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River Cruises

karen1672

We are booked for A River Cruise in September. Normally this is the time I would be booking flights but with everything so up in the air with travel I hate to waste the time and money as we will most likely get cancelled. Anyone have a crystal Ball or insight into what the current plans are with Tauck River Cruises?

Comments

Claudia Sails

Sorry, Karen, crystal balls are in short supply around here. Opinions however are prolific and worth about what you pay for them.

We booked our flights for Aug/Sep with Tauck air dept just so we didn't have to worry about cancellation. I sweated getting our money back from Delta last year. Not worth whatever I might save by doing it myself.

British

We haven’t booked any flights for future tours except the tour we have booked for July which Tauck booked for us. It’s a relief to not have to worry about canceling a flight we booked ourselves. Last year it took us five months to get money back for an expensive business class flight to the other side of the planet. In my head I’m not assuming any of our tours will go this year and have already booked two US beach vacations instead.
I recommend visits to France in June or July, it doesn’t go dark until 11am at that time of year, wonderful!

Noreen

We have four trips booked with Tauck this year and one with Silversea to Alaska. Our first trip is Northern Spain and the Rioja Valley on May 19 and then following this trip we were scheduled for a river cruise on the Douro River from June 3 to June 14. Our Silversea cruise is for July. I feel all of these right now will be cancelled. I am hoping and praying that the Rhine and Moselle is still on. The dates are from September 1 to 15 and then a land tour of Switzerland: Europe’s Crown Jewel from September 16 to 26. According to our travel agent Tauck has not cancelled the May trip. Last year we had the same trips cancelled but American Airlines were very gracious to refund our business tickets, however, they were the ones that cancelled first. Should we book our air through Tauck for the May trip? Any thoughts?

Claudia Sails

Noreen, it's no risk to have Tauck book the flights especially the trips where the final payment is months away. That's one of the advantages of using their air dept. They aren't always the cheapest price and are limited to which airlines they have contracts with, but you do have some peace of mind in the current situation. You can always do some research on your own and call to see what they can offer without committing yourself. Hard part this year is (I suspect) more fluctuations in airline schedules than a normal year.

Virginia_Travelers

Noreen - we book all our air thru Tauck. We have Romantic Germany (July 2021), Puglia, Italy (September 2021) and Egypt (March 2022) upcoming trips.

We have Business air booked thru Tauck for BOTH Germany and Puglia. We even have seat assignments. We do not pay for air until final payment is due and Tauck has decided to continue the trip. Should Tauck cancel our TA takes care of it all. We chose never to deal with airlines for these trips. When trips were cancelled last year we got our money back within a week and didn't have to spend hours and days on the phone. Tauck has very competitive contracts for air (cost and schedule). Why do it any other way?

Smiling Sam

Virginia_Travelers
Tauck has very competitive contracts for air (cost and schedule). Why do it any other way?

Money is the reason. Tauck may be competitive, but if you're willing to spend the time and effort, and risk having to deal with the airlines when things are cancelled you can save lots of money. On some tours I've saved close to $1000 / ticket over the price Tauck quoted (for Business class tickets).

British

Tauck air is sometimes cheaper but not always. Be sure you can’t find a more direct route and ask them to book it. They let us down years ago by having us go Philly Detroit Arusha when we could have done Philly Arusha . since then we have done our own researching to be sure they give us the best route. Also, I think there are now some destinations where Tauck make you pay up front for air, maybe it’s South America, I can’t remember.
Noreen, I would define book your air for May through Tauck and do it now, if by some slim chance the tour goes ahead, you are leaving it a bit late.

British

Kfnknfzk. I obviously don’t know whether this is Important to you, but it can be quite rainy in Portugal in November.