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Insurance Refund
We were booked on this trip with a departure date of October sixth and a payment due date of August 7th. On July 26th we purchased travel insurance and on August 2nd the trip was cancelled, though I see that one person was aware of the cancellation on August 1st. We believe that when we purchased the insurance TAUCK already was aware that cancellations were already planned or highly likely. Under these circumstances we requested a refund of our insurance premiums. TAUCK has resisted our request. We’d appreciate any suggestions and thoughts Many thanks
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You can’t get the insurance back, only deposits, it is made clear everywhere. Tauck will however put it towards a future tour. Many companies do not do this, you just lose the insurance premium.
I’m not clear, had you only just purchased the Tauck insurance? I thought it had to be purchased at time of booking.
British - I think the insurance has to be purchased at time of booking (or w/in 7-10 days - not sure the exact timeframe) for pre-existing conditions to be covered if you have to cancel. You can purchase insurance any time before your trip, but then the pre-existing conditions will not be covered if you need to cancel. I may be wrong though, so I'm sure someone will correct my info.
That used to be my understanding as well, but here is what it now says at https://www.tauck.com/guest-travel/travel-protection
Please Note – Plans can be purchased up until final payment for your trip and the cost is refundable for 10 days after the purchase of the plan. After the 10-day grace period, the cost of the plan is nonrefundable regardless of the reason for cancellation. To be eligible for the Pre-Existing Medical Condition Exclusion Waiver, plans must be purchased within 10 days of the date your initial payments or deposits for your trip is received and you are medically able and not disabled from travel at the time your plan is purchased. Note to New York residents: You are not required to purchase the Travel Insurance benefits in order to purchase the non-insurance Cancellation Waiver provided by Tauck. If you would like to purchase the Cancellation Waiver only, please contact Tauck directly. Prices vary per tour; see specific tour pages in our brochures or on tauck.com for pricing."
My reading of this is that it all depends on when Jay1342 actually asked for the insurance refund- it is not automatic. Since Jay says the plan was purchased on 26 July, it looks like the request for a refund needed to have been made by 4 Aug. I don't think Tauck is used to providing the insurance refund since most folks appear to leave it in the Dream Saver account where it can be used for all categories of future Tauck expenses. Under these circumstances, if I wanted a refund of the premium in lieu of it being placed in a Dream Saver, I would call Tack back and ask them to verify.
Good detection Alan!
I recently read on line of someone who tried to take Tauck to court about the refusal to return insurance. The judge decided in Tauck’s favor. If I recall correctly, the customer had had the insurance in place for eight months, I can’t recall who canceled, but the argument was that as the person had had protection for eight months before the cancelation, it had been used and could not be refunded. Just like if you have car insurance and never make a claim.
https://casetext.com/case/beermann-v-tauck-inc
Link to case upholding Tauck's procedure on insurance credit on cancelled trip.
Thanks! That certainly answers a lot of questions, especially this paragraph,
"It is well accepted that an insurance policy holder is not entitled to the refund of his insurance premium payments just because he did not end up making a claim on the insurance policy. Likewise, a business that issues a protection plan accompanying the sale of its goods or services does not commit an unfair business act because it declines to issue a refund of the fee for a protection plan for any customer who does not end up making a claim for benefits under the plan."
I found the discussion of purchasing fire + flood insurance and the lack of requirement to refund flood insurance if the house burns down, an interesting and enlightening analogy.
Tauck's Dream Saver is an above and beyond, voluntary, goodwill gesture, just one small step away from a refund, that they are under no obligation to provide.
As a final comment, just because we don't understand all the legalese in insurance policies, doesn't mean they are wrong, deceptive, etc. How many of us truly know what all the fine print means or its effects in our homeowners and automobile insurance policies?
Very interesting Alan. Wish we'd had this verbiage for the people who came on the forum to complain they weren't getting all their money back.
We seem to be increasingly in a world of "the law is what I think it is". Sorry, doesn't work that way.
