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An Australia Tour That Wasn't Meant to Be
By Christopher Elliott, Tribune Media Services
Q: My friend and I recently booked a tour of Australia, New Zealand
and Fiji through Grand Circle Travel. The trip never happened, and now
it looks as if it never will, even though I bought travel insurance.
Our flight from Boston to Los Angeles was delayed because of a mechanical problem. When it was fixed, we couldn't fly because our crew had timed out. The flight was eventually canceled.
The soonest our airline could get to Los Angeles was five days later. I called Grand Circle Travel, and a representative instructed me to call her back when I knew our new flight plans so they could connect us with the rest of the tour in Australia.
We found another flight from Washington, and took a bus from Boston to Washington. We made it as far as Maryland before the bus stalled outside of Baltimore -- another mechanical delay. We missed our flight.
At this point, we had no connection on
A: Your trip really wasn't meant to happen. Trust me on this. After two mechanical delays and a missed flight, can you imagine what would have awaited you in Australia? Think of that swim on the reef. Think great white sharks and box jellyfish.
Aren't you glad you stayed home?
Grand Circle should have respected your choice -- recognized that fate was preventing you from traveling -- and helped you secure a refund. Instead, it passed you off to your travel insurance company, which returned only a fraction of your tour. Never mind the expenses you incurred trying to get from Boston to Washington.
Grand Circle's terms and conditions -- available on its Website (http://www.gct.com/gcc/general/default.aspx?oid=54148 ) -- are clear about its liability in a situation like yours. It has none.
"Grand Circle is not responsible if an airline cancels or delays a flight for any reason, including weather," it says. "If you are unable to make your departure, it is your responsibility to work with the airline on which you are ticketed to reach your destination. Operator is not responsible for any additional expenses you may incur prior to joining your trip. Operator is not responsible for and will not provide any refund for portions of trips missed due to cancelled or delayed flights."
What's more, your travel insurance policy has exclusions that limit its liability, which explains why you only recovered a fraction of the cost of your tour.
An appeal to Grand Circle is your best option for a do-over. It sold you an insurance policy that covered a small part of your trip, but more importantly, the circumstances that led to your cancellation were truly extraordinary. The letter you drafted to your insurance company and sent to me was too lengthy. A tight, polite missive might have yielded a more desirable result.
I contacted Grand Circle on your behalf. A representative called you and suggested that if you had stayed in Boston, you might have been able to make your tour. Clearly, she wasn't familiar with your case. After some more back-and-forth, Grand Circle sent you a voucher for $3,400 that can be redeemed for a future tour.
========
Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.
This news arrived on: 02/02/2010
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Posted Comments:
02-02-2010 13:50
Jeri Miranda wrote:
Trip that wasn't Meant to Be
The folks who wrote about the cancelled Australian, New Zealand and Fiji trip bring to mind something that my husband and I completely avoid.
Today, vacation schedules being what they are people are squeezing so much into so little time that they forget to allot enough time to get there. We're retired so we no longer have that stress but we've been through it and for that reason it's not somewhere we choose to be.
We have been on several land and sea tours where people travel halfway around the world to get to an embarkation or departure point the day of or the day before a tour begins.
I can't tell you how many times we've seen people showing up in the wee hours of the night and the early morning as we're departing. Needless to say they are tired, cranky and their attitudes set the mood for their entire trip. Sometimes it brushes off onto those around them. Our last trip a couple showed up at 3 am because of flight problems. There was a day, during our 10 days tour, that went by that they weren't verbally fighting with each other.
It only takes one car failure, one cancelled bus or plane, or any other unforeseen circumstance to doom your trip. For that reason we go days in advance. Gives us time to get there, with delays and cancellations considered, time to get settled in, relax, unwind a touch and be fresh and ready to go. The extra days we spend doing some sightseeing on our own. Every tour has an itiniary so we just avoid the places the tour intends to go.
Arriving a few days early has served us very well. Those that are showing up the day of or the day before are just a cancellation waiting to happen.
Today, vacation schedules being what they are people are squeezing so much into so little time that they forget to allot enough time to get there. We're retired so we no longer have that stress but we've been through it and for that reason it's not somewhere we choose to be.
We have been on several land and sea tours where people travel halfway around the world to get to an embarkation or departure point the day of or the day before a tour begins.
I can't tell you how many times we've seen people showing up in the wee hours of the night and the early morning as we're departing. Needless to say they are tired, cranky and their attitudes set the mood for their entire trip. Sometimes it brushes off onto those around them. Our last trip a couple showed up at 3 am because of flight problems. There was a day, during our 10 days tour, that went by that they weren't verbally fighting with each other.
It only takes one car failure, one cancelled bus or plane, or any other unforeseen circumstance to doom your trip. For that reason we go days in advance. Gives us time to get there, with delays and cancellations considered, time to get settled in, relax, unwind a touch and be fresh and ready to go. The extra days we spend doing some sightseeing on our own. Every tour has an itiniary so we just avoid the places the tour intends to go.
Arriving a few days early has served us very well. Those that are showing up the day of or the day before are just a cancellation waiting to happen.
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