I just called Tauck and booked the August 13th, 2022 K&T trip. So nice to get a pre-night with the gift of time! Our reservation # ends with 003, so I guess we are the 3rd and 4th people on the trip so far. I am very excited, but now I have two years to wait and plan! It is nice to think about being able to travel again.
We did our first Tauck tour through a travel agent (TA) because she introduced us to Tauck and recommended them. After the first tour, for the next couple of Tauck tours we booked through an agency that offered discounts of 5-12%. The increased communication complexity and lag with Tauck was worth it for that amount of savings. After about our third tour Tauck stopped permitting discounts to be passed on from TA to customer (if the TA follows Tauck's rules). At that point it no longer made any sense, for us, to have a TA book the tour. It would just add communication complexity and lag for no added benefit. So, since the fourth tour on I've booked directly with Tauck.
cathyandsteve- If you want to quote with a shaded box, just add a ">" at the start of the line of the text to be quoted. It can be either text you typed or text copied and pasted from another post. A return ends the quote box, so if there is a return in the quoted text, just add another ">" in front of the additional text, e.g. I used three ">" , one for each line, below.
I use a TA who does a lot of business with Tauck. I've had 2 cancelled trips, so far. They notified me before Tauck posted the cancellations on their web site, or anyone on the forum reported a cancellation around the same time.
I've never had an issue getting any Yauck-related communications, green books, cancellationsm, etc. from the TA.
I also have a great TA and was notified of cancellations before they were public, she's been in the business many years, owned her agency at one time and does a lot of business with Tauck, always ready with advice on what to see and where to go on my spare time even though I do a lot of the research myself so I feel like I have the best of 2 worlds.
Customers are being called long before the cancellations become ‘public’. Our September/October tour was cancelled weeks ago.
When you use a TA your contract is with them and not Tauck. I’m not sure how that affects your rights.
Cathy - the cancellation telephone contact will probably be directly to your TA, as it was for us when our Sicily tour was cancelled this week. I knew that it would be happening, having seen some postings on this forum and also noticing that the September trips had been deleted from the Tauck website. Also, out TA had previously contacted us to advise that he had been monitoring our independently booked United flights and saw that one leg had been cancelled, thereby giving us the right to a refund. So, prior to the Tauck cancellation our TA had already commenced the United refund process. (I know that may take awhile).
Travel has certainly evolved over the years. Some people are more comfortable handling all arrangements themselves. I love to research and prepare for trips and am certainly capable of making travel arrangements. However, for overseas travel we utilize our TA, with whom we have a very long relationship. I view him as a valuable resource and a safety net in the event of a problem. Over the years, we have called from airports with an SOS caused by flight delays or missed connections. I have even called him from a U.S. airport, even though I booked the flights myself. (It was a winter weather nightmare). I also know that he worked tirelessly to assist clients who were trapped abroad at the start of the pandemic.
To each his own on whether to utilize a travel agent (and finding one that they are comfortable with).
Are you able to call your travel agent when it is the middle of the night? I would not know how to start finding a travel agent. The few friends that we know who do travel out of the US do all their own arrangements, really complicated ones. When we travel out of the country we usually go and stay in just one or two places. We do our own research for early stay and late stay at the end of Tauck tours. For air, we usually book with American Express travel and sometimes they do the hotel so I guess you could call those our agents. They have certainly helped us with canceled flights before now and they are accessible twenty four hours a day.
AlanS
You might be having a problem on the opposite side of the globe middday when it is the middle of the night in the US.
If it's an issue with a reservation, I can't imagine a TA being able to accomplish anything better from half way around the world than you can do in person. You have your paperwork in front of you. I suppose anything's possible, though.I've never been struck by lightning.
Our travel agent has an emergency number for after hours contact. I have never had to use it, but one of my relatives did, and the situation was resolved.
I will also add that for K & T (and other trips, where necessary), our TA took care of obtaining the required visas. I was not anxious to do that (and he did not charge a fee - we just reimbursed for the actual costs of the visas).
I hope our agent stays in business many more years. It would be difficult to find another agent with whom I would be as comfortable.
Although we have been booking our own air for a while now, I can’t imagine how we would have managed when we had to leave Borneo as soon as possible in March, the Malaysian government wanted us out or we would be stuck. thank goodness our air was booked with the tour company. A couple of people who had not booked air with them were on their own, until eventually, the tour company took over and helped them, it was only three people, so it could be done more easily. Even so, it took us over 48 hours to get out, a very worrying time.
We asked Tauck to book our air for our April tour just yesterday, but there was not much to choose from leaving from Philly, she is looking at Newark next, the Tauck rep said it might be better to wait. right now, we can’t see us going in April, so we are not too concerned, if Tauck can’t find an air route, they will have to cancel us.
I use Amex Platinum travel, just because I might need to contact them in the middle of the night, or when the specific agent with whom I usually work is on vacation or has a day off. It was wonderful to be able to call the toll-free number from Jordan when I was trying to get home after my flights were cancelled. Although I had never worked with the person who answered my phone call, he was able to present me with options very quickly, and book the return flights. He had my payment information and my frequent flyer numbers at his fingertips. I can't say enough about their excellent service. I will continue to use them, even though it might take an extra day or two to get my green books, which Tauck sends to them and they overnight to me.
