Anyone been cancelled yet
We are scheduled for this trip in Sept. We were wondering if anyone has had their trips cancelled yet. Things aren’t very good there and the travel advisory for US citizens is a level 4.
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We are scheduled for this trip in Sept. We were wondering if anyone has had their trips cancelled yet. Things aren’t very good there and the travel advisory for US citizens is a level 4.
Comments
I’d love to know where Tauck is on the cancelling of trips. My booked tour, not this one is early October and we are already making alternate plans for October, things like construction. I haven’t called Tauck but I wish they would give more updates. We were informed about the cancellation of our June tour weeks ago And back then Tauck were already calling people with July dates. As you say, we are still level 4, supposed to not travel internationally. South Africa figures are still on the rise. It’s a great tour! Let’s hope Africa can receive Tauck travelers in the near future
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In a similar situation. Tour scheduled for Classic Italy starting October 4th. Have pretour activities planned and flights have been canceled, so, if it is a go, have no booked way of getting there or getting home. Wish there was some clarity, so I can deal with the side trips and rebook for 2021.
I had a trip scheduled for early August. I received the cancellation call in early June. If they follow the same pattern, you will likely get a call two months before the trip is scheduled to go.
I have tours in both Sept and Oct. I expect both to be cancelled and expect to hear from Tauck about the Sept trip in about 2 weeks.
We received a call earlier this week that our September 9th Kenya & Tanzania Trip has been canceled, so I expect you will hear from them soon.
Any update on An Elegant Adventure 9/4 status?
Lori, have you checked to see if your flights are still going? I think you could call Tauck just in case they haven’t called you yet, they must be at their busiest now having to call possibly thousands of people. Although they are asking people not to call, it’s a very anxious time waiting, especially if you booked your own flights and have to deal with all that yourself.
South Africa has a high number of cases and we are still being advised not to travel internationally. I have had an October tour canceled but it’s not an Africa one.
My Scandinavia trip for September was canceled, I have a friend that was booked for the Essence of South America in September and that was also canceled. We both learned this through our travel agents.
I just called and was told they "had a meeting yesterday" and that an announcement will be forthcoming by next week. So frustrating. We booked through South African airlines, which I read is bankrupt and getting shut down, but they say they can bank your flights for two years! I want a refund on the air, but it sounds like lost money to me.
We booked flights to South Africa on Delta thru Tauck. Sure hope for full refund. Business class is alot
According to this 7 July article in One Mile at a Time , a flights and aircraft review and flying-with points website, SAA is selling/has sold off most of their aircraft. With Comair also in trouble it may be difficult in the near future or once things start to get back to normal, to get a flight from Jo'burg to Livingstone for the start of the Zambia, South Africa, Botswana tour! We did Z,SA,B in 2019, flew from the US on Delta, but booked the SAA flight to Livingstone. Even last year I was a bit nervous about booking SAA- as the article said, they haven't made money since 2011.
For those here with questions, I would not be reluctant to call Tauck. I talked to them yesterday because I needed some info about the required medical form for Antarctica. I was only on hold for a couple minutes. They are all working from home, and many work from home all the time. There is no one in the office. I once called and discovered the person I was talking to was only a ‘stone’s throw’ away here in California.
Choc, if you booked your flights with Tauck, you have no worries
Thanks British
Our Sept trip here in the US, LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN WEST, has been cancelled.
Really? US tours for Sept have been cancelled already, but not South Africa? That’s crazy!
As a follow-on to my post above about potential difficulties finding flights in the future, I finally received this from Delta for our Jan 2021 flights to J&E: "There has been a flight cancellation affecting your trip and we haven't been able to find you another flight. . . . ." the rest of the notice was an attempt to get me to accept an e-credit. I started to go online to complete a refund request, but decided to give them a call. The wait time was short. At first they gave me a bit of a runaround about passing my request to the refund dept who would contact me within 7 days then process my refund in 30 to 60 days. I pushed back and they initiated the action tonight. We'll see how long it takes to see the refund.
I had already done some test bookings on both Delta and Air France websites so I already knew, despite what MyDelta was showing and what phone agents told me over the last two months, the leg from Paris to Amman had gone away. I was prepared for this news. I have already identified alternate flights on other carriers, but I'll wait a few months to see what Tauck does with J&E before I attempt to re-book our flights.
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Debbie Downer here. It looks more and more like 2021 is not going to be a travel year. Has anyone else kinda psyched themselves into realizing that we are going to have to rely on memories of past travel, theatre, movies, dinner with friends and pretty much doing anything outside of their neighborhood for the foreseeable future.
Next month, the lease on one of our cars is up, so we are going to try to mange with one car, it seems such a waste to have two when we are doing so little.
We have been ‘busy’ this past couple of weeks, hairdresser, routine doctor visits, optician, dentist. We used to get a monthly massage, that’s opened up, so my husband has already been for his. It does seem strange having to check the calendar every day to see whether we have something on it.
My husband is still reluctant to book flights for our Israel and Jordan tour in April. I think we should at least call Tauck to tell them we want them to book our flights just in case. It still looks as if there are no flights out there to book. It’s a vicious circle.spiraling down and down. This is such a very long bad dream. The financial suffering of millions of people as well as the devastating loss of life.The toll on the doctors, nurses and all essential workers going on and on.Our past traveling life was a luxury that only a few could dream of. I keep telling myself it’s over. Any future change to that will be great, but right now it’s a long way off.
