Dragonlady,

Our experience is that the tour provider will permit you to switch to any other tour they are running provided there are available seats on that tour and provided they have airline seats available if you have booked air through them. If you have booked your own air you need to look after that portion on your own.

If the tour you get on is cheaper, then there is no doubt a refund is given, as Neil W. indidated.

However, you need to negotiate if your alternate tour is a more expensive one. The tour provider offers nothing up front in terms of compensation, we were once asked to pay nearly 1K additional costs when we had to make changes in 2006. Our TA didn't even tell us about that until after she got the tour provider to back down entirely on extra cost. She was livid that they even sent her the invoice for the extra amount.

I will say this...we've always been able to work something out. In 2001 when our 9 day tour to Northern Ireland was cancelled (it was not TG and it was very early in the season and it was not an Insight tour) TT allowed us to join a tour group that was on a two week tour of the entire country. We left the tour at Galway, just past the one week point and our fare was prorated. Heck... the TD even had the bus take the 3 of us (my Mom and neice) into Oranmore so that we could catch the intercity bus to Mullingar to join with family there, as per our original travel plans.

LeslieLou,
Thanks for that information. In Australia we have a slightly different situation with Insight tours and airfares, in that I think they are not linked. I'm now busy with plans B and C (and possibly more) to cover all eventualities. Our problem is that our 2 tours are part of a much larger RTW trip so any alternate ones would have to fit into a narrow slice of time. IF either or both were cancelled I'd be VERY annoyed, as both are TG and were selected on that basis. For that reason, I'd be looking at more expensive replacement tours for other places I'd like to visit - that would go somewhat towards appeasing me. Mind you, it's sort of like putting the cart before the horse, but better to be prepared for the worst.

Dragonlady,

I agree that backup planning is putting the cart before the horse, but we always feel more comfortable doing it and I highly recommend it.

We prefer to travel in non-peak periods, and for that reason we've received many of the dreaded calls from our TA. As a matter of fact, we've only ever had one trip complete as per our original plans, it was with G******. That is why you will not find our name on the "Who's Going Where" list yet. We don't want to tempt the Gods, we will put our name up when we get the confirmation that our trip is a go. This September we have booked Country Roads of Italy and we are hoping for a second trip to be achieved without a hitch.

We've even had a Caribbean Cruise cancelled on us by a major cruise line...go figure. That was a weird computer glitch and it all got put right within 24 hours but still....as I said, we have the black cloud thing that goes on when it comes to us and travel planning so we now like to play it safe.

Leslielou,
I, too, haven't put our trips up, but it's because we have to wait to get our travel insurance. This is because my husband has a pre-existing condition, and we can only apply for insurance 6 months before the END of our trip. Since that trip is for 3 months it doesn't leave a lot of time. So we have booked with Insight and have taken their insurance, so if we need to cancel, can do so without penalty. Since we're doing 2 tours, their insurance is quite economical as it covers one or many. Anyway, we more than covered the cost by the various discounts we were entitled to.

I have put up the names of friends who are travelling (at a different time to us) as they didn't know how to do it.

Anyway, I'm still working on plans B (one trip cancelled), C (other trip cancelled) and D (both trips cancelled). And I'm looking at more expensive tours, such as Scandinavia and Russia, where we've never been, as I really want to do the tours we've chosen this time, so would try to do them at a later date.

Dragonlady,

We always get the travel insurance too. Because we booked our own flights this time, our TA got us insurance that includes flight cancellation for non-medical reasons. Our out of country medical insurance would cover cancellation for medical reasons.

Gosh...my husband and I must sound awfully cautious and boring....not willing to take anything for chance! When we were in our twenties I shudder to think about the risks we took when travelling! Luckily nothing bad ever happened. Well....at least nothing so bad that we weren't able to manage our way out of it!!

Any NZ'ers out there who have been able to locate an insurance company who insures airfares due to cancellation?

I haven't, nor has my TA, but maybe there's one out there that we haven't found.

SKI,

The insurance we get is provided through RBC Insurance, it's a Canadian Financial institution. Technically, the type of policy is called "Cancellation and Interuption" insurance, there are 42 different types of risks insured under the policy. It would even cover us for losses if we missed a connection caused by a scheduled change made by an airline. It isn't cheap insurance to buy, but we always purchase it for a major trip.

Thanks Leslielou

I will check it out but my guess is that the answer will be the same as when I checked out a US based insurance. Unless you are a citizen of that country, the policy does not apply. It took quite a bit of checking through the 'fine print' last time to find this information, fortunately we did not pay out the premium without double/triple checking the fine print as it could easily been overlooked in the way the wording was done

Our normal travel insurance covers us for interruptions etc but not for tour operator cancellations/bankruptcy etc.

Thanks

The only cancellation insurance I've found is for travel in Australia and NZ only. Hence the need for us to take out the Insight Gold Seal insurance, in the event we can't get cover for my husband's pre-existing condition. There is no way we would go without it, especially as part of our trip is in America.

Yes there is the Gold Seal insurance but if you purchase through say Affordable it is not available. It is a catch 22 situation. By purchasing through Affordable we saved over $NZ3,000 on our last trip, which is a very big saving. But you take the risk !!!

Ideally we would like to purchase through Affordable or ? but take out a Gold Seal type insurance.

It is easy enough to get travel insurance but so far impossible to get coverage for cancellation etc other than with Gold Seal.

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