I think you cannot put all TA's in one bucket. Some have very general knowledge and some very specific. Some are great with river/cruise, but poor with land-based. Some are solos or small agencies, while some are part of larger operations (sometimes as a franchise, sometimes a corporate location). Each serves in different ways and can be more or less helpful depending upon your travel interests. For emergency situations, being booked on a Tauck tour, plus through a national travel agency such as an AMEX agency with its own capabilities, can provide extra utility and assistance. So I think there is no one size fits all, even for a given traveler. You can also do initial inquries with a Tauck agent, then book with your own TA, or even book with Tauck then flip a reservation. I have found that Tauck agents are very well versed in things that complement their tours, and can provide good suggestions. As an example, when we did the Canadian Rockies (a great trip), the agent said, "Oh, your tour finishes in Calgary during the week of the Calgary Stampede. Would you like to stay on and enjoy that?". For many people, that is a Bucket List type of travel event. I may ultimately have figured that out, but only after the time to pre-purchase tickets in the grandstand, and perhaps with a need to change air. Ditto with info on my ultimately cancelled K & T trip this summer, which would have ended with return connecting travel on the back end on 7/14 - Bastille Day. So that brought up discussion of travel to Paris that day, or Amsterdam as alternate. Tauck agents are well informed, and themselves have been on many of the trips, so can speak from personal experience. So Tauck agents and private TA's both have their merits, uses and benefits.
Sevenseas, you bring up something that I've started factoring into our plans - the day of the week and other events happening. I look at the calendar and compare to the tour itinerary. Learned the hard way that European towns on Sunday shut down everything but museums, churches, restaurants, etc. So if you thought you might do some shopping on those days forget it. Monday's most museums are closed. If there is free time planned those days I consider how we'll spend our time. Also learned on our Ireland tour that which day you fly can make a price difference. We already planned a GoT which would mean arriving Friday. By moving up the arrival to Thursday we saved enough on airfare to pay for an extra hotel night. Well worth it for an extra day in Dublin. And as you said, special events at the tour site you might want to enjoy or avoid.
Even if you use a TA, if there is a problem while out of the country and /or the middle of the night, you can always contact Tauck as ultimately they are the ones being paid for the tour regardless of a TA use.
British you are right, I did not mean a problem with air which as a matter of fact I always book myself not through my TA or Tauck, I meant any other problems with the tour that the TD is no able to handle.
Comments
I just called Tauck and booked the August 13th, 2022 K&T trip. So nice to get a pre-night with the gift of time! Our reservation # ends with 003, so I guess we are the 3rd and 4th people on the trip so far. I am very excited, but now I have two years to wait and plan! It is nice to think about being able to travel again.
We did our first Tauck tour through a travel agent (TA) because she introduced us to Tauck and recommended them. After the first tour, for the next couple of Tauck tours we booked through an agency that offered discounts of 5-12%. The increased communication complexity and lag with Tauck was worth it for that amount of savings. After about our third tour Tauck stopped permitting discounts to be passed on from TA to customer (if the TA follows Tauck's rules). At that point it no longer made any sense, for us, to have a TA book the tour. It would just add communication complexity and lag for no added benefit. So, since the fourth tour on I've booked directly with Tauck.
cathyandsteve- If you want to quote with a shaded box, just add a ">" at the start of the line of the text to be quoted. It can be either text you typed or text copied and pasted from another post. A return ends the quote box, so if there is a return in the quoted text, just add another ">" in front of the additional text, e.g. I used three ">" , one for each line, below.
I use a TA who does a lot of business with Tauck. I've had 2 cancelled trips, so far. They notified me before Tauck posted the cancellations on their web site, or anyone on the forum reported a cancellation around the same time.
I've never had an issue getting any Yauck-related communications, green books, cancellationsm, etc. from the TA.
I also have a great TA and was notified of cancellations before they were public, she's been in the business many years, owned her agency at one time and does a lot of business with Tauck, always ready with advice on what to see and where to go on my spare time even though I do a lot of the research myself so I feel like I have the best of 2 worlds.
Customers are being called long before the cancellations become ‘public’. Our September/October tour was cancelled weeks ago.
When you use a TA your contract is with them and not Tauck. I’m not sure how that affects your rights.
Cathy - the cancellation telephone contact will probably be directly to your TA, as it was for us when our Sicily tour was cancelled this week. I knew that it would be happening, having seen some postings on this forum and also noticing that the September trips had been deleted from the Tauck website. Also, out TA had previously contacted us to advise that he had been monitoring our independently booked United flights and saw that one leg had been cancelled, thereby giving us the right to a refund. So, prior to the Tauck cancellation our TA had already commenced the United refund process. (I know that may take awhile).
Travel has certainly evolved over the years. Some people are more comfortable handling all arrangements themselves. I love to research and prepare for trips and am certainly capable of making travel arrangements. However, for overseas travel we utilize our TA, with whom we have a very long relationship. I view him as a valuable resource and a safety net in the event of a problem. Over the years, we have called from airports with an SOS caused by flight delays or missed connections. I have even called him from a U.S. airport, even though I booked the flights myself. (It was a winter weather nightmare). I also know that he worked tirelessly to assist clients who were trapped abroad at the start of the pandemic.
