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e-Green Book Problem

AlanS

(or is it Green e-book?)

This week we received an email from Tauck with a link to our e-Green Book for our upcoming J&E tour. The e-Green Book has a few minor issues, mainly with the itinerary, but I am working with Tauck on those. But I'm having a small technical issue with my iPad and am asking if anyone else has observed this.

When I click on the Open Document link in the Tauck email, the e-Green Book (which is a PDF document) is retrieved and displayed just fine when I'm using my PC. However, if I forward the email to my iPad and click the link, I get a "404 File not Found" error on the Tauck website. It may be some sort security issue, I can't tell. My iPad works fine opening other PDF documents.

I can view the PDF on my iPad if I download, save, and attach it to a new email and send it from my PC to my iPad. The disadvantages of that are it takes up file space on my iPad and is now a static document on my iPad and no longer a document that resides on Tauck's website that can be easily updated by them.

Has anyone else observed this?

Comments

leedvid

Yes, I received documents for my Egypt trip and could open the file. There was a revision to the original document, so Tauck sent another email wi the new document. I could open both. Since last night it’s telling me that it’s expired or not found. Must be something with Tauck.

British

For a long time, we could not open up any documents on our iPads, only on the computer. Recently we bought a new iPad and now documents open fine.

terrilynn

hmmm? will they open on an iPhone? We don't travel with iPads. While I am all for less paper, better environment - I LOVED the spiral bound books we used to get.

AlanS

If you save the e-Green Book document after opening it on any device, then send it as an attachment to your iPhone or another device it should open fine, like any PDF document. But again it will be a static document since it now resides on your device instead of on Tauck's system and will not be updated if Tauck makes a change.

I don't know if the document will open if the original email from Tauck is first opened by an iPhone. But, I just tried to forward the parent email from my PC (using my Thunderbird Mail app) to my wife's iPhone. The email went fine but we could not open the e-Green Book by clicking the "Get Document" button. I really think it must be a security issue.

Has anyone been able to open their e-Green Book on an IOS device? In the past devices running IOS 13 had trouble opening PDF documents, but I don't think this is related.

Cathy_B

I'm going on my first Tauck Tour this June. What is an e-Green Book? Thanks in advance.

AlanS

Cathy_B
5:06PM
I'm going on my first Tauck Tour this June. What is an e-Green Book? Thanks in advance.

For many years Tauck sent out a small spiral-bound book that had a green cover ("the green book"). It contained information about your upcoming tour- reservation info, lodging info, itinerary, several copies of contact info, addresses and phone numbers of the hotels to send to family or friends, suggested clothing, brief insurance info, etc. etc. etc. They stopped making the printed version during COVID and now send it out via a link in an email about 60 days prior to departure.

Wayside

Don't depend on the link for updates. When our J&E e-green book was updated we received an e-mail with a new link. The original link downloads the original document. To get the updated document you need the new link.

AlanS

Tauck IT is working on it.

AlanS

Tauck IT has fixed the problem, but I believe they will need to send you a new parent e-mail ( "Important Pre-Departure Tour Documents.")

I received the new email on my PC first, then forwarded it to my iPad Air 2 and my wife's iPhone12. When we clicked on "Get Document" at the bottom of the email the e-Green Book opened just fine.

tomh

Thank you, AlanS and Terrilynn for your comments re this e-green book. I have been on 42 tours with Tauck in the past, but had to stop after my last one at the end of 2018 due to medical issues, when Tauck was still using the small spiral green book. I am scheduled to go on Tauck's Christmas Markets on the Danube riverboat cruise again in December 2022 (I did the same tour in Dec. 2017). I see that there has a been a number of changes going on in the past 4 years. I own neither a iPad or iPhone (yeah, I know, I am a Luddite. LOL. :-) ). Like Terrilynn I too wish that Tauck was still using those spiral green books, which made things a lot easier. Sigh. Hopefully things will get better for both Tauck and its clients once this damn pandemic virus is over.

