nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Tauck Trip "Added Value"

CaraBethP

My Pavlus TA got back to me with the amount of our "Added value" (rebate) that we will receive after our last payment and before our trip. To qualify for this type of rebate, Pavlus has to make your reservation with both Tauck and your airline. I do pick my own flights and tell them what I want, but you don't have to do that. I just know what I want. The rebate for our July South Africa trip is $2,325 total for the 2 of us. I feel like this covered my (more expensive) choice of a direct flight on a good airlines.

Comments

Sealord

Huh??

MikeHenderson

I looked into Pavlus at one time but decided to stick with my travel agent. Pavlus does give rebates. Tauck gives them a commission and they share it with the customer.

terrilynn

This is talked about a lot on the 2 Tauck facebook pages. I've always wondered why Tauck chose Pavlus to do this 'commission' thing with? Why Pavlus? Why not other TAs? Why do they do this at all? I have so many questions about this . . . but those who use Pavlus always have good things to say. I'm always curious & yet leery of it when it is brought up.

MikeHenderson

I think most cruise and tour companies will not allow a travel agent to share the commission with the customer so the TA calls it something else. For example, Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you a lot of points instead of money. I don't know exactly how Pavlus gets around the sharing restriction but they do.

Note that Pavlus does this for all the tours/cruises they book - not just Tauck (at least, that's my understanding).

Folsomdoc

I doubt this is Tauck initiated. It sounds like this TA is splitting their commission with the client if they book both the tour and air with them (although my TA says booking air is no longer lucrative for them). Other TA’s give back some commission by providing extra hotel nights, flowers and champagne, that sort of thing.

bucketlist

When we first traveled with Tauck (2006-8) we went through Pavlus and got a rebate. But then Tauck prohibited that so we book directly with Tauck. Is this something new? I wonder if Tauck knows about it.

CaraBethP

@Folsomdoc and @all It is unadvertised. It is given by all their agents for Tauck trips/flights. I only know this for sure, because my TA was gone for a while and I had a different TA. The new agent did the same. As far as whether or not Tauck "allows" this rebate, I only know that all emails and communications are worded as an add-on bonus for booking your AIR with a Tauck trip. I have booked both Windstar and AMA using Pavlus. I have received room upgrades, ship credit, maybe a gift card, but never a check in the mail for this sort of thing. Pavlus is advertised as the largest seller of Tauck trips. IDK if that is an exaggeration. I've been using this company since 2019. I had 3 trips scheduled during that nightmare and they took care of every single detail of making sure I had refunds, including my flights. At some point I received more money than owed. I tried to give it back and they wouldn't take it.

CaraBethP

Also- if any of you all are interested in trying Pavlus, if you use my name or I refer you, I can get a fee if you decide to book. https://pavlus.com/referrals

Sealord

It sounds to me like they are getting around the Tauck booking restriction by an ‘on paperp discount on the cost of the air. Full price Tauck but ‘discounted’ air, which would explain why you have to book both through Pavlus to get the discount. I once booked a Tauck trip through Atlas, which offered a discount payable after the tour took place. I had to crawl on my hands and knees through burning charcoal to finally get the rebate. I only book with TAs that I know personally, or I book directly without using a TA. I like being able to deal directly with the source.

sevenseas

It is correct that Pavlus, where permitted by vendors, rebates. On a Regent sailing, I got back $3,500. And they did not handle my air - I did that with points. In the case of Tauck tours, to get a rebate from Pavlus, since Tauck does not permit direct rebates on their tours, they do require that you book air with Pavlus. For sure there is little or no commission to Pavlus on air, but handling air as well provides them a loophole apparently, with that providing a justification for a rebate, even though the air did not generate substantial revenue to Pavlus. But it does provide an avenue to rebate back, even if the revenue flow to Pavlus really was on the Tauck end.

British

Tauck do give huge discounts to customers in their Tauck Circle 25 club. The latest was $4000 off per cabin on one of their river cruise..We couldn’t go because it was on a date we were already taking a tour. We have managed to take one of their offers like this , it saves us about $18000 if I recall correctly.

Sealord

Not sure if we will live long enough for Circle 25. We have booked three trips that will bring us up to 21. We also travel a lot with windstar. They give us a raft if benefits due to our frequent traveler status. Many of you here know of our fondness for Windstar, and we encounter many Tauck travelers when aboard windstar ships.

