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Tauck Air Dept - lessons learned

Claudia Sails

After attempting to contact Tauck Air Dept yesterday and giving up after being on hold 30 minutes then later 45 minutes, I got up before 6am my time today to be able to call them when the lines open. Thankfully only 10 minute wait. I learned some things on this call.

During my hold times yesterday I was never given the call back option (or in fact any idea where I was in the queue) and I mentioned that to the agent. Apparently the Air Dept phone system doesn't provide the Call Back option.
Those confusing repeated air itinerary emails we get and can't figure out what changed -- those are generated by the airlines and Tauck has no control nor ability to highlight the changes. They can be a variety of changes - times, flight numbers, aircraft, etc.
If you are traveling with a group that's been linked in their system you can make reservations for all BUT their passport information, full names, etc must be on file with Tauck.
Once you have your reservations and the confirmation number don't be tempted to go into the airlines website and change the seat assignments. It CAN change the fare that Tauck is charged causing problems. You're supposed to call Tauck air and make the changes.

A live and learn moment way!!!! to early in the day.

PS - 2023 airfare is still high - I don't care what the news keeps saying about airfares coming down.

Comments

BKMD

Sounds like good reasons NOT to book air thru Tauck. Just yesterday, I rebooked my flight home from Egypt with United for better flight times and a shorter connection. Less than 5 minutes on hold, one call.

Regarding prices, it depends. Flights to Cairo and back from the western US are under $3K for biz. Flights to Japan are $4K+.

Claudia Sails

The only flights I could find on Delta were more than Tauck's price except one that had a 56 minute layover in Atlanta.

Smiling Sam

Claudia - I assume you're looking for 2023 flights to Europe. When I recently poked around a bit, I came to the same conclusion as you did about 2023 airfares. You live in NM, I live in Tucson, whereas BKMD lives in Denver. Flight options from NM and Tucson are higher than from Denver.

PureLuxury

Once you have your reservations and the confirmation number don't be tempted to go into the airlines website and change the seat assignments. It CAN change the fare that Tauck is charged causing problems. You're supposed to call Tauck air and make the changes.

In the past I've never had an issue changing my seat assignment after Tauck has made my air reservations. I like specific seats on certain airplanes and since I normally book very early, those seats are usually available on either side of the plane. Tauck usually just ask window or aisle. As soon as I have the booking reservation number I log into the airlines website and select my preferred seats.

PS - 2023 airfare is still high - I don't care what the news keeps saying about airfares coming down.

I don't expect airfares to come down anytime soon due to supply & demand and fuel cost.

It's always best to compare prices. The advantage with Tauck is you can usually wait until 90 days out to pay for the airfare whereas you pay immediately when you book directly with the airline. In the past. I've had Tauck reserve the seat and continuously check the airline to compare prices. There was one occasion when Tauck's prices were higher and I cancelled my air reservation: The Baltics & Russia (thank goodness that trip is checked off my bucket list as I don't think any of us will be traveling there in the near or distant future). Tauck had good prices for the Jordan and Egypt trip; however, there were two caveats--I wanted to fly Qatar and Tauck didn't have contracts with that airline and I was told the JE trip was considered exotic and the airfare had to be paid upon booking. For the India trip, Tauck had the best Biz Class airfare all around (at least from New Orleans). II paid ~$3300 for United Polaris. Direct booking with the airline was double that price. It pays to do your homework

Claudia Sails

PureLuxury, I'm just repeating what the agent told me. I also have tweeked the seat assignments in the past including an upcoming trip. I did notice that when my itinerary was emailed this time it didn't include a confirmation number which I'd need to do it this time. Possibly that will come later. She did put in specific seat assignments which I checked and are fine with us.

PureLuxury

Good to know as policies are rapidly changing. Better to at least be aware of the situation than to be unpleasantly surprised by it

kfnknfzk

Being creatures of habit, we normally take the same flight(s) to and from Europe. As such, Tauck has our preferred seats on file. The very few times we were unable to secure those preferred seats, I already had the cabin seating chart pulled up on my laptop so I could choose my preferences. Tauck has always been obliging.

