Travel Changes?

[Calfan]

Wow. I just checked out their site and the page that announced the cancellations. Their cancellation and change terms for July are really generous - 30 day PIF and you can get a travel credit even if you cancel after PIF. We haven't traveled with Tauck for over a decade, but I would definitely give them another look now.

Tauck has a Japan itinerary that is my current front-runner for our redo of Japan in 2022.

 

[lovetotravel]

I would double check on whether your insurance is transferable. Many OYO insurance companies are actually refunding insurance premiums. I was able to get the insurance premium from two separate trips fully refunded to my credit card.

Search your insurance company's website for transfer or refund forms. Good luck!

My policy has a 14 day review period for a premium refund, which I am way past. But I will double check.

 

[lovetotravel]

Personally, I'd look into outside travel insurance that is transferable. Lots of them are (mine is). The ABD coverage generally costs so much extra that you're paying the equivalent of 2 policies anyways, with much lower coverage. But it never hurts to price out the ABD policy.

Sayhello

Great idea about looking for an OYO transferable insurance!

Yet I like the idea that I can just get a refund on ABD insurance if cancelled, so I'm not obligated to take a trip.

 

[NitroStitch]

I got it too! When I opened the e-mail, my first thought was "nothing to see here folks"! I've been getting payment reminders from ABD as well. They just don't seem to want to recognize in any way that the world around them has completely changed. It all seems very cold and automated to me.

That was my feeling as well. They are all about business as usual instead of at least acknowledging the they (and we) are monitoring the situation closely. I can't imagine the trip will go forward, but it sounds as though we will be waiting until very close to the trip to know for sure. Or until AMA Waterways cancels. It's very tone deaf compared to all the other travel related messages I've been getting.

 

[laceltris3]

I always been able to transfer my insurance to another trip. Once I accidentally insured the same DCL twice, and I was able to just move one of them to my next trip.

I am sad that Tauck cancelled all of June. I knew I wasn't going to France, but was hoping to be able to transfer to the Dakotas or Alaska or Canadian Rockies this summer. But I very much appreciate that they are so proactive. I would despise playing cancellation chicken like ABD is doing right now.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I received notice last night that one leg of our flight back from Sweden (Amsterdam to Toronto) has been cancelled. I haven't heard anything from Scott Dunn in weeks.

Worse than Scott Dunn (who has at least told me to consider my trip cancelled) is Quark, whose CSRs still tow the company line that their first cruise, scheduled to depart Aberdeen on April 30th, is still a go . I can't believe anyone could possibly think that that cruise is going to leave port. Given that they haven't cancelled it yet, it seems likely that I will be playing "chicken" with them right up until a week or so before our June 6th departure. I would *never* travel with Quark after the abysmal way they are handling this situation (like nothing is going on in the world around them).

 

[lovetotravel]

I always been able to transfer my insurance to another trip. Once I accidentally insured the same DCL twice, and I was able to just move one of them to my next trip.

I am sad that Tauck cancelled all of June. I knew I wasn't going to France, but was hoping to be able to transfer to the Dakotas or Alaska or Canadian Rockies this summer. But I very much appreciate that they are so proactive. I would despise playing cancellation chicken like ABD is doing right now.

I would double check on whether your insurance is transferable. Many OYO insurance companies are actually refunding insurance premiums. I was able to get the insurance premium from two separate trips fully refunded to my credit card.

Search your insurance company's website for transfer or refund forms. Good luck!

Thank you @Theta for encouraging me to recheck my policy. I just finished my conversation with my OYO insurance. Because I incurred non-refundable fees and penalties (an airline gave me a partial refund), I am unable to transfer my insurance.

So the lesson is that my travel insurance does transfer as long as I did not incur any penalties, which I did, so now I cannot transfer it anyway. My travel agent originally told me that my travel insurance does not transfer so I am glad I called the insurance company myself.

I am learning a lot through this process! Bottom line, I should argue for a full refund from all vendors, because when one decides not to give a full refund, it will jeopardize a full premium refund/transfer to another trip!

I really value everyone on this board for all the help and assistance in navigating all the complexities of travel arrangements, esp during these times!

 

[sayhello]

Thank you @Theta for encouraging me to recheck my policy. I just finished my conversation with my OYO insurance. Because I incurred non-refundable fees and penalties (an airline gave me a partial refund), I am unable to transfer my insurance.

