When does ABD cancel?

[chuff88]

I'm on the 8/4 Germany ABD and it's currently part of the bundle and save offer, and I'm getting stressed that enrollment isn't high enough for the trip to run. When would we get notified if ABD was going to cancel? If it does get cancelled, the only other options are the one before ours at the end of July and one in December.

It appears that some of them have maybe already been cancelled because when we were first looking at this trip there was one in October and now that's not even listed

 

[sayhello]

It really, really seems to vary. My May Portugal ABD was cancelled in October, so 7 months ahead. That's one reason I suspect it was *not* cancelled due to lack of people as they claimed, because they had tons of time to try and fill it up if 30+ people had suddenly dropped out. Most I've heard of have been a couple of months out (usually, unfortunately, after PIF).

Sayhello

 

[chuff88]

It really, really seems to vary. My May Portugal ABD was cancelled in October, so 7 months ahead. That's one reason I suspect it was *not* cancelled due to lack of people as they claimed, because they had tons of time to try and fill it up if 30+ people had suddenly dropped out. Most I've heard of have been a couple of months out (usually, unfortunately, after PIF).

Sayhello

Yeah, our PIF was at the beginning of May so obviously we're already PIF. I checked on changing the our flights to the July departure just to be prepared, and the fare difference are enough that it would make it cost prohibitive for us, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this trip goes. We probably wouldn't be able to go in December and we've already pretty well packed 2024 with other travel.

 

[Mathmagicland]

You can call AbD and ask them how many are currently booked, that may give you an idea. They seem to be canceling farther out from departure looking some of the posts here, so maybe the offer is to try to encourage last minute travelers?

 

[sayhello]

Yeah, our PIF was at the beginning of May so obviously we're already PIF. I checked on changing the our flights to the July departure just to be prepared, and the fare difference are enough that it would make it cost prohibitive for us, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this trip goes. We probably wouldn't be able to go in December and we've already pretty well packed 2024 with other travel.

If ABD cancels the trip, and you move to another departure, ABD will cover the costs for you to rebook your airfare. I mean, within reason. You can't upgrade to first class or anything, but they will reimburse you. You might want to confirm that with ABD to be sure, but that's been their policy as far as I can remember (and that goes back to 2008/2009).

Sayhello

 

[chuff88]

If ABD cancels the trip, and you move to another departure, ABD will cover the costs for you to rebook your airfare. I mean, within reason. You can't upgrade to first class or anything, but they will reimburse you. You might want to confirm that with ABD to be sure, but that's been their policy as far as I can remember (and that goes back to 2008/2009).

Sayhello

Is that true even if the original airfare wasn't booked through ABD? We already had first class tickets, would they cover the change for us to stay in first? We did economy to Norway and I've opted to retired from economy-class international flights. My back and knees just can't take it.

 

[sayhello]

Is that true even if the original airfare wasn't booked through ABD? We already had first class tickets, would they cover the change for us to stay in first? We did economy to Norway and I've opted to retired from economy-class international flights. My back and knees just can't take it.

Yes, it's true even if the original airfare wasn't booked through ABD. And I'd assume that if you have first class tickets already, they'd help you book new first class tickets (but I've never done that, so I don't know it for *SURE* so you'd want to confirm with ABD). When they cancelled my Canada trip, and I switched to Alaska due to the fact that I couldn't change my travel dates, they covered the costs to switch the airfare from Canada to Alaska, and I'd booked it myself. The only person I can recall that didn't get the whole amount covered was someone whose domestic ABD was cancelled and he decided to switch them to Italy, and ABD didn't cover the entire amount to switch to an International airfare. But what you are describing sounds totally "reasonable", which is what they usually say ("within reason"). The story is different if you don't rebook another ABD, but if you do rebook, they are responsible.

Sayhello

 

[chuff88]

You can call AbD and ask them how many are currently booked, that may give you an idea. They seem to be canceling farther out from departure looking some of the posts here, so maybe the offer is to try to encourage last minute travelers?

I thought about doing this, but honestly I don't need the stress of it. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed at this point. We're only 70ish days out so I'm hoping we're safe.

 

[AquaDame]

Adding your departue to Bundle and Save might be a good sign that they do NOT want to cancel this one; perhaps instead they just want to pad your numbers.

 

[chuff88]

I received our adventure guide by email today so I think we're in the clear.

I did notice that neither the Ritter Sport chocolate activity nor the pretzel making activity were listed in our adventure guide, but both are listed on the website. Has anyone done Germany recently who can speak to whether or not they did these activities?

 

[sayhello]

Congrats! Getting the handbook for your Adventure *is* a good sign! You can verify with ABD, but in general, one of the reasons they do the individual handbooks is so they can note any itinerary variations for your departure from what was published. Did they put something in place of those missing activities?

Sayhello

 

[chuff88]

Congrats! Getting the handbook for your Adventure *is* a good sign! You can verify with ABD, but in general, one of the reasons they do the individual handbooks is so they can note any itinerary variations for your departure from what was published. Did they put something in place of those missing activities?

Sayhello

It doesn't appear that anything different was put in place that I can tell.