are five of us immunized but the other two are too young.

 

[lpm23]

Have you PIF?

I wondered about transferring to a North American tour.

We have paid 50% with the other 50% due in a couple weeks. I would try to switch to a US trip if you have the option. I am not sure I would risk them keeping your money for another year. With a company that small I just don’t know if you can trust they will still be in business

 

[IzzyBella]

Thank you to everyone for the information in this post. We have a $3100 deposit with Thomson from a summer 2020 trip that we pushed back again to 2022. They've been good with communication to us so far. Honestly, I don’t know if we’ll use it. Unless things change a lot, our personal comfort level is no international travel until our daughter is vaccinated. Luckily the USA is plenty big and varied enough to keep us busy for years! None of the domestic Thomson trips seem worth the premium to us, so we’re crossing our fingers they'll still be around when things open back up.

 

[TeeKo]

Thank you to everyone for the information in this post. We have a $3100 deposit with Thomson from a summer 2020 trip that we pushed back again to 2022. They've been good with communication to us so far. Honestly, I don’t know if we’ll use it. Unless things change a lot, our personal comfort level is no international travel until our daughter is vaccinated. Luckily the USA is plenty big and varied enough to keep us busy for years! None of the domestic Thomson trips seem worth the premium to us, so we’re crossing our fingers they'll still be around when things open back up.

How did you push back to 2022? Did you ask or they offered? I would prefer a straight out cancelation at this point.

 

[IzzyBella]

How did you push back to 2022? Did you ask or they offered? I would prefer a straight out cancelation at this point.

In late January we told them we couldn’t commit to a trip in 2021 and asked for options. They said they could move the deposit to 2022, but we couldn’t lock in 2020 pricing, we’ll have to pay 2022 pricing. We never asked for a refund.

 

[KathyTX]

This forum is exclusively for discussion of Adventures by Disney travel. Thread closed.