We also bought the Tauck insurance a few days before we made final payment for our India/Nepal tour in October. I was not aware that Tauck would put the insurance premium in a Dreamsaver account if we had to cancel for some reason...this is great to know! We generally self insure our trips, but this time we felt it prudent to let the Tauck insurance handle whatever might happen. However, we did wait until the very end to purchase it....mainly because I was unaware it wouldn't be lost entirely.
I’m pretty sure it depends on who cancels, when, and for what reason. I don’t think you can ‘always’ cancel for ‘any’ reason and expect to keep your insurance money. That’s what insurance is about. Cancel ‘for any reason’ insurance with most companies costs something like half the cost of the trip.
That’s not the case with Tauck which is why it is such a good deal
For those who are scheduled to take this tour, please note that the country of Japan now REQUIRES that you have travel insurance. The following is an excerpt from the Tauck website:
"All travelers need to show proof of travel insurance with sufficient compensation to cover medical costs related to Covid-19. Please note that Tauck's Guest Protection Plan covers Covid-related medical costs. However, many other insurance policies do not. If you have your own independent insurance, please ensure that Covid-related medical costs will be covered during your travels."
Japan still requires you to go to a relevant embassy for where you live, in person, to gain a visa. We live in Philly, ours is in New York. Until this changes, I guarantee the tours will not be reinstated.
British - This is the second time in a week your passing along wrong info about Japan.
Lookie here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Japan.html#:~:text=You must have a valid,day "visa free" entry.
Click on: Entry, Exit and Visa Requirements, then read this:
You must have a valid passport and an onward/return ticket for tourist/business ** "visa free" stays of up to 90 days**. Your passport must be valid for the entire time you are staying in Japan.
This is from the Japanese embassy and is exactly asTaiixk states on the travel requirements page.
https://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/j/download/PACKAGETOUR.pdf
We were looking at this today since my husband may have to visit for work
I sure wish they'd cancel our tour already--we are holding off on making other plans.
Without the parent page for that PDF, impossible to know if it's current, however going to the home page of that document (up to the .jp) then translating it, the most current document there is from April 2022. So your info is probably out of date.
Then the Japanese airline websites are out of date too
I traveled to Japan a number of times on business and never needed a visa. If Americans need one now, that's a significant change.
Mike
It appears that international visitors, including from the US are now required to get a visa even for shirt-term tourism. https://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/travel_and_visa.html
However, staring August 18 2022 there will be a website where you can obtain the visa online.
The visa requirements came about because we are in a Pandemic.
Can you tell ,e where you read that there will be an online visa?
It hardly matters, business class tickets appear to be $20000 at the moment
It was at the url I put in my previous message
Wow, that’s changed since I looked
kayak.com shows $11-12K East Coast to Tokyo this fall, United Business.
Yes, we have seen even more expensive, $16,000 and $20,000 for an October flight
Yes British, I saw your $20K, which sounded unreal, which is why I decided to check. Terrible that airfare can be higher than tour cost. Glad I've been to Japan several times; may be a while b/f I return.
For Japan, from DEN, the price for non-stop is more than double what it is for 1 stop. OTOH, I found a great deal (only 70K miles for biz) for non-stop NRT back to DEN for the trip home. Going there, I'm stopping in YVR to keep the price reasonable.
BKMD, I’m not good at figuring out airport codes, what is YVR?
I noticed when looking for Japanese consulates that there is one in Denver.
I am still hoping our September 2023 tour happens, been waiting years for it now.
YVR - Vancouver, Canada
YVR = Vancouver. Interestingly, all Canadian airport codes start with Y. And the band Rush, from Toronto, has a song titled YYZ (the Toronto airport code).
I wasn't aware there was a Japanese consulate here. Not that I'm expecting to need a visa...
I looked up its location and have probably walked by it, without noticing, a bunch of times. My trip is Apr 2023. I expect it to be a go (4th attempt).
Google is your friend- YVR = Vancouver, YYZ = Toronto, ABC = Albacete, Spain, DEF = Dezful, Iran
