My parents are Insight regular travellers and recommend this company to many of their retiree friends etc. A few of them have even gone on tours together, so when a chance came up for them to go to Italy this spring break, they purchased a tour - The Italian Escapades.

Six weeks out we get a random call that the tour has been cancelled, despite having forked over our cash in NOVEMBER! It is outrageous. Now most other tour companies are booked b/c of the busy time frame.......yet Insight claims they are short numbers. I have a very difficult time understanding this as even getting a flight out of Italy during this time was very difficult due to the high travelling time.

I never dreamt that my parent's dream vacation that they have saved for and bought clothes for, purchased airfare for - NON-Refundable airfare for has been cancelled without so much as.....yes we are terribly sorry for ruining your holiday and having you waste $3000 in airfare!

I say this to all here b/c I really think everyone should understand that unless a tour has TG beside it, the tour is not guaranteed. I have done a lot of digging and have found that this is not an atypical thing to happen to Insight customers.....but if you don't read the fine print you can be hustled out of money. Yes you will get your 'tour' money back, but this is little consellation when you have paid out airfairs and linking hotels. It is absolutely unacceptable to be given such little notice.

In addition to it being terrible business practise, on Insight's behalf, I am not sure why they would wish to push away repeat customers, but now after so many of my parents friends know about this tour.........and they will ask how was the tour......the answer being that Insight cancelled it and I am screwed out of X amount of dollars is not exactly great advertising.

No Insight did not offer any compensation. Nor did they offer to switch the tours around or attempt in any way to resolve this situation.

For those of you considering booking a tour with this company, understand it is hit and miss and really consider if it is not TG - this is very similar to gambling at a casino. You win some you lose some, but personally I prefer better odds!

I'm really sorry to hear about the cancellation but am surprised that your Travel Agent hasn't been busy on your parents' behalf. I've had a couple of tours cancelled and my TA has been able to negotiate alternatives with Insight. I'm sure if you're a regular reader of this Bulletin Board you'll know that their situation is not unique which is why so many people book TG tours rather than those which are not guaranteed.

Yeah, it is a pain. I just feel badly for them. I think most people don't know what the TG is when first buying a tour - that is a problem. They only realised the problem as it occurred.

As for our TA - Spring break is so busy in Europe b/c even European schools are on end of term. Everyone is literally off at the same time, so now that they have had such little notice, booking another tour is not really viable. And due to working schedules - once you book off - you are off and that is your vacation. They only come up at limited times of the year.

On another business level, Insight had no problem taking full payment in November - it would be a great way to interim finance a company - you don't need loans. You can offer a service somewhere in the future, gather investors interest free and then choose to pull out........An interesting business strategy perhaps.

Did your parents buy travel insurance? This is the major reason I always purchase it. You never know what might happen.

My first travel agent gave me a great piece of advice.....the air fare included may cost you more but if your tour is cancelled you are not stuck with worthless air tickets. Saving money can end up costing money and also cause a lot of stress. Maybe a different TA as well. The good ones will put in that extra effort.

quote:

Originally posted by Sue Gillen:
Did your parents buy travel insurance? This is the major reason I always purchase it. You never know what might happen.

If Insight Vacations Travel Protection was purchased then your flights will be covered from specific events. Unfortunely, the tour operator cancelling or rescheduled one of its tour(s) is not one of them.

Insight Vacations Travel Protection Plan - Are my airline tickets covered?

Fortunately, there are travel insurance available from alternate sources, that will provide some level of coverage for the airfare in the event the tour operator cancels or reschedules a tour.

Did Insight Vacations provide any alterative tours for the dates your parents have booked for Italy? Insight Vacations has a very extensive list of tours for Italy and I wouldn't be surprised if they can leverage off of the tours offered by their sister company as well. If not, you should ask.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PatrickC,

I am surprised that an alternative tour has not been offered. After a tour was cancelled on us last year (by another operator) we gained some insight as to how things sometimes work. Eg: leading up to the departure date, the company takes 3 ‘paid in full’ tour bookings for a tour. It also takes say 19 deposits over the next months, leading up to the departure, making 22, it all looks as it will be a goa. It needs say 16 paid up bookings to make the tour ‘a go’. Around 7 weeks out from departure date it asks all those who have made deposits to pay in full for their tour. Only 10 of the 19 do so. They now have the situation of 6 weeks out and only 13 fully paid up customers, they are forced to cancel the tour.

Last year we had some very stressful days while trying to sort out our ‘cancelled tour’ situation, which involved 2 other tours, 12 flight changes and many hotel bookings.

It wasn’t easy, but doable. If we can do all this I’m sure that your parents TA and Insight can organise an alternative in this situation.

I suggest that they go back to their TA and sort out a better solution, as has been suggested. There are other tour operators out there who's tour may have similar dates available. All is not lost yet.

Good luck - let us know the outcome please.

quote:

Even if travel insurance was purchased from an alternate source, most will provide some level of coverage for the airfare in the event the tour operator has cancelled or rescheduled one of its tour(s).

Patrick, you may have 'other' insurers in US/Canada who provide this type of cover unfortunately there do not appear to be any here in NZ. I tried our TA, and also checked the fine print on many other travel insurers eg: visa, banks, they do not cover for tours canceled by the operators due to bankruptcy , lack of #'s cancellation etc. only from the travelers point, eg: sickness etc. In a moment of stress we did consider one of us breaking an arm/leg to allow our visa insurance to cover us but we couldn't agree on which of us would do it neither of us wanted to put up with the pain

Our insurers however won't cover self-induced injuries as they do in New Zealand .... .

I don't think ours would either under these circumstances ACC is another matter.

That would mean one of us would have to do it to the other. A slight push down the steps perhaps ?

All too painful to put to the test, so we will never know

That aside I do hope that nvanvalleygirl's parents manage to get something sorted out as its seems odd that they were not offered alternatives, as I believe this is normal procedure as in our case and others on these boards.