Sealord

The ‘air’ rules seem to change a lot. I suspect some of it depends on who you are talking to. I have had regular agents who have also done the air. In the past, I have paid for the air in advance in order to get ‘premium coach’ seats with airlines that don’t sell that product as a ‘category’ but as a seat upgrade. With a coach ticket it most often must be paid or you can’t select a seat. I see my business class to Madrid has ‘requested’ seats, but a disclaimer that says those seats may be changed by the airline.

Claudia Sails

I'm not sure that I buy that changing one business class seat for another is likely to change the fare but certainly switching between classes or even some of the economy seats can have differences. As said, I'm just passing on what the agent said i.e. don't try to make changes until the tickets are paid for.

The disclaimer on seat assignments seems to be standard. Tauck does do a pretty good job of keeping track of seating preferences even when they change. We learned the hard way that bulkhead seats don't all have extra leg room and now avoid them which she knew when she was putting in our seats today. I keep double checking our next batch of flights both for timing and seat assignments.

jeffr775

It can be hard keeping up with all the flight changes but I find the "Seatguru" site helpful for picking seats. You enter your airline/flight number, etc. and it provides a seat map along with the good/bad on seats.

Claudia Sails

I wouldn't totally rely on seatguru. The return flight I just booked has a completely different plane model. Not sure what his database is linked to for updates.

Sealord

Seat guru does not work well on my iPad. You can see the seat layout, but the other features don’t work.

British

Several years ago, friends of ours booked flights with Tauck and later went online and changed their seats from economy to business class and paid the difference. Of course they had not paid for the seats in the first place as Tauck only issues the tickets just before the vacation. When their tickets came, they were the economy class ones, even though they thought they had upgraded and paid. They were furious. I tired to explain why it had happened, they were still mad and they have never traveled with Tauck since. It was only their second tour, the first was with us, lesson leaned, we will never travel with anyone again with Tauck…in fact, they haven’t been anywhere since.

AlanS

I do my homework for flights, but cost is not my primary driver. Sure, you can pay twice as much if you are not careful, so I still keep my eye on price

But for our France trip next year, instead of prioritizing flight time and best aircraft/seats, I selected more expensive, non-stop, flights from our feeder airport on older aircraft with Business Class seats that are a bit long in the tooth. Why you ask? To reduce the chances of cancellation and lost luggage, both of which have become unwanted variables in my flight booking process.

Gourmet Gal

Other than delayed payment, what is the advantage to booking air with Tauck? In the past I’ve occasionally booked my air through Silversea when cruising with them because the pricing was less than half of booking direct. But lately the routings and airlines have been poor and I’ve booked on my own. With SS the only other advantage is you can cancel up to 90 days in advance without penalty. Communication has also been extremely difficult with SS air department. I think it’s an industry-wide problem.

Karenna

Just prior to the start of the pandemic, I had booked airfare independently with Air Canada for a Tauck tour. The tour cancelled and when I cancelled my air ticket, Air Canada issued a voucher with a 2(?) year life, no refund option available. Air Canada is not a commonly used carrier where I live, so the voucher was basically useless. Had I booked my airline ticket through Tauck, I would have been refunded for the airline ticket immediately.

Ultimately, due to a change in Canadian law, I did receive a refund from Air Canada long after I had resigned myself to the money being lost.

My takeaway - unexpected things happen in travel and when the potential cost of them going wrong is high, I should consider paying a little more upfront to smooth the fallout on the backend.

Smiling Sam

Does any know if Karenna could have used her Air Canada voucher on a United flight? United is a partner of Air Canada.

Book the flight, using the Air Canada voucher, through the Air Canada website, but book flights flown by United?

If that sort of thing is allowed then Karenna would have likely had many more options.

BKMD

My guess is no, unless there is a codeshare for that flight.

British

Our flight we booked ourselves before our tour was cancelled, we did get the money back but it took five months
For a trip we are taking in November, not with Tauck…when we took out insurance, we did not include it for air because that significantly increased the cost of the coverage. We decided if we had to get vouchers, baring a catastrophe when we might not be able to ever travel again. We could use those vouchers for a quick independent trip on that airline to eye decisions are such a balancing act.
BKMD, I guess because you don’t take out insurance, when Tauck cancels, they give you all your money back?