So the lesson is that my travel insurance does transfer as long as I did not incur any penalties, which I did, so now I cannot transfer it anyway. My travel agent originally told me that my travel insurance does not transfer so I am glad I called the insurance company myself.

I am learning a lot through this process! Bottom line, I should argue for a full refund from all vendors, because when one decides not to give a full refund, it will jeopardize a full premium refund/transfer to another trip!

I really value everyone on this board for all the help and assistance in navigating all the complexities of travel arrangements, esp during these times!

Is the insurance company going to cover those non-refundable fees and penalties? I would assume that's why they can't transfer it?

Sayhello

 

[lovetotravel]

Is the insurance company going to cover those non-refundable fees and penalties? I would assume that's why they can't transfer it?

Sayhello

Yes they are but it was a few hundred dollars, whereas the insurance cost was over a thousand. Airlines are pretty inflexible and I had a non-refundable airfare so I was pretty happy with the refund. But now realized I should have begged for a full refund. And yes the non-refundable penalties incurred will not allow you to transfer the trip insurance, and again I did not know that until today.

I also cancelled another trip and the only one that prevented that full refund was a private tour guide who I paid via PayPal and would only refund half of my deposit. But I was already under the impression that I could not transfer my insurance per my travel agent.

I will be really carefully moving forward now how I book my future trips, what tour company, airline, insurance, and how I pay. Many lessons learned!!!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I got it too! When I opened the e-mail, my first thought was "nothing to see here folks"! I've been getting payment reminders from ABD as well. They just don't seem to want to recognize in any way that the world around them has completely changed. It all seems very cold and automated to me.

OMG this!!! ABD is the worst offender but DCL, DVC, and the parks aren't far behind. It floors me when I see people talking about how well Disney is handling things. IMO Disney is lagging far behind others in the industry in basically every respect. They aren't cancelling things until the last possible minute. One of my latest boondoggles is the DVC threads (I am a DVC owner but I don't follow those threads all that regularly). The Disney resorts not cancelling rooms until a couple weeks out is causing a lot of issues for renters/owners. I could go on, but I won't bore you all since I've said it before

Tauck has a Japan itinerary that is my current front-runner for our redo of Japan in 2022.

Tauck has clearly come out as one of the winners in this (and Delta and Southwest). Love how they are handling this horrible situation. If anyone has a reservation with them and is talking to them, please pass on from me that they are gaining customers and lots of good word of mouth from their response to this.

 

[MiddKid]

I know it's so depressing to see those unused ABD boxes! I keep staring sadly at the England/France box and luggage tags sitting in my closet.

Is there a typical timing for these “boxes” people are referencing? We’re ABD first-timers with a July 4 Norway trip. No box yet. I think I saw someone reference a box for their August trip. Should we have received anything for July 4, or do the timelines vary by trip?

I only ask because I’m convinced we’re not going (even if it’s “on” we’ll likely cancel) and was wondering if not receiving a box was an indicator for a planned cancellation on ABD’s end...long shot, I know, but you’d think they’d plan ahead and stop shipping just like how WDW announced cancellation of MagicBand shipments.

 

[Dis87ney]

Is there a typical timing for these “boxes” people are referencing? We’re ABD first-timers with a July 4 Norway trip. No box yet. I think I saw someone reference a box for their August trip. Should we have received anything for July 4, or do the timelines vary by trip?

I only ask because I’m convinced we’re not going (even if it’s “on” we’ll likely cancel) and was wondering if not receiving a box was an indicator for a planned cancellation on ABD’s end...long shot, I know, but you’d think they’d plan ahead and stop shipping just like how WDW announced cancellation of MagicBand shipments.

I was wondering the same as our June ABD "is still scheduled" for June 19th and still no box

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Here is the Quark April 14th update (from their website):

We are monitoring travel restrictions daily. At present, Quark Expeditions’ first Arctic 2020 voyages are scheduled to embark on May 1, 2020. All departures remain on schedule.

If they are monitoring travel restrictions then they would *know* that passengers from other countries would not be able to get to Europe for the cruise. They contradict themselves with the above statement. Clearly they are wanting passengers to cancel their May and June departures and take a voucher for next year (which doesn't work for us).

 

[Cousin Orville]

I will be really carefully moving forward now how I book my future trips, what tour company, airline, insurance, and how I pay. Many lessons learned!!!