AlanS

tomh
10:44AM
" . . . . . I own neither a iPad or iPhone (yeah, I know, I am a Luddite. LOL. :-) ). Like Terrilynn I too wish that Tauck was still using those spiral green books, which made things a lot easier. . . . '

Tom, I addressed the iPhone and iPad because the problem seemed to affect Apple IOS devices. It may have affected devices using Android or other software as well, I just don't know, but in any case, the problem has been rectified.

I don't own a cell phone either (my wife does), but I take and use my iPad on tour to review and cull photos and upload some to Facebook. Like with the previous Tauck App, I won't likely use the e-Green Book much on tour. I find it useful before a tour, however, e.g. it is easier to send copies of the itinerary, hotel phone numbers, etc. to family and friends electronically than tearing them out of the old Green Book and mailing them (I never did that, I always typed my own copy and emailed it). The itinerary is only of limited use on tour- most, if not all, TDs hand out paper "Go Sheets" daily.

The itineraries for both XMAS Mkts on the Rhine and Danube have undergone significant revisions in recent years- our first attempt was in 2015 and we haven't made it yet!! Maybe this year we will be lucky.

BKMD

OTOH, some of us just don't like with Apple's philosophy of being so proprietary with accessories, connectors, etc. Have never owned an Apple product and probably never will.

British

Tauck now strongly recommends that everyone has smart phones in their general info. I don’t usually keep mine on while I am on a tour, maybe once a day when we have wifi. My iPad is my main tool for communication while on tour.
I do see that in the near future, the TDs will rely more and more to get hold of us for schedule changes by phone.
We don’t need an international phone plan like Tauck recommend we get either. Ours would be $10 a day. When we had to call Tauck on our recent trip, we were just charged the local fee, which was about 15 cents a minute. Our long call to Tauck didn’t actually cost us as much as we had thought it was, so it was under $10. If we find ourselves in a situation where we would need to make lots of calls, we can just switch on the international plan for where we are.
Years ago, before there was a green book, we just sent our family the Tauck itinerary which was on the web page by email with the addition of the dates that we would be at the hotels.
Alan, when you have to show your QR Codes, I guess your wife has them for the both of you on her phone?

Smiling Sam

AlanS - I don't own a cell phone either ...
BKMD - some of us just don't like with Apple's philosophy ...

Didn't I see you two on a Progressive advertisement recently?

BKMD

Just to be clear, I do have a smartphone (a Samsung). No insurance commercial for me Sam, but didn't I see you fall out of a tree on the news the other night because it was too cold?

Claudia Sails

Dave Barry on twitter "Woke up this morning to find that my neighbor had already shoveled the iguanas off my driveway. That’s the neighborly way we roll here in Miami."

PF606590

I save all our green books as part of a reminder of what we did on the tour

tomh

AlanS, thank you for your reply. I hope that you can eventually get on one of Tauck's Christmas Markets tours. I did the Danube one in 2017 and the Rhine one in 2018, both of which I made reservations long in advance by my travel agent as I want to be sure that I could get one of the suites on each tour. For the upcoming one this year in Dec. 2022, I made my reservation very early in 2021 as I knew that all of those Tauck Christmas Markets riverboat cruises would sell out even earlier due to this Covid pandemic virus. Hopefully, this year the Germans and Austrians will have their act together by then and allow all of those Christmas Markets over there to open up and without any restrictions. Time will tell. :-)

AlanS

I booked all our XMAS Mkts cruises as early as possible too, as soon as dates were published, sometimes as early as two years before departure. We even double-booked 2021 before 2020 was officially cancelled to ensure we had spots. We would have done the same with 2021 and 2022, but 2021 was cancelled almost a year out due to Scylla's strange transfer last year of Tauck-branded boats to Viva Cruises, a Scylla subsidiary. It worked out since most markets were closed last year due to COVID, but they didn't know that would be the case when they transferred the boats and Tauck cancelled the cruises. Even though I talked with Dan Mahar about it, I never learned what really happened.

tomh

AlanS, I do not know either, but I am guessing that Scylla had all those crews and had other non-Tauck passengers over there that were willing to travel to other locations then. Hopefully, whatever the reason last year, it will not happen again in 2022.