Trip Insurance
I have only traveled with Tauck once. We have trip insurance. I want our money back. Tauck has been earning money on my money for almost 2 years. What are my options? Trip rescheduled for the 3rd time end of April 2021. Don't see that happening. I would appreciate any feedback.
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No travel company gives money back for the insurance, we just have to suck it up. Your April trip will certainly not go ahead. Can you book something for 2022? Tauck is honoring this until the end of 2022. Other travel companies have kept the entire cost of a vacation and refused to give any money back. I have had two tours canceled by Tauck and others coming up in April and July, so that will be a lot of money tied up for us.
I always buy Tauck insurance, and it is the only insurance that I’ve actually had to use. We were in a BA airplane on a Heathrow taxiway when all of BA shut down due to a computer failure a couple years ago. We were stuck in London for three days without luggage and almost missed our trip to Russia. We never got our luggage until we returned home. Tauck covered everything ... the finest hotels, limos, food and drink, airfare ... everything. I am a member of USAA and I also use insuremytrip.com, I am very favorably impressed with Tauck insurance.
I always buy Tauck insurance too. It's just less of a hassle if you need quick service. I was in an auto accident the day before a trip, and I cancelled the trip from the E.R. No problem.
I usually try to have them schedule my air too -- I once had a delayed flight during a transfer in Germany, because they stopped my wife -- Security was suspicious of her lipstick or something in her purse -- out came the guy with an assault rifle in Frankfurt, they inspected every cosmetic with a fine tooth comb, so we missed the plane.
Then we were hassaled by the airline, who would rebook us with a $300 each fee. I called Taulk in the middle of the night, they argued with the United person ("only following the rules") for a half hour -- the Tauck rep got fed up, got me back on the line, and issued new tickets from Wilton for the next plane out. So we even made it for our pre-day. It's worth it, from my point of view, for the peace of mind.
On one of our tours we met a woman who broke her arm on a previous booking of the tour. Tauck took care of it all, got her back to the States, had a companion fly with her, etc. -- and she was so grateful.
I never buy Tauck insurance. I've paid for a trip with saved premiums.
We also always buy Tauck insurance. For travel not with Tauck we usually go with USAA's insurance. Something we "old folks" need to be concerned with is that many medical issues aren't covered by Medicare if you are outside the US.
If there was ever a doubt as to the value of the insurance, I still remember a lady on an overseas trip who fell the first night, pre-tour and broke her shoulder. Hospitalization was covered (would not have been without travel insurance) and Tauck got her business class seats to return to the US as she could not handle remaining on the tour. So, BKMD, one thing like this will make up for all your "savings"!
We always buy Tauck insurance and could buy USAA insurance too but we don't. It is so much easier to book the trip, air, and insurance with the same company - Tauck. We also have had trips cancelled like most everyone else. We were supposed to go to Egypt in March 2020, then March 2021, but are now scheduled for March 2022. They just rolled over the insurance cost and small deposit and then gave $300 credits to rebook the trip in another year. That more then offsets the money you would have earned getting your money returned. When you think of the total cost of the trips the cost of insurance is negligible. We think Tauck has done an outstanding job during this crazy year keeping everyone informed and safe.
Couldn't agree more. There are far too many things that could happen to derail a trip, ranging from minor inconvenience to catastrophic consequences. Balancing the small cost of insurance against potential expense makes the decision a no-brainer. I find great peace of mind having Tauck's comprehensive coverage in my corner.
We used USAA insurance for our first Tauck tour but have only used Tauck's since then. I found USAA cost more and didn't like that they recommended you print out a lengthy contract and take it with you on the tour.
Also that the cost depended on total cost of tour, flights, etc vs Taucks flat rate. I'll stick with Tauck.
Like Claudia says, the two other tour companies I have used assess the price of the insurance on the total cost of the tour, so if that includes flights and especially business class, the insurance we had to pay was extremely expensive compared to Tauck.... and when we had to claim on our part curtailed tour with one of them, they refused it. We worked with the tour company who used their leverage to reverse the decision. We then contacted the other people from the part canceled tour and they were able to get their decisions reversed too.
On our Israel and Jordan trip in 2018, one of our fellow travelers got really sick and wound up going to the hospital in Jerusalem and remained there for 4 days. Because he had Tauck insurance, our TD was able to work out all the details of that situation with he and his wife that also included cancelling a good part of the trip and arranging to go home on previously non scheduled flights. I'm sure most if not all of that was covered by the Tauck insurance. If they had another insurance like USAA we don't even know how that situation would have been solved. An even worse situation would have been if they had no insurance at all.
Alan S - responded to your questions. Please see inbox.