Seat assignments if booking through Tauck.
I know that I could call Tauck with this question, which I will, but would like to hear from someone who has encountered this situation, and how it worked out. We haven't booked our flight for our next Tauck tour for next spring, but plan on doing it soon. My question is if you book through Tauck will they reserve seats for Comfort Plus, or Premium economy, etc. or do you have to book those seats yourself. If you book yourself, and you pay the airlines ahead for the seats, how does that work if you booked the flight through Tauck? It seems that a lot of airlines now, want you to pay in full for your flight when you book it, to even get any seat assignment in advance. If that does happen, how has Tauck handled this situation. Hope this isn't to confusing. Thank you to anyone who might have some information.
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When we have booked with Tauck, we usually book as far out in advance as we can so we find we usually get seats near to the front of the class of travel we have booked. I believe Tauck's policy is to book window seats, we ask for aisle seats as a preference which we much prefer, we often sit on opposite isles like this. So if our seat assignments do come out as window seats, that's also when we change them.
Before I do all that I check out the options ( flight times, airports etc) and which aircraft models are likely to be used. We prefer the newer jumbo jets with the rows that are 2/3/2 so we don't have a third person next to us. Also the economy flight costs that I can book myself vs Taucks price. Sometimes Tauck is less, sometimes more. If Tauck is less or close to Delta I book with them.
FYI Three weeks before out trip Taucks air dept alerted me that Delta had cancelled our return flight from SLC to home when Delta hadn't bothered to inform me.
We had a problem with Delta many years ago when traveling to the US with family including my mother in law on her first visit to the US ( omg stress stress! Trying to convince her we were not going to get shot) when we arrived at a US airport to get the connecting flight, Delta had overbooked the flight and would not board the six of us, my inlaws had a stress meltdown, downhill from then on the whole trip. Even though they eventually boarded us and had us all seated together. So since then we avoid Delta at all costs, just had bad memories, indeed the only time we have to fly Delta is when we have flown to Tanzania because for us it is really the only choice, I do not think Tauck has a deal for Premium plus with them, last time we flew Coach out and business class back because that was all that was available, every other tour, we have chosen to fly with different airlines, because quite often Tauck has it's deals with Delta, but favor American because that's a hub airlines for our city and where we have the most airmile points. And of course, you can't book Flights with Tauck with airmiles, so we use them for other non Tauck's vacations.
Here is what I just experienced- we decided in late Spring to book the Romantic Germany trip that departs in a few weeks. I usually book my own flights (on Delta) as far out as possible, often 300+ days out, for the best Business Class fares (and seat selection) which usually beats what Tauck offers. But, this was a late decision only a few months out so I called Tauck to compare their rate to what I could get myself at this late date for some of the same flights I was contemplating. Tauck had a significantly better rate (for Delta) so I went with them. When I asked about seat selection, the rep replied she would try. Since the booking was with Delta she was able to select seats on all except for possibly the short flight on HOP! (Air France short-haul feeder) from Charles De Gaule to Frankfurt. Within a few days of making final payment I was able to access my flights and verify seating using the Delta website. From all indications it appears I may be able to change seating, too. However, seating isn't listed for the HOP! segment and, in fact a seating chart isn't even displayed. Just now I went to the Air France website with my Delta info. It shows we have been assigned seats 1A & 1C, bulkhead seats which have plenty of leg room but which I don't normally like because they lack under-seat stowage. The seating chart also shows the two seats available on the opposite side of the aircraft, but no other rows are visible. Seat Guru shows this aircraft typically has more rows of Business Class seats, however, many European airlines adjust the number of BC seats by demand- they just move a curtain. In the larger planes with 3 - 3 seating, business class seats are the same size and arrangement as coach, but they blank out the middle seats in each row.
I can't say how it will work with other airlines. You'll need to call Tauck.
I don't know of any airline that doesn't want you to pay up front. Except when you change class of seat, I don't think many if any US carriers require a fee to select seats. Many (most?) European carriers do.
British- Delta informs us, at least on the website of the slightest changes. They only send out emails within two weeks (or if the change is major and requires rebooking)
We had booked our flights last fall and ever since then received several updates from Delta on very minor changes to the flights. They were all like 5 or 10 minute changes to times that had no effect on the itinerary. But for some reason Delta completely failed to alert us that the flight home from SLC was completely canceled. The only flight left an hour before we were due in from Heathrow. They only explanation I can imagine (never received one from Delta) was that it was a Skywest flight - one of Delta connection carriers.
Because the change came only a few weeks before departure we had to scramble. Tauck offered to rebook but because they couldn't handle the Comfort Plus seating and the fear that Delta would not refund $ on the upgraded seats or be able to find us equivalent seats at that late date, we worked directly with Delta. Sure enough, the options were limited. We couldn't get 2 upgraded seats and even in economy the best they could offer was aisle/middle seat. We ultimately kept our SLC flight home, Delta rebooked us on a flight the next morning, and we overnighted at a nearby hotel that had a free airport shuttle. Actually turned out well. We got a decent nights sleep and arrived home in daylight feeling pretty good.
Also, when we left on the trip, I had checked in online and printed our boarding passes 24 hrs before. Arrived at the airport, checked our bags and flew to SLC. Was sitting in the waiting area and thought I'd check the Delta app on my phone to see if it actually showed where our bags were. Noticed our seat assignments didn't match the boarding passes. ??? Went up to the gate agent and sure enough, there had been a minor change in aircraft and our seats had slightly changed. Were just as good as what we'd had before, but gotta wonder when we would have found out. After boarding the plane??
I guess the morale of the story is to not just assume all is fine. Keep checking.