COVID Policy Update (8 January)
According to the banner and the Policy page, Tauck has updated their COVID Policy as of 8 January 2021. The quoted paragraph below says all tours through January 31, 2021 have been cancelled, but for the life of me, I don't remember what the last policy said- I thought tours thru the end of January had already been cancelled, but it may have only been thru 31 Dec 2020?!? Can someone who copied and saved the previous policy or has a better memory than me please tell me what it was. I was expecting them to cancel tours through the end of February or even the end of March. If 31 Jan is correct, that is quite a small bite. Not that I want our March trip cancelled, but I would just like to know sooner than later. For those who haven't done it, there are still openings so I highly recommend jumping on the Yellowstone in Winter! Fantastic tour- you have NOT seen Yellowstone until you've seen it in Winter!
"Still we recognize the need to pause. Due to the continued uncertainty about our ability to deliver the level of experience you expect from Tauck, we have decided to cancel all tours through January 31, 2021, with the exception of a few select departures of our Yellowstone in Winter itinerary." _
Comments
The November 4 update: "... we've decided to cancel all land tours and cruises with departure dates through December 31, 2020"
AlanS - I agree with the desire to know sooner rather than later. For sure, they should cancel a tour prior to the final payment due date if they are going to cancel it. If they let it get beyond that date then it should indicate the tour is a go (unless something unexpected happens, not just the same old Covid issues).
I think the final payment date is now 45 days before tour start (not positive, this has changed some during the policy updates as well). If 45 days, then we are nearly there (this coming week) for an end of February tour. Seems odd that if they updated the policy on January 8th, that they would update it ago so quickly (less than 2 week later) to move the cancellation date through the end of February. All March tours will reach that 45 day threshold within the next month.
Perhaps they are consistent, but it seems like Tauck is a bit inconsistent with respect to updating the policy at a set period of time. The same goes with respect to inconsistency for their notification of people when a tour gets canceled. Some people find out 2-3 months in advance, whereas in my case (two tours cancelled in 2020) I had to call Tauck just prior to the final payment due date to get the official word of the tour being cancelled.
I would like to know sooner rather than later so that I can rebook for 2022 before the date I would like has already sold out. I am sure it was just yesterday or maybe the day before I was looking at the policy and it was not this last one. I saw that we would have to pay the full amount for our next tour around the end of February and was going to make sure I called about two weeks before then.
Maybe Tauck has laid off more of their staff and so it’s taking them longer to call everyone. After all, they have been paying all those staff and getting no income, the dollars must be mounting up. I wish more people would come to the realization that very few of us will have gotten the vaccines in the coming months, it’s just not going to happen, it’s impossible. There are many other people who want to hope that their tours are only cancelled when it is absolutely definite that it is not going to be possible and that might be a reason Tauck are dragging their feet. Other four companies have already canceled way out in front.
How wonderful Yellowstone is going ahead... personally for me, I’m not that desperate ..... if I could go and swim in a lovely outdoor pool in lovely sunshine. Find some shelter, read a book, have a cocktail and eat a fabulously dinner at sunset, ok, I’ll make the effort. For now, touring somewhere exotic, a la Tauck, has gone off my radar.
Smiling Sam said:
I agree wholeheartedly. Which brings up a question. Has anybody been placed in the position of having to make the final payment without being assured that the trip will go? My hope is that the website post is just running behind the trip cancellation contacts and that no one has been placed in this unfortunate position. If someone has, please share your experience with the forum.
No, we have not had to pay the final payment, two tours so far and one coming up. We asked for our deposits back. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.