We had to cancel our Rhine Xmas Market trip
We had been planning a Rhine Xmas Market trip for three years with my friend whose husband died a couple of years ago and her 2 college-aged kids. We have been to Europe many times and to the Xmas Markets many times on our own & on River Cruises. They have never been. My mom had to have emergency surgery and can't be left alone. We had 2 weeks planned, Munich & Dachau Concentration Camp - the Rhine Xmas Market Cruise - Amsterdam for the Anne Frank House. Our friends are still going, but just for the cruise - the other places and train was too much for them to navigate on their own. We get our Trip Insurance thru USAA (they use Travel Insured at a better rate for USAA members), as it is 1/3 the cost of Tauck with better coverage - we just got reimbursed for the entire trip, including our time in Munich, train tickets, Amsterdam, and Anne Frank. Took less than 2 weeks to get our money back. For those who can use USAA, we highly recommend.
Comments
WOW!! That's Amazing and I'm so happy for you regarding your reimbursement. Sending healing thoughts to your mom.
So sorry to hear that, TerriLynn
Best wishes for your mom. Maybe you can go next year and your friends will want to go again or perhaps another destination. Fingers crossed. Wishing you well.
Thankfully you were available to your mom! The river cruise will always be there.
TerriLynn, I am so sorry about your mom and your trip. Sending positive thoughts and hope your mom is doing well soon so you can make things work for Christmas 2024. I was looking forward to your pictures and reviews but will hold on until you are able to go.
This was a one and done trip for them, so we are glad they are going on their own without us. They will never have the money to go again. It was a lot for her to pay for 3 to go on only her income/she's a Nurse.
We have a Swiss Alps River Cruise in April with my cousin with Tauck and Tuscany & Umbria with some friends with Tauck in October.
We have rebooked the Danube Xmas Markets for 2025 (our favorite over the Rhine) and we have 10 people going with us so far.
Best wishes to you Terrilynn!
Best wishes for your mom TerryLynn !
Just a note about USAA trip insurance. It is not underwritten by USAA - they send you to a partner, Travel Insured International (I think tha's the name).
Travel Insured does a good job - I had one claim with them and they handled it well. I assume USAA will help you if you have a problem with Travel Insured.
I've been a USAA member for over 50 years (it's a mutual insurance company).
Terrilynn, were your friends able to get their money back for the portion of the trip that they had to change? What a shame after I know you were all looking forward to this trip for so long.
We’ve been looking at different insurance companies for independent trips and other tour companies lately. What is included and the prices vary so much. So far, we have not had to test them with a claim. Our only big clam before this was with Tripmate for our interrupted 2020 Covid tour. They denied it along with everyone else in the group. We called the travel company and they intervened and we all got our money because we emailed everyone in the group to tell them. They had all accepted the denial! After that, the tour company changed their insurance partner.
From our research, we have found that the insurance Tauck uses is good and very reasonable. The most important part of the insurance for us is the health and medical evacuation coverage, repatriation of remains, all the morbid stuff.
Has anyone ever purchased Global Rescue insurance? We are considering it for our next trip to Africa.
Thanks British - yes, it's been a hard blow, but MOM is more important - Europe will be there when she recovers. We've had this planned with them for 3 years - right ofter my friend's husband died. We still can't believe we aren't going. Yes, we all filed for some type of claim - they did get reimbursed for train tickets and Anne Frank House tickets and changing air/flight plans. I do know that Tauck has good insurance, but it is $900 per person - we paid under $300 for better coverage incl Medical Evacuation, etc. We have also used Allianz in the past thru AAA and had to file a claim due to flight issues and they handled things very well. Tauck also wasn't able to cover us during our Pre time in Munich or our Post time in Amsterdam that we had planned. I was reading on the Rick Steves Forums, and many people there recommend GeoBlue by BCBS - that coverage seems good also - someone listed what the policy was just yesterday.
Is Global Rescue a company, or a type of insurance?
We use Emergency Assist Plus which I assume is similar. As long as you are more than 100 miles from home, it covers medical evacuation with a nurse/doctor escort to a US facility or your home if you require it. Anyone traveling with you too. Includes sorting out flights for you etc. This is not travel insurance as such, it is for medical evacuation. They now do regular travel insurance too which we have booked for a tour with another company recently.
Terrilynn - I am so sorry to hear about your Mom and cancelling your trip. We have been members of USAA for forty nine years but haven't used their travel insurance. We always use Tauck as we find it very reasonable, however, I will check into it for future trips. We also have Medjet which covers us if we are more than 150 miles away from home. If you are a member of AARP you will receive a discount.
@terrilynn
So sorry you had to cancel your trip, and I hope your mom is recovering well.
We were on the beautiful ms Savor last week for the Christmas Markets Along the Danube cruise, Dec 6-13.
You provided very helpful information and tips in your posts on this forum. I followed many of your suggestions for hotels, restaurants, tours and general tips for the Christmas markets.
We were in Europe for a total of one month. We did 2 different river cruises - one with Tauck and one with another line. Both cruises were wonderful, and both were only slightly affected by the high water levels.
I really enjoyed seeing all of the little towns all dressed up for Christmas. I can now check off the Christmas markets on my travel bucket-list.
THANK YOU for taking your time to post useful information related to the Christmas markets!
Merry Christmas!