Agreed. I've typically paid for trips well in advance. That's going to stop. I'll avoid booking private tours that require paying in full ahead of time. I'll be avoiding smaller travel companies that are at risk of becoming insolvent. If I'm using travel specialists, I'll be choosing companies that do not hold my money as a middle man. We've been lucky over the years many of these issues. But recently we had a major luxury travel specialist go bankrupt and screwing up our Morocco trip. Thankfully we got most of our money back, but a lot of the rules have change recently on whether travel insurance will cover insolvency. At this point now, we're still waiting up to 6 wks on a private tour company in Alaska to refund a paid in full tour. Hopefully they don't go bankrupt. We've got a tour to Peru that we had to cancel prior to the shutdown orders of Peru. The refund would have been a lot less than the credit. So we're taking the credit and hoping they stay afloat. Overall, I'll just be more critical with the travel providers I'm choosing.

 

[Cousin Orville]

My concern would be how well are some of these smaller travel companies doing financially having to cancel an entire season and refund trips. Hard to imagine they would go bankrupt, but what's really preventing that situation? Their entire revenue stream is drying up at the same time they're having to refund everyone. I'm not concerned about the airlines. Most of our domestic carriers will get stimulus money. But I am concerned on some of these smaller to midsize travel providers. One thing is for sure, those company's that are handling the customer service well and end up financially sound on the other side of this are very well run companies.

 

[sayhello]

My concern would be how well are some of these smaller travel companies doing financially having to cancel an entire season and refund trips. Hard to imagine they would go bankrupt, but what's really preventing that situation? Their entire revenue stream is drying up at the same time they're having to refund everyone. I'm not concerned about the airlines. Most of our domestic carriers will get stimulus money. But I am concerned on some of these smaller to midsize travel providers. One thing is for sure, those company's that are handling the customer service well and end up financially sound on the other side of this are very well run companies.

Yes, The only outstanding situation I have is with a company doing a Food tour in Lyon. They sent out an email that the tour was cancelled, with a link to a Google docs form to "apply for a credit", and the caution that they let their support staff go, and will let us know about the credit "after this crisis is over". I'm not hopeful about that, and honestly don't want a credit. I'm thinking about contacting my credit card company to see if they'll do something for me. I had one other tour company that asked that my refund be taken as a non-expiring voucher (Fat Tire Tours). They're medium-sized, and do have tours in multiple countries, including the USA. It was for less than $30, so I took the voucher.

Also, I just called my trip insurance company, as I was waiting until the airfare was refunded, and they are actually going to give me a refund due to the circumstances, rather than transferring it. So, overall, except for the fact that I have no vacation and ABD took forever to cancel, it all went better than expected.

Sayhello

 

[neurosx1983]

Have you guys found any OYO travel insurance companies that provide cancel for any reason? Not just in the form of credit, but in actual cash back if cancel for any reason? I'd imagine its expensive but I'm sure a lot of people will be looking into those...

 

[lovetotravel]

My concern would be how well are some of these smaller travel companies doing financially having to cancel an entire season and refund trips. Hard to imagine they would go bankrupt, but what's really preventing that situation? Their entire revenue stream is drying up at the same time they're having to refund everyone. I'm not concerned about the airlines. Most of our domestic carriers will get stimulus money. But I am concerned on some of these smaller to midsize travel providers. One thing is for sure, those company's that are handling the customer service well and end up financially sound on the other side of this are very well run companies.

It certainly seems like travel reservations were a gamble this year. If we booked with the right company we got our money back. For me, the smaller airlines and private guides gave me the most problems with refunds.

 

[lovetotravel]

Have you guys found any OYO travel insurance companies that provide cancel for any reason? Not just in the form of credit, but in actual cash back if cancel for any reason? I'd imagine its expensive but I'm sure a lot of people will be looking into those...

TravelSafe is what I used for CFAR and got really great rates, much less than ABD insurance and 75% cash back.

 

[lovetotravel]

Also, I just called my trip insurance company, as I was waiting until the airfare was refunded, and they are actually going to give me a refund due to the circumstances, rather than transferring it. So, overall, except for the fact that I have no vacation and ABD took forever to cancel, it all went better than expected.

Sayhello

@sayhello, please share your travel insurance company! I'd love to look into it since they are giving you are full refund of premium!! TravelSafe offers a credit from my conversation today, if I didn't have any non-refundable issues.