When we did this trip, we arrived in Geneva 2 days before the started to see the sites that were not on our Tauck itinerary. Then we took the train to other areas and to meet the tour.
As far as I can tell Tauck describes the Glacier Express as a "domed observation car" which is technically what the cars in Kathy0529's photo are. It does not describe them as "fully domed" or say that they are completely glass topped. It never describes them as what is often referred to on some US rail lines as "Vista Dome" cars. A quick Google search will clearly show the Glacier Express uses cars of various vintages with a variety of window configurations- everything from the cars similar to what Kathy0529 rode, only more rounded, the one Kathy rode, to cars with more traditional trains with solid flat roofs and side windows. So even if Tauck had been able to get tickets (there must be more to this story) I doubt there is any way Tauck or anyone else can tell ahead of time the consist of any train you could have had a Glacier Express with almost any type of car/dome. It is certainly not a "bait and switch, more of a disappointment or an un-researched and unrealistic expectation. Try riding AMTRAK sometime.
And, if you research it, the Tauck website parrots what the official Glacier Express and other webites say about the train's speed. "Far from being a high-speed train, however, the Glacier Express, due to the sometimes treacherous mountain terrain it has to negotiate, is one of the slowest "express" trains in the world." The two cheese "factories" we have visited, one in Switzerland during the Ultimate Alps tour, were technically in a basement as well!
My wife and I were on the same Switzerland tour in this discussion thread. We were also disappointed having missed the Glacier Express experience. To add insult in injury, today we received a form letter from Tauck CEO Dan Mahar thanking us for traveling on their Switzerland tour. Part of the letter read "I hope you enjoyed your train ride aboard The Glacier Express - it's a perfect way to experience the unforgettable scenery of the Alps, complete with breathing views ofr Switzerland!" I guess we will just have to imagine what it would have been like.
I don't know about Geneva but we did stay in Zurich for a couple of days post tour in order to travel to Schaffhausen and the Rhine falls. We visited the National Museum, walked along the river and ate at a Swiss restaurant. It's a nice enough city but I much prefer Lausanne and Lucerne.
Tauck letters are cut and paste. They are checking their boxes.
We got one thanking us for our feedback when we did not send one in. We wanted to give feedback on poor TD and intended to send one our own stamp. We sent it in with our dismay that the glowing letter was to a nonexistant review. Got a call back. That is all we expected. We hope they passed the feedback on but I doubt it. Our most recent letter was clearly non responsive.
I think I would prefer no response rather than a disingenuous one.
I recently got a request to fill out a new review of our ‘Treasures of the Aegean’ trip, because they had not received one from us. We did fill one out, in somewhat of a hurry, and I don’t know exactly where we put it, and we might not have put our name on it. But, Guest Relations was interested enough in our review, good or bad, as stated in the letter so they sent.us another one. I had also done a phone call review with Guest Relations, but that must be a different track. When I have what I consider significant issues, I do email, phone call, and snail mail. I have received significant indications that they read my stuff. But, I can tell you that using terms like “Bait and Switch” in a public forum is probably not going to improve your position, nor get you an improved response. It is possible that another ‘missed expectation’ will cause another very negative response, and that might make Tauck very quiet. We have missed two attempts at balloon flights in Africa. Disappointing yes, but ‘things’ happen.
Well said Sealord. Stuff happens out of our control including the control of the tour directors. I would certainly like to read a book about the life of tour directors and the clients they have on a tour! It would be a delightful read. I have even asked some of my friendly tour directors what were the most challenging things on a tour for them with their guests and it never ceases to amaze me.
Arthur Tauck Jr. at age I think 90, still demands to read a good portion of the feedback forms daily.
When people mention on these forums about the fewer numbers of people on tours that used to be consistently sold out, I know they must have lost a lot of customers as well as Tour Directors during the Pandemic. The tourism industries can’t cope with the changes, still. The start of this thread was about failure to get train tickets. Does anybody know the true story? Was it the train company or Tauck? Did the train company have the staff to run the special train or carriage. I’d love to know.
I have seen some reports on the internet about issues in securing the tickets. I can't vouch for the accuracy, although one such report was authored by Rick Steves' website -- a source I would trust. Regardless, with Tauck's caliber and reputation, they do not engage in "bait and switch" tactics. Merely my opinion and not meant to start another debate (should one wish to call it that.)
The Glacial Express train is very popular and the following site recommends buying the tickets at least 90 days early, which I seriously doubt Tauck wants to buy them so early, especially since final payment is due 60 days out, not 90+, unless that trip is an exception.
I do highly recommend riding the Glacial Express train, but it's best to ride it from Zermatt to St. Moritz or vice-versa in June when there is still snow on the ground in many areas. And yes I did see glaciers in 2013, but they may not be there now. While the scenery was beautiful, it was difficult to get decent pictures, because the windows did not open.
