Tauck Guest Protection plan question
A question to anyone who has stayed extra days after a tour.
We have booked the Legendary Scottish Isles, Edinburgh & Glasgow cruise/tour for May of 2023. We are most likely going to stay up to a week after the tour to do some personal travel in the UK.
We are purchasing the Tauck Guest Protection plan which in this case is called Tauck International Cruise, Train & Event Protection. My question to anyone who may know or has done this before, will the insurance cover us if we stay an additional week in the UK?
I have not found anything in the Tauck literature on this although I might not have looked close enough. We are working with a travel agent on this tour so I will have her check, but I am sure this is a fairly common question that may come up with the readers in this forum.
Comments
JohnS - Are all of your extra days at the Tauck hotel and booked through Tauck? If so, I'd think you have a higher chance of those days being covered. If not, then I'd be shocked if they were covered by the insurance you bought for the tour.
Smiling Sam - No, we have not firmed up anything yet but we will possibly visit some of my wife's relatives who live in the northern England and possibly take the Caledonian Sleeper, which we have been intrigued with, to London for a few days before coming home.
This is from the Aon/Affinity generic policy:
When Coverage Ends:
Trip Cancellation coverage(s) automatically end on the earlier of:
1. the date and time You depart on Your Trip;
2. the date and time You cancel Your Trip.
All Other Coverages: Your coverage automatically ends on the earlier/est of:
1. the date You complete Your Trip;
2. the Scheduled Return Date;
3. cancellation of Your Trip covered by this certificate.
Your summary of purchase will state when the "Trip ends" (Tauck uses the term "Journey") but it is usually at the airport at the end of the tour, e.g. from our recent tour. Note, we booked a two night pre-stay, but our tour officially began ("Journey Begins") on the published tour date:
Pre Tour Arrival: May 17, 2022
Journey Begins: May 19, 2022 6:00 PM at Athens hotel. Flights should arrive by 4:00 PM.
Journey Ends: May 28, 2022 Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airpt. for flights after 11:45 AM.
I assume, in the case where you are departing from a train station, your Journey would end there.
The policy further states:
SECTION III EXTENSION OF COVERAGE
Automatic Extension of Coverage:
All coverages except Trip Cancellation will be extended if Your entire Trip is covered by this certificate and Your return
is delayed due to unavoidable circumstances beyond Your control. This extension of coverage will end on the earlier of
the date You reach Your originally scheduled Return Destination or 10 days after the originally Scheduled Return Date.
"Trip means a scheduled Trip of 90 days or less in length for which coverage is elected and the premium paid and all Travel Arrangements are arranged prior to the Scheduled Departure Date.*
It might be possible to call AON and have extra days added to cover your "trip" for an additional fee. It depends on what and why you want additional coverage, but you might consider another policy to cover your additional days.
Here is the link to the policy. You can find it on the brief coverage overview, the last page in the eGreen Book. The generic policy is followed by State Amendatory Endorsements. https://affinitytravelcert.com/document/pdfs/Tauck_IntlCruise_07_21_generic.pdf
All the discussions I have seen in the past have said that three days after the tour is the limit, I would be people adding on goodness knows how many days. And certainly if you are not staying in the Tauck hotel or going elsewhere. Tauck insurgents is after all,much cheaper than others I have seen. Things may have changed but I doubt it,.I think oth may get a more correct answer form the insurance people.
Alan, I thought the insurances ended on your return to your home for a regular tour, not at the airport, that doesn’t make sense.
An excerpt from an email from our travel agent. She had some communication with Tauck.
Their protection will cover independent air as long as your air travel is not over 14 days longer than the tour dates.
I need to get some clarification on what this all covers. The only thing we would be concerned with is emergency medical or accident etc.
What I was told was that if Tauck booked the return flight that that travel date constituted the return date. We have 2 extra days in the Tauck hotel in Madrid after the end of the cruise then 3 days on our own in Barcelona. Aon rep said we were covered. Tauck rep consulted with an in-house expert and said we were covered because the flights were booked thru Tauck.
I'll be very interested in what your TA finds out. So confusing.
I have heard the 14 day period in the past but have not researched it. I assume if Tauck books the return airfare, I will be covered. We are staying in Rome 3 extra days after our Sicily tour. Tauck handled air with stop in Rome.
So I booked two new nights prior to tour start date one is a gift of time the other I booked through Tauck for my Tanzania trip. I also booked my own airfare I have purchased the Tauck insurance am I covered medically for the days before the tour starts?
I'd say yes because you booked the extra days with Tauck.
Thank you Claudia.
I would think you are covered, especially if it now shows on your booking paperwork.
Yes our final documents says something like your stay begins July 16 and has our hotel reservations in Arusha. But the rest of the document has a heading that says Journey Begins July 18then the day to day itinerary.
I now have found out that we purchased very cheap travel insurance for our flights because we had not insured our Tauck trip at that time we booked the air, it is a carry over from 2021. Anyway after reading the Allianze insurance it only has up to 20,000.00 medical but it also covers Covid. It does not cover repatriation.
Even if you have gift of time or pre tour days, the paperwork still states the day the actual tour starts which always confuses and startles me.
British, me too. I just asked that question to Tauck because I wanted something in writing (anything) when arriving at a hotel days earlier. My travel agent s did to look on the financial page when you log on, and there it was. It should say on the final documents too.
Answering my own question.
I got some communication from our travel agent who contacted Tauck about this. We should be covered under the Tauck travel protection plan for covered reasons even if we booked hotel and air separately as long as it is within the 14 day limit.
I would advise anyone who has a similar questions to contact Tauck and/or the insurance company in case any of this info got lost in translation.
We were informed by our TA that we had 14 days. Hope this is still the case.
How is the 14 day limit defined? From the last day of the tour + 14 days?
The wording I got from the TA implies that it could be before of after the tour or a combination.
"Their protection will cover independent air as long as your air travel is not over 14 days longer than the tour dates".
I would advise checking with Tauck if in doubt.
You really should get something like this in writing and preferably from the insurer.
I was informed by my TA that the 14 days can be before or after the tour. However, she also mentioned that the 14 days includes the gift of time as one of the days. We are scheduled for Cruising the Seine, plus Paris and London in August, 2023. We are going to Ireland before this trip and I was assured by my TA that we were covered while in Ireland.
You mean an independence tour of Ireland? Are you absolute sure! Are you talking about the Tauck insurance, wow!
British - Yes, I am visiting family. I was very surprised as well when my TA said I was covered in Ireland.