Does Tauck have access to better air fares?
For our travel Portland, Oregon USA to Prague, then home from Budapest, in June/July we need refundable "lie-down" business or first class seats. The best we've found is British Air to Heathrow and then a regional flight to Prague. Has Tauck provided help finding the right seats, and better fares, for clients?
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Tauck contracts with certain airlines to fix fares for their customers. sometimes they are better prices than you can find yourself and sometimes they are not. You have to do your research. They also do not necessarily give you the best choice of route. They tend to make it so that it works well with the start of the tour, which is not necessarily an advantage, especially if you are arriving the day before which is always a good idea. The advantage is that you do not pay for the flights until the final invoice for the tour.
We always try to avoid Heathrow airport as do many people on the forum which may however be your best route. You will have to research. When we look for flights, direct non stop routing os more importantly to us than price generally. During Covid times, we have reverted to Tauck booking hte flights we want for us, in the past, we have researched and often booked our own flights.
This June we will be going to Barcelona and returning from Porto, Portugal. When we first started looking at airfares they were around $5200 per person in business class. We contacted our TA and she worked with Tauck and found a great deal on AA and BA for $3500.00 roundtrip out of Tucson. Also, if the airline makes any changes as they did on this ticket and had us spending the night in Chicago and leaving the following morning on a flight that was scheduled for a 5:00 am departure. My TA called Tauck and they managed to get us on a flight from Porto/London/DFW/Tucson with great connection times where we can enjoy the business class lounge.
There has been much discussion on this topic and we all have had different experiences. I concur with British to do your own research. I fly in and out of a major hub and it is my opinion that I always get good rates from Tauck. And, as Noreen indicated, when something goes wrong Tauck is there to assist.
I always check on my own, find exactly what I want as far as route, layovers, seats, etc and then I call Tauck and see what they offer.
We usually do better on our own.
On occasion, they have been able to get the exact flight for us, but the cost is usually about the same.
Once for Italy they got us $300 cheaper than I could have per ticket in Coach.
More often, they can't get the routes and layovers we prefer.
We have 2 Tauck trips coming up this year and we were able to get better pricing for both by about $400 per ticket.
We don't fly Business class, but we have gotten GREAT deals this year on Delta Premium Select -which offers bigger seats and more leg room.
We did book on our 330 day out date, flying into & out of different countries and got Premium Select for under $1000.
We usually pay $1200-1400 for coach, so we are pleased.
Tauck quoted us $1175 for Coach and $1450 for Premium Select.
Re air travel class, I have found that many folks prefer to travel business class or first class and unless you or your TA book early enough, many of those seats are sold out as the demand for them is high. My comments refer to how it was pre-pandemic experiences I had. Just saying.
Our Norwegian fjords tour was cancelled in 2020 and we are going this year (2022). A Tauck rep just explained to me that in 2020 they had specially discounted airfares during January (and possibly February) with Delta and its partners. This year they did not have this arrangement with Delta and our economy fares have nearly tripled in price. So I would ask, as early as possible, whether Tauck has any special arrangements with carriers that offer a discount. Then you can make the decision whether to research yourself or book through another TA. Also Tauck didn't provide seating assignments for our SAS flights. We have to book and pay for those ourselves.
I think the answer to the question whether Tauck provides better airfare prices is both yes and no. There are too many variables and it change depends. The way it was explained to me is that Tauck is able to get contracted airfare prices but one never knows in advance when they will be offered and whether or not those prices would be lower. It was suggest once that I check with Tauck monthly. I’m better off using my trusted travel agent and if and when there are any glitches while traveling, I simply give her or her company an e-mail and the situation gets resolved.
Our travels, if you cancel a flight that your TA books, is it easy to get your money back? We have never booked a flight via a Travel agent,
British, it depends on the circumstances. I have to say that if I personally wanted a flight cancelled, the answer to that would be no. However, at the very beginning of the pandemic, our travel agent that I’ve had for decades (of course there’s history there) was able to refund our entire flight (for two pending trips) back to my credit card. I was happy about that. I did have to pay her a fee of 50.00 per person. She is doing the leg work for me. It is worth it to me instead of hanging on to airline credits that I may or may not use that have an expiration date. I just think a good travel agent knows how to work the system and It’s only worked to my advantage using one. I hope I answered your question in some way.
Thank you for your answers.
Like OurTravels34, we always use a TA for international travel and booking our trips. He can get through to Tauck easier (I've never called them and we are on our 14th Tauck trip in a few weeks) and get my questions answered quickly. The pandemic did have one positive outcome...no change fees or cancellation fees on our airline tickets. We travel enough that a credit can be spent easily when we have had to cancel. That being said, we are booking travel with Tauck on our next 4 trips...but my TA works with them to get the flights and schedule we want. Everyone has their comfort level...no right way or wrong way...whatever makes you happy! I'm happy because we leave on April 10th for our first international trip since February 2020!
I have had the same TA for over a decade and she has booked all 42 of my Tauck tours. I have always been comfortable dealing with her and she too works with Tauck on those trips, both for the air and the tour itself. :-).
A good travel agent is worth having in case of any amount of unexpected circumstances that can happen in this day and age when traveling internationally.