I am trying to be hopeful but a little more careful. We have two trips booked for 2021 - one was booked pre-Covid and the other I just booked two weeks ago. I usually book our flights but now I am having Tauck book them at least for the foreseeable future. Our refund for Lufthansa flights for a trip this year just came through as final via our credit card company yesterday - I really don't want to go through that again. I am also holding the balance due for future trips until the final payment date - before I would make a few payments along the way. I know the trips may not happen but I also enjoy researching trips and planning so at least I can do that.
British - I agree with you. My crystal ball says there will be a big spike in cases in September, a few weeks after schools reopen (which IMO, is crazy). The shutdown of the Spring will have been for nothing.
I agree with you, British. It is very sad that so many folks don't take this virus seriously, while our neighbor, Canada, is a model on how to handle the pandemic. When our October Classic Italy tour gets canceled, I do plan to rebook for October, 2021, however.
I’m conflicted on the schools reopening thing. I know this isn’t travel related, but to keep this forum going, we have to divert now and again
I have three grandchildren. Two have just finished Kindergarten remotely. Both my daughter and daughter in law And the schools the children attended have done good jobs
But as time went on, I watched the children have a subtle change in their behavior, they began to withdraw a little, start saying how much they were missing friends, have some behavior issues. So the girls decided to let them play together and that helped a little as they adore each other. There was a camp, a farm one that was not cancelled, so they decided to let them go as planned. They were in groups of five and they were in the same group. The difference in their behavior was instant, like they had been reset to normal. Two weeks later they went to drama camp, again small groups and they had so much fun. This past 4th July we went to my daughter’s home, they have a large deck, we sat one end, brought all our own food apart from the grilled meat. The children played with a paddling pool and water toys in the big green yard below. It was so normal. I just wanted to cry. As each day goes by, I pray none of us have Covid. But psychologically it was so good for their families.
2020 is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. Psychologically this shutdown isn't good for anyone, adults and children alike. My boyfriend and I were able to take a 2 day getaway to a small resort in the NC Mountains recently. I had booked this in February and every few weeks the opening date was pushed out, at least 4 times total. The resort re-opened one week before our booked arrival date. Each week I felt like I was hanging on by a thread, hoping that at least one of outings I had planned for 2020 would not be canceled. Just being able to get away for a few days did us both wonders. We have a 4 day beach trip (Hotel only) booked in October and hopefully that will still be a go if things don't deteriorate further in our State. At least it is something to look forward to. I still try to remain positive that we will once again be able to return to some semblance of normalcy next year. Even if I can't travel overseas, I would be happy to just go to a play or concert or even a movie. Right now I am holding off booking any trips outside of my state that I can't drive to. In the meantime, I fuel my wanderlust by reading travel blogs like this one or looking at travel sites for places that I might be able to go to and watching travelogues and travel movies on TV. I know this will all pass eventually and we can once again be with our families and friends and travel and enjoy life as it is meant to be. I try to just stay focused on today. I don't dwell on yesterday, it is gone and I don't worry about tomorrow as it hasn't arrived yet. Today is my happy place.
We leave on Monday for our short week in Yosemite at the Evergreen Lodge. The firefighters who saved the Lodge during the Rim Fire are supposed to be there for their annual visit. They were perhaps more highly motivated to save the lodge during the fire because that is where they were staying. The fire got right up to the edge of the swimming pool, and that is where they held the line. It probably would make a good movie.
I’ve thought for some time about “Bob’s” comment about Canada. Trying to make a response out of the ‘political’ realm, there are a host of reasons Canada may be doing better than ‘some’ parts of the U.S. Among them are the fact that there are probably relatively few Chinese who want to visit Canada in the winter time. They also have not had thousands of rioters in all of their major cities for quite some time. That being said, the ppn infection rate/death rate here in California is a relatively small percentage of New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. So some of us are taking the ‘virus’ more seriously than others.;
That's because treatment protocols are better now than they were a few months ago.
Sealord, the Chinese are not the only people who brought Covid to the USA or Canada. Returning Americans or Canadians brought it and some of them might also have been of Chinese ethnicity. Then it was person to person.
I haven’t read in detail how Canada initially coped with the outbreak but it has to be better than here and that’s not political, it’s just fact and it continues. So that is why we are unlikely to be able to travel as we all like to do here for a long rime, so it’s relevant on this forum.
The New York cases were proven to be from Europe by genetic testing. Doesn't matter where it comes from, it's all about how countries/states and people deal with it. NM was doing well and slowly reopening, but now cases going up mainly because our neighbors in TX and AZ didn't do well. Mon our restaurants will close again for indoor dining.
I just looked this up on the cbc website:
“In fact, the death rate from COVID-19 is nearly identical between Canada and the 47 U.S. states that do not include a New York City suburb, based on state- and county-level data compiled by the site Worldometer.”
Cases and deaths are only 2 stats to look at and both tell only a part of the story. Yes case #s are going up in part because of increased testing but also due to human behavior. Death rates are being affected by the ages of those getting the virus and the fact that doctors are learning more and more about how to treat. Plus you have the lag between diagnosis and death (2-3 weeks) and lag in death certificates being filled. Not to mention that "not dead" doesn't necessarily equal "well". I suspect there is a whole lot we don't know about the real stats on this and long term implications.
Here's an article from the Atlantic that delves deeper into what is and may be happening. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/why-covid-death-rate-down/613945/