My sister who has traveled widely courtesy of the US Army and afterwards with her husband, both on their own and with Lindblad/Nat Geo went on this tour last summer. I spoke with her yesterday about what she experienced. They did not receive an itinerary change notice. She spent some time talking with the TD about the Glacier Express. GE tickets for the various tours are reserved earlier in the year as you might expect, but somehow there was a disconnect between Tauck and the Swiss rail folks. During this process, specifically, where, how, and who was at fault was not revealed. Tauck did not discover the problem until the tour season had begun and so had to really scramble arranging alternative transportation and activities. As summer went on, Tauck was able to get tickets on the Glacier Express for some, but not all tours, but it was hit or miss with little warning which might explain why, in most cases, they did not send out itinerary change notifications. As I guessed in my earlier post, regular Swiss SBB trains also use travel the Glacier Express route. My sister was stationed in Germany on and off for many years and spent quite a bit of time in the Bavarian Alps. She had never visiteda cheese factory and thought the visit to the factory was quite interesting.
We.have this impression the European train system is great because it is compared to what we have in the US but I've multiple times.had issues. On our very first river cruise about 50-60 of us and 2 TDs were at the station in Paris ready for our trip down to Lyon. One TD went off to get our tickets and came back only about 12. Apparently as the train company was printing them the computer system went down and some how when it was back up others booked the train over.filling it. We.ended up splitting the group with 12 going with one TD and the rest of us catching the next train with the other TD. And there were not enough seats.
The good old days of arriving at the train station and grabbing a ticket for the next train are alas a thing of the past. This year in Switzerland and France I had to scramble b/c I didn't think to buy weeks in advance and in Switzerland I learned prices are on a slippery sliding scale. In Paris I was forced to take a later train at the end of a Tauck tour when I belatedly realized my intended train was sold out. I miss the lovely art of spontaneous travel; it's not always easy to choose train times before you leave home.
Trainline.com is excellent for European travel. I recently used it in France. There are options in the pricing to be able to change the times on your ticket once purchased. I also believe some ticket pricing is refundable.
Comments
When we did this trip, we arrived in Geneva 2 days before the started to see the sites that were not on our Tauck itinerary. Then we took the train to other areas and to meet the tour.
As far as I can tell Tauck describes the Glacier Express as a "domed observation car" which is technically what the cars in Kathy0529's photo are. It does not describe them as "fully domed" or say that they are completely glass topped. It never describes them as what is often referred to on some US rail lines as "Vista Dome" cars. A quick Google search will clearly show the Glacier Express uses cars of various vintages with a variety of window configurations- everything from the cars similar to what Kathy0529 rode, only more rounded, the one Kathy rode, to cars with more traditional trains with solid flat roofs and side windows. So even if Tauck had been able to get tickets (there must be more to this story) I doubt there is any way Tauck or anyone else can tell ahead of time the consist of any train you could have had a Glacier Express with almost any type of car/dome. It is certainly not a "bait and switch, more of a disappointment or an un-researched and unrealistic expectation. Try riding AMTRAK sometime.
And, if you research it, the Tauck website parrots what the official Glacier Express and other webites say about the train's speed. "Far from being a high-speed train, however, the Glacier Express, due to the sometimes treacherous mountain terrain it has to negotiate, is one of the slowest "express" trains in the world." The two cheese "factories" we have visited, one in Switzerland during the Ultimate Alps tour, were technically in a basement as well!
If those cities were the start and end cities, then you can add days and see them yourself.
My wife and I were on the same Switzerland tour in this discussion thread. We were also disappointed having missed the Glacier Express experience. To add insult in injury, today we received a form letter from Tauck CEO Dan Mahar thanking us for traveling on their Switzerland tour. Part of the letter read "I hope you enjoyed your train ride aboard The Glacier Express - it's a perfect way to experience the unforgettable scenery of the Alps, complete with breathing views ofr Switzerland!" I guess we will just have to imagine what it would have been like.
Please write to Tauck and tell them your feelings!
I don't know about Geneva but we did stay in Zurich for a couple of days post tour in order to travel to Schaffhausen and the Rhine falls. We visited the National Museum, walked along the river and ate at a Swiss restaurant. It's a nice enough city but I much prefer Lausanne and Lucerne.
Tauck letters are cut and paste. They are checking their boxes.
We got one thanking us for our feedback when we did not send one in. We wanted to give feedback on poor TD and intended to send one our own stamp. We sent it in with our dismay that the glowing letter was to a nonexistant review. Got a call back. That is all we expected. We hope they passed the feedback on but I doubt it. Our most recent letter was clearly non responsive.