MotherOfPoodles

I personally find that Circle 25 policy very annoying. Taking a 21 day trip to Australia and New Zealand or a 2 week small group safari are in no way equivalent to taking a trip to Charleston. Likewise, booking a 12 day European trip with family, where you are paying for not one, but 3 rooms, is not equivalent to a trip to Nashville for one person even with a single supplement.

bucketlist

Its about loyalty not the amount of money you spend.

MotherOfPoodles

😂That is pretty funny - I think they go hand in hand. There is also no way of measuring how many friends travel with you and start taking Tauck trips because you recommended Tauck.

Goddess

Right on, bucketlist!

MikeHenderson

Its about loyalty not the amount of money you spend.

For the travel company, it's all about the amount of money you spend. Almost all "reward" programs associated with travel these days are focused on the amount of money you spend. For example, most airline reward programs give you more points for higher category seating. On a couple of programs that I looked at, you get half points for their cheapest seats and double points for business.

Several cruise lines give double nights to solo travelers because of the single supplement. And, while it's not nights, you may get certain perks if you take a high end cabin on a cruise ship. (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the people in the highest level cabin get double nights).

While they certainly want you to come back (loyalty), the amount you spend is very important to them.

Like MotherOfPoodles, I think Tauck should base their program on tour/cruise nights as cruise ships do, rather than number of tours - some of which could be very short, especially now that Tauck is pushing week long tours.

OurTravels34

All very good points and another lively discussion. What is even more puzzling is that a friend told me that after one day on a trip, they had a family emergency and had to fly back home after one day on the trip and using Tauck insurance and it still counts on their Tauck account as an accrued trip.

MotherOfPoodles

I agree with Mike. I follow his and Judy’s travels and love the blog. We do big trips like that too, and “ thank you for your loyalty !” rings a bit hollow. Funny- here we are in Egypt and Jordan on a Tauck tour, and they sent me emails with the billing summary payments and due dates for 2 trips for 2027 ( Singapore and Bali , and Holiday Magic Danube river cruise ( 3 rooms on that one). I said to my husband “ They need to work on the timing of their statements. 😂” BTW- this is 18. I think I am pretty loyal. 🤷🏻‍♀️ They should have a loyalty program before you hit 20 tours.

BKMD

OurTravels - If insurance reimbursed them, Tauck was still paid for the trip.

OurTravels34

BKMD: You are correct, but it just seems odd. What if the insurance didn’t reimburse? Would it still count as one trip on a Tauck profile. I’ve never heard of Tauck subtracting a trip on anyone’s profile.

MikeHenderson

I had a trip scheduled on Regent when COVID hit and Regent cancelled the cruise. They gave me credit for the 20 nights I would have accumulated for the trip.

British

Tauck has confused the number of tours we have taken with them for years, they go up and down.
I’m convinced all the changes these past couple of years including the loyalty factor have been instigated by the new management which is no longer family
…the gifts that arrive while you are on one of their tours that sit on your doorstep for two weeks advertising that you are not home has happened twice to us. That really upset me. One time we received two broken coffee cups, I called to tell them suggesting they pack them more carefully for others and they said they would send more, I said please do not send them, I’m going on your tour tomorrow, but they sent them anyway, they were cheap white stamped Tauck mugs, I never used them.
Interesting about money spent, length of tours etc. we have now booked three Bridges tours each for nine people as well as all our other tours.
Maybe they should stop it all, even the Gift of Time was new since I started traveling with Tauck.
I want quality tours packed with lots of site seeing, more included meals, less free time, longer tours, I’m ignored. So now I travel with other companies too that I never had to before who fulfill my needs these days.

Kathy M

Sealord,

We are scheduled for our 20th tour this year. The Tauck representative I spoke with told me that Tauck 25 kicks in at 20 tours. I think the 25 refers to 2025 when Tauck celebrated its 100th anniversary. If I was given the correct information, you may get there more quickly than you thought.

BKMD

Well said, British. We've been agreeing a lot lately. What's wrong?

Sealord

Thanks for the info Kathy M: We are perfectly happy with our Tauck travels, but we are not exclusive. In the past year we have traveled with Regent, Windstar, and Tauck. We are going on Windstar’s new boat next week, then two trips with Tauck and a third scheduled. We will probably do another Windstar before the third Tauck. We are happy with Tauck perhaps more than some others, because we enjoy free time, we do not eat three meals per day, and we do not want to ‘tour eight or more hours per day. When we have tour choices we often choose a tour based on the shortest amount of time on a bus. Sometimes we just skip a tour day, and enjoy the boat. Yes … we are boat people not bus people.