Options
Air fare refund and cancelled trip
Unfortunately we have to cancel our upcoming Italy trip. Purchased air with Tauck, and have been told we have to file the air portion with AON, which is the insurance we purchased. This sounds crazy to me as we paid Tauck directly for the air. Anyone out there experience this? Also, what happens to the money you spent for the insurance? In the past it went into a dream saver account to be used for a future trip and they are telling me they don't do that anymore -that you lose it.
0
Comments
If you buy auto insurance for a year and don’t have an accident do you get your premium back? Things are back to pre-Covid normal.
This was done pre-covid.
Precovid a friend had to cancel a trip 2 weeks prior to start. Tauck refunded the tour balance but she had to work thru Aon to get the airfare refund. It was quick but then Aon wasn't swamped with claims. At that time Tauck did give her a year to reapply the guest protection to another tour. She was never able to due to her spouses health issues.
I think when you canceled in the past, it seemed to be discretionary with who you spoke to at Tauck as to whether you could put the insurance towards another trip. Without insurance, you certainly would have probably lost all you money on canceling. No insurance is returnable if you don’t have an incident like a crash or house break in. What I have learned now that I have traveled with a couple of other companies,is that Tauck insurance is very reasonably priced compared to them with no restrictions or increased premiums for pre-existing conditions.
The only insurance that can not be transferred if you cancel is for a river cruise.
CaroP, good luck dealing with AON. If you have questions, you never get to speak directly with the agent handling your claim and processing time can last for months. The only way to maintain your deposit and protection plan is to TRANSFER all payments to another tour. Sorry to hear that you had to cancel your tour to Italy. I took the "Classic Italy" tour in 2014 and had a great time.
Just got our travel docs for our Jun land tour and it clearly states that if we cancel the airfare refund has to come from Aon.
It does make sense, but I’m sure this is a newer rule. Maybe Tauck get more answers more cancelations than they ised to, their cancelation policies are still very generous compared to other companies. We have met People on tours in the past who deliberately booked multiple tours never intending to take all of them.
I now understand the air has to go through AON. Unfortunately Tauck is no longer putting your insurance money into a Dream Saver fund to use towards a future trip, as they were doing even prior to Covid. Use it or lose it.
I think you need to read their cancellation policies. It depends on ‘when’ you cancel. If you cancel on short notice, that is why you have insurance. In a normal world you don’t get to ‘use’ the insurance and then get it back.
In 2019 the week before I was going to Switzerland, I had to cancel my trip due to a family medical emergency. I booked the air on my own and went thru AON, no problem. The insurance was placed in a dreamsaver account which I was able to apply when I rebooked Switzerland for 2020. Unfortunately, Covid hit, and that tour was cancelled so that insurance was then placed into the dreamsaver, too.
I had 2 different scenarios - one I had to cancel, the other Tauck had to cancel due to Covid. Each time, the insurance was placed into a dreamsaver account.
CaroP - I believe once you paid the air in full, any cancellation after that you would go thru AON. Before final payment, Tauck would just cancel the air reservation and no refund needed since that portion wasn't yet paid for.
I think it's good you mentioned about Tauck no longer offering the dreamsaver so others won't be surprised if unfortunately, they had to cancel their trip.
Sorry you had to cancel.
I think you might also discover there is a difference between ‘cancelling’ and rebooking to a different date or trip. In any case, I don’t think they ever ‘refund’ the insurance. That is simply not how it works. If you cancel or change within sixty days of departure, you should expect to lose your insurance payment and be happy if they offer an alternative.
That's a great point Sealord, but I didn't rebook when I cancelled the first trip, and know the difference between cancelling and rebooking. I had no clue that I would be rebooking a few months later, so my cancellation was separate from my rebooking. While I didn't expect the insurance to be refunded, as I know how insurance works, it was a very nice surprise that it could be put into a dreamsaver account to be used for a future trip. I also believe there was an expiration date on the dreamsaver, but due to Covid, Tauck was very generous to roll that over which I thought was great of them. :-)