I think I would prefer no response rather than a disingenuous one.
I recently got a request to fill out a new review of our ‘Treasures of the Aegean’ trip, because they had not received one from us. We did fill one out, in somewhat of a hurry, and I don’t know exactly where we put it, and we might not have put our name on it. But, Guest Relations was interested enough in our review, good or bad, as stated in the letter so they sent.us another one. I had also done a phone call review with Guest Relations, but that must be a different track. When I have what I consider significant issues, I do email, phone call, and snail mail. I have received significant indications that they read my stuff. But, I can tell you that using terms like “Bait and Switch” in a public forum is probably not going to improve your position, nor get you an improved response. It is possible that another ‘missed expectation’ will cause another very negative response, and that might make Tauck very quiet. We have missed two attempts at balloon flights in Africa. Disappointing yes, but ‘things’ happen.
Well said Sealord. Stuff happens out of our control including the control of the tour directors. I would certainly like to read a book about the life of tour directors and the clients they have on a tour! It would be a delightful read. I have even asked some of my friendly tour directors what were the most challenging things on a tour for them with their guests and it never ceases to amaze me.
The TD’s have some amazing members. I know that one that we have had three times has a Phd. in Marine Biology.
Arthur Tauck Jr. at age I think 90, still demands to read a good portion of the feedback forms daily.
When people mention on these forums about the fewer numbers of people on tours that used to be consistently sold out, I know they must have lost a lot of customers as well as Tour Directors during the Pandemic. The tourism industries can’t cope with the changes, still. The start of this thread was about failure to get train tickets. Does anybody know the true story? Was it the train company or Tauck? Did the train company have the staff to run the special train or carriage. I’d love to know.
I have seen some reports on the internet about issues in securing the tickets. I can't vouch for the accuracy, although one such report was authored by Rick Steves' website -- a source I would trust. Regardless, with Tauck's caliber and reputation, they do not engage in "bait and switch" tactics. Merely my opinion and not meant to start another debate (should one wish to call it that.)
The Glacial Express train is very popular and the following site recommends buying the tickets at least 90 days early, which I seriously doubt Tauck wants to buy them so early, especially since final payment is due 60 days out, not 90+, unless that trip is an exception.
https://www.myswissalps.com/forum/topic/2023-seat-reservations-for-swiss-scenic-trains
I do highly recommend riding the Glacial Express train, but it's best to ride it from Zermatt to St. Moritz or vice-versa in June when there is still snow on the ground in many areas. And yes I did see glaciers in 2013, but they may not be there now. While the scenery was beautiful, it was difficult to get decent pictures, because the windows did not open.
Not to lay blame but more to the story.
My sister who has traveled widely courtesy of the US Army and afterwards with her husband, both on their own and with Lindblad/Nat Geo went on this tour last summer. I spoke with her yesterday about what she experienced. They did not receive an itinerary change notice. She spent some time talking with the TD about the Glacier Express. GE tickets for the various tours are reserved earlier in the year as you might expect, but somehow there was a disconnect between Tauck and the Swiss rail folks. During this process, specifically, where, how, and who was at fault was not revealed. Tauck did not discover the problem until the tour season had begun and so had to really scramble arranging alternative transportation and activities. As summer went on, Tauck was able to get tickets on the Glacier Express for some, but not all tours, but it was hit or miss with little warning which might explain why, in most cases, they did not send out itinerary change notifications. As I guessed in my earlier post, regular Swiss SBB trains also use travel the Glacier Express route. My sister was stationed in Germany on and off for many years and spent quite a bit of time in the Bavarian Alps. She had never visiteda cheese factory and thought the visit to the factory was quite interesting.
We.have this impression the European train system is great because it is compared to what we have in the US but I've multiple times.had issues. On our very first river cruise about 50-60 of us and 2 TDs were at the station in Paris ready for our trip down to Lyon. One TD went off to get our tickets and came back only about 12. Apparently as the train company was printing them the computer system went down and some how when it was back up others booked the train over.filling it. We.ended up splitting the group with 12 going with one TD and the rest of us catching the next train with the other TD. And there were not enough seats.
The good old days of arriving at the train station and grabbing a ticket for the next train are alas a thing of the past. This year in Switzerland and France I had to scramble b/c I didn't think to buy weeks in advance and in Switzerland I learned prices are on a slippery sliding scale. In Paris I was forced to take a later train at the end of a Tauck tour when I belatedly realized my intended train was sold out. I miss the lovely art of spontaneous travel; it's not always easy to choose train times before you leave home.
Trainline.com is excellent for European travel. I recently used it in France. There are options in the pricing to be able to change the times on your ticket once purchased. I also believe some ticket pricing is refundable.