Ken from Vegas

My experience is that even when airlines have partners or code share, if you book on an airline's site, at least one leg will be flown by that airline.

Smiling Sam

I'm going to guess the opposite of BKMD and say I think Karenna could have done what I was questioning.

I went to the Air Canada website and put in some dates in October for a roundtrip ticket from Denver to Cairo. The Air Canada website provides lots of flight options that utilized various Partner airlines for different segments of the trip. As such, as long as you book the flights through Air Canada, even though most or all of the flight legs are actually operated by Partner airlines that you could use the Air Canada voucher.

Of course, Air Canada may have rules that prevent using a voucher as I suggested. If they do, they I'd at least have to inquire with Air Canada about it.

BKMD

British
BKMD, I guess because you don’t take out insurance, when Tauck cancels, they give you all your money back?

Yes. They refunded the $600 per person deposit. Hadn't paid the balance yet when trips were cancelled.

Smiling Sam

Ken from Vegas - That's my experience as well, but I believe this approach would have opened up a lot more options for Karenna to use her voucher (if she hadn't finally received the refund).

Karenna

I learn something new everyday hanging out on this forum!

PureLuxury

Does any know if Karenna could have used her Air Canada voucher on a United flight? United is a partner of Air Canada.

Smiling Sam That approach didn't work for me. I chose not to take a scheduled flight to Canada due to a storm churning in the Gulf of Mexico. Air Canada provided a credit for the fare that was valid for one year; however, I was not allowed to use that voucher on United for a future trip to Canada. This was 2018--policies probably have changed. I've never been a fan of Air Canada and I've vowed to never fly with them again--unless I'm stranded somewhere and its a last resort!

Smiling Sam

PureLuxury - The entire StarAlliance (United) partnership alliance is my third choice of the three alliances. The other two being the SkyTeam Alliance (Delta) and Oneworld (American).

The reason why StarAlliance is third choice for me is because United has service to/from Tucson that equates more to SW than the other two. When you book a business class ticket from Tucson on United the majority of the time your first leg (or last leg when coming home) is booked as an Economy leg. This is because of the type/configuration of plane that they fly into and out of Tucson don't have a first class section (like SW).

Both American and Delta fly better planes/configurations in/out of Tucson so when you book a business class ticket with them the domestic legs are first class. If you get an economy leg with American it's for a 45 minute puddle jump to/from Phoenix, whereas the economy leg on United is multiple hours to get you to Denver, SF, etc.

TEF

We had to leave our Alaska tour recently due to covid. Since we never made it on the cruise ship our Air Canada tickets from Vancouver to NY were cancelled. The only option was Air Canada vouchers that never expire and are transferable to others, which is a plus, but we have no reason to fly Air Canada, and United does not honor the vouchers.

BKMD

Everyone has their own horror stories and "I will never fly _____ Airline again." I flew Air Canada biz to Tel Aviv in 2019 via Toronto and had no problems. My next two trips have Air Canada legs (Cairo via Montreal, and Tokyo via Vancouver, though the across the pond leg is on ANA), so we shall see.

My "I'll never fly again" is British Air, but it's probably more like "it will be my last choice if there are other reasonable options."

MikeHenderson

I used to fly American quite a bit - I was platinum on AA - but after a couple of really bad issues with American, it's on my "only if there's no other choice" list.

Mike

Smiling Sam

TEF - no reason to fly Air Canada, and United does not honor the vouchers.

Doesn't Air Canada fly anywhere that you would normally fly on United? I understand that if you are on the United website trying to book that they won't recognize an Air Canada voucher, but if you can get on the Air Canada website and find any flight then you can use the voucher.

For example, I got on the Air Canada website and you can book flights from NY to Paris, Tokyo, etc.

My point being, that if you can book flights from NY on Air Canada that you would normally think about using other airlines like United, American, Delta, etc., then for the sake of using the voucher you might consider booking those flights on the Air Canada website.

So you could have a reason to fly Air Canada (to use your voucher) if you are going to fly anywhere internationally.