To each his own on whether to utilize a travel agent (and finding one that they are comfortable with).
Are you able to call your travel agent when it is the middle of the night? I would not know how to start finding a travel agent. The few friends that we know who do travel out of the US do all their own arrangements, really complicated ones. When we travel out of the country we usually go and stay in just one or two places. We do our own research for early stay and late stay at the end of Tauck tours. For air, we usually book with American Express travel and sometimes they do the hotel so I guess you could call those our agents. They have certainly helped us with canceled flights before now and they are accessible twenty four hours a day.
Why would that be necessary?
You might be having a problem on the opposite side of the globe middday when it is the middle of the night in the US.
If it's an issue with a reservation, I can't imagine a TA being able to accomplish anything better from half way around the world than you can do in person. You have your paperwork in front of you. I suppose anything's possible, though.I've never been struck by lightning.
Our travel agent has an emergency number for after hours contact. I have never had to use it, but one of my relatives did, and the situation was resolved.
I will also add that for K & T (and other trips, where necessary), our TA took care of obtaining the required visas. I was not anxious to do that (and he did not charge a fee - we just reimbursed for the actual costs of the visas).
I hope our agent stays in business many more years. It would be difficult to find another agent with whom I would be as comfortable.
Although we have been booking our own air for a while now, I can’t imagine how we would have managed when we had to leave Borneo as soon as possible in March, the Malaysian government wanted us out or we would be stuck. thank goodness our air was booked with the tour company. A couple of people who had not booked air with them were on their own, until eventually, the tour company took over and helped them, it was only three people, so it could be done more easily. Even so, it took us over 48 hours to get out, a very worrying time.
We asked Tauck to book our air for our April tour just yesterday, but there was not much to choose from leaving from Philly, she is looking at Newark next, the Tauck rep said it might be better to wait. right now, we can’t see us going in April, so we are not too concerned, if Tauck can’t find an air route, they will have to cancel us.
I use Amex Platinum travel, just because I might need to contact them in the middle of the night, or when the specific agent with whom I usually work is on vacation or has a day off. It was wonderful to be able to call the toll-free number from Jordan when I was trying to get home after my flights were cancelled. Although I had never worked with the person who answered my phone call, he was able to present me with options very quickly, and book the return flights. He had my payment information and my frequent flyer numbers at his fingertips. I can't say enough about their excellent service. I will continue to use them, even though it might take an extra day or two to get my green books, which Tauck sends to them and they overnight to me.
I think you cannot put all TA's in one bucket. Some have very general knowledge and some very specific. Some are great with river/cruise, but poor with land-based. Some are solos or small agencies, while some are part of larger operations (sometimes as a franchise, sometimes a corporate location). Each serves in different ways and can be more or less helpful depending upon your travel interests. For emergency situations, being booked on a Tauck tour, plus through a national travel agency such as an AMEX agency with its own capabilities, can provide extra utility and assistance. So I think there is no one size fits all, even for a given traveler. You can also do initial inquries with a Tauck agent, then book with your own TA, or even book with Tauck then flip a reservation. I have found that Tauck agents are very well versed in things that complement their tours, and can provide good suggestions. As an example, when we did the Canadian Rockies (a great trip), the agent said, "Oh, your tour finishes in Calgary during the week of the Calgary Stampede. Would you like to stay on and enjoy that?". For many people, that is a Bucket List type of travel event. I may ultimately have figured that out, but only after the time to pre-purchase tickets in the grandstand, and perhaps with a need to change air. Ditto with info on my ultimately cancelled K & T trip this summer, which would have ended with return connecting travel on the back end on 7/14 - Bastille Day. So that brought up discussion of travel to Paris that day, or Amsterdam as alternate. Tauck agents are well informed, and themselves have been on many of the trips, so can speak from personal experience. So Tauck agents and private TA's both have their merits, uses and benefits.
Sevenseas, you bring up something that I've started factoring into our plans - the day of the week and other events happening. I look at the calendar and compare to the tour itinerary. Learned the hard way that European towns on Sunday shut down everything but museums, churches, restaurants, etc. So if you thought you might do some shopping on those days forget it. Monday's most museums are closed. If there is free time planned those days I consider how we'll spend our time. Also learned on our Ireland tour that which day you fly can make a price difference. We already planned a GoT which would mean arriving Friday. By moving up the arrival to Thursday we saved enough on airfare to pay for an extra hotel night. Well worth it for an extra day in Dublin. And as you said, special events at the tour site you might want to enjoy or avoid.
Even if you use a TA, if there is a problem while out of the country and /or the middle of the night, you can always contact Tauck as ultimately they are the ones being paid for the tour regardless of a TA use.
Not necessarily true, if you booked your own air and there is a problem with that, then Tauck can’t help
British you are right, I did not mean a problem with air which as a matter of fact I always book myself not through my TA or Tauck, I meant any other problems with the tour that the TD is no able to handle.