Group tour cancelled? Refunds?
 

Just wondering if anyone has had a group tour, especially if to Europe, cancelled? Europe is now closed to Americans. We have a tandem tour scheduled in France for next summer. Still a long ways off but wondering if anyone has had a trip cancelled and did you get a full refund?

As far as airlines are concerned, if they cancel you should get a full refund, although they will offer a voucher, which you are not obliged to accept. If you cancel, you will receive a voucher. We received a full refund from British Airways for a flight they cancelled in April this year. As for all-inclusive tours, I assume that will depend upon the booking conditions.

Are you anticipating that the tour itself will be canceled, or simply that you won't be able to go because you won't be able to get into the country?

We had a tandem tour to France for summer 2020 planned. The trip organizer formally cancelled it in April, I think, and then offered three options: (1) cash refund; (2) credit towards another already-scheduled tour or (3) hold $ for application to possible reschedule of same trip in 2021. To my mind, that's the stand-up way to handle it.

My concern is that we won't be able to get into the country.

US tourisim is persona non grata in Europe now..

As long as the US has areas with 4000-8000 cases per 100,000 vs 40 cases per 100,000 for the worst parts in the Netherlands it will be a while before US citizens can travel to Europe freely without a 14 day quarantine, if at all.
People from the US, Turkey, India, Russia and Brazil are not allowed to enter Europe right now because their situation is worse than in Europe.

The other way around; the US is considered a high-risk country at the moment, and only necessary travel is allowed. Many employers and insurance companies do not offer coverage if Europeans travel to the US for tourism for example and my employer has said that if we travel to a high-risk country and return with symptoms we cannot just take in sick days but have to use our vacation days.

That being said, provided the US world gets it under control summer 2021 should be sort of back to normal again.

If that's the case, it's possible you'd have to be the one to cancel. If most of the people signed up for the tour are eligible to travel to France, it's possible the tour itself may not be canceled?

We have had a major tandem tour operator reschedule a trip on us with no opportunity given for refunds or credit toward future trips. I know of 5 couples who have had this happen to them with the same operator. To say people are upset is putting it mildly. In our case our business is seasonal and the rescheduled dates are at a bad time for us. I would be hesitant to book future trips with this tour company as they have many repeat customers, including us, that will not be doing business with them in the future. I would think the lost business from repeat business would impact there long term financial viability.

BTW United Airlines gave us a credit.

^The hit to their cash reserves and operating line of credit from giving cash refunds to everybody would for sure impact their short-term viability. That has to be what tourism operators, from airlines down to Pat and Wendy’s B & B, are losing sleep over. Many are going to go bankrupt no matter what, as tourism “recalibrates”. Better perhaps to close down with a little money to get a new start, than to keep customers happy who aren’t going to be customers anyway, because there will be no business. The business knows its balance sheet. You don’t.

The company no doubt believes, as Canada’s airlines have explicitly said, that you can better afford the loss of your vacation funds than they can. These are unprecedented times. The financial reckoning is only starting.

Better to screw loyal customers in the short term and hope you can start something else with money you didn't earn from them?
Wow maybe Canadians have a different have a different take on life than I do.

Yes, canceled Canadian air passengers have been making the same whine since April, so you are in good company. Doesn’t matter what your take on life is, or mine. What matters is the take taken by the tour operator (of whatever nationality​​​​​) who has your money. Take it up with him (or your travel insurer.) Good luck. But do try to remember there are more people in the world than well-off Americans who can’t go to Europe this summer.

The tour operator may not actually have the cash to offer refunds to large numbers of customers who don’t want a rain-check date. The money you paid may have been substantially spent already on non-refundable bookings of services that some of these high-end operators provide and will be charged to the tour operator whether you show up to consume them or not. The tour operator did not close the borders of Europe to American visitors and will not want to dig into his personal assets outside the business to make you whole. When you hear, “Due to circumstances beyond my control. . . “, it usually means you aren’t getting your money back. Force majeure and all that.

We signed up for a May 2021 overseas tour a year ago with a similar or perhaps same tandem tour operator. They benefit from a loyal repeat clientele who book their high end tours to capacity quickly, years in advance. Their clearly written policy has always been that once you commit, you are responsible for payment in full. They recommend trip insurance if you can’t afford the possibility of paying yet not being able to go. You can’t back out due to postponement, change of itinerary, etc. With the Covid pandemic, it became clear to us that we would not be getting on a long flight next year. The operator is willing to try reselling our reservation for a fee, so we have requested that. If that doesn’t happen, I will attempt to get some compensation from insurance, but it’s unclear if I will be successful. In the end I will just walk away from the money if necessary. Education always has a price, be it tuition or in some other form. Fortunately I hadn’t purchased flights, as a credit that expires in a year would not be worth anything to us.

Sounds like we are in the same boat ( no pun intended). I don't have a problem with the operator canceling and rescheduling. I do take exception to them changing the time of year the trip was rescheduled for.
Also, there was an article in the Mercury News about a month before this all hit the fan indicating that Windstar was offering full refunds or 125% credits for future travel. Indicates to me that Windstar was being pretty reasonable, I think the tandem tour operator got short sighted. I have asked the operator to list my trip for resale but when I look at the website it indicates the trip is sold out and does not indicate my trip is available. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Just because somebody can afford to lose money does not mean you don't owe it to them. Like many people in the bay area, I literally work for some of the richest people in the world, not unusual to go out and call on more than 1 billionaire client in a day. They do expect me to deliver what I promised and they could well afford to pay for the services I deliver a thousand times over but they bought it once and they expect it to be delivered as promised.

We are just around the corner from you in Almaden we should try to meet up for a ride one day.