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An Australia tour that wasn’t meant to be

February 6, 2010

Question: 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 Qantas from Los Angeles and had lost the majority of the Australia portion of the trip. One of the most important things we were looking forward to was swimming in the Great Barrier Reef and taking underwater photographs. We decided to cancel. My insurance company only refunded me $750 of $5,400 I spent. Is there anything you can do to help? — Rebecca Canter, Portland, Maine

Answer: 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 Web site — 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.

(Photo of Melbourne by Linh_rOm/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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17 comments

  • BucksterSF

    I wonder what that “insurance” was actually supposed to cover? Are there any successful insurance stories out there?

  • Lisa Stevak

    Seems to me that better travel insurance should have been purchased. A lesson to us all to look for travel insurance on one’s own and not take what the travel agency sells.

  • BG

    If you actually DO eventually manage to catch a plane to Australia, please remember that Australia welcomes you: but, as the old song goes – “never smile at a crocodile.”

  • EricR

    Whenever I book through a travel agency, I always read their contract before signing, specifically the liability and indemnity sections. If there’s language in it like Grand Circle Travel’s, I require the agency to amend by either (i) giving me a written, signed letter stating that I will receive a full reimbursement for any expenses not refunded by their travel insurance in the case my vacation gets canceled due to no fault of my own, or (ii) crossing out that provision in their contract and initialing the changes.

    You’d be amazed at how many agencies will suddenly “discover” a more comprehensive travel insurance to sell you (usually at almost the same price) when a customer has the $6,000 contract in front of him and has just told the agent that the contract won’t be signed without a guarantee of full protection.

    I know it’s arduous to read these things, but if you don’t and you get screwed, it’s your own fault. (If you truly can’t handle reading fine print, then just ask for the signed letter. Even if it turns out there’s no detrimental language in the contract, it sure couldn’t hurt to have that letter anyway! If nothing else, such a request will usually cause your agent to at least offer you better travel insurance – and then you get to read the fine print for THAT too!)

  • Simon

    You should have called out the “insrance company” – it CLEARLY was a scam and the fact that Great Circle recommeneded it and/or acted as an agent for the bogus insurance company, they shouldn’t have been let off the hook – Tell us the name of the crooked insurance company that sold you a worthless policy

  • Jill R.

    As always, it’s buyer beware with trip insurance. Even the “good” policies have loopholes that wouldn’t occur to you to think of while purchasing. My experience is similar to Rebecca’s: About 1.5 years ago I was headed for an organized trek in Nepal and my initial (15 hour) flight turned around 2.5 hours into the flight because they had forgotten to refill the water reservoir on the plane. By the time the flight returned, the crew timed out, the flight was canceled until the next day, and I missed my subsequent connection to Nepal. No other flights into Nepal were available until 3 days later, and by then my trek would have left. It was headed to a remote area, and I despaired of being able to catch up with it. So I canceled the trip (more went wrong, but this is the abbreviated version). I was counting on my trip insurance, which I had bought separately from a reputable company (TravelEx), covering the missed trip. However, I also only got $750 which is their “trip delay” payment. I didn’t qualify for the trip cancellation payment because the flight cancellation was due to a mechanical difficulty or mistake of the common carrier. They only cover flight cancellations (and trip cancellations caused by them) due to inclement weather. Research into other policies at the time indicated to me that this little coverage loophole was pretty common. The travel company refused to refund anything as per their terms and conditions even though it would have been my 7th trip with them. I eventually got most of my airline ticket reimbursed, but lost the $3500 trip cost. Now for a trip with a fixed departure I buy the “cancel for any reason” upgrade for the insurance and tack on extra days at the beginning of my trip to make sure I arrive in time. I hate paying for more insurance to cover what it should arguably be covering anyway, but there it is.

  • Don

    Would like to learn where we can find reputable travel insurance info, not mumbo jumbo legalese.

  • Elisa

    Your comments on the sharks and jellyfish really weren’t fair, Christopher. Be reasonable here, do you realise that when someone in your position of exposure makes a throwaway comment like this, you cost Australia many thousands of dollars in tourism (not to mention perpetuating the stupid stereotypes that naïve people take as gospel)? Remember that MANY Americans still think that kangaroos jump down the main streets of every major city and that Drop Bears are a real menace to the unsuspecting traveller. To put it into perspective, we should tell all tourists to avoid visiting LA or New York, because you know, America has bears that attack you & deadly black widow spiders.

    I would have thought a seasoned traveller who seems to love travel in general would be more interested in encouraging people to see new places.

  • David Z

    To put it into perspective, we should tell all tourists to avoid visiting LA or New York, because you know, America has bears that attack you & deadly black widow spiders.

    Or crocodiles in Florida. Crikey!

  • Ted – Phoenix Justice

    We need to have clear national standards for travel insurance. Currently each state has its own regulations and it allows the travel insurance industry to game the system. Yes, as consumers we should always read the fine print, but it might also be nice to have that fine print standardized.

  • Monica

    @Elisa… He’s responding to their luck, not Australia. I doubt anyone reading this would take it as a knock to Australia proper. I knew immediately he was making a joke.

  • Justin

    ….. Math Lesson

    750 + 3400= 4150

    5400
    - 4150
    ________
    $1250 <—– Thats ONE HELL of a "generosity fee"…..

    Must be nice to screw people out of their money these days. Guess always read the fine print.

  • SirWired

    Jill,

    FYI, TravelGuard covers Common Carrier mechanical problems if the problem results in the loss of at least half your trip length. So, if you can catch up, you’ll need to use your coverage (Trip Interruption for transport expenses, Travel Delay for hotel, meals, etc.) to do so.

    And yes, with just about any trip, adding at least one (or more) days to the beginning is a great idea. After all, it isn’t just the money you lose if you can’t make the trip. Even if insurance covers every dime you still lose out on your vacation experience if you miss departure.

  • Elisa

    @Monica I knew he was making a joke too (hence throwaway comment) but it doesn’t mean everyone does. Ignorance breeds fear. Watch your head for those drop bears ;)

  • Linda Snow

    I’m interested in this part of her story: “The soonest our airline could get to Los Angeles was five days later.” I’d be really interested to know what airline it is that only has connection from Boston to LA once every 5 days!

  • Kevin M

    Linda: it may not be that the airline only has connections that infrequently; some smaller carriers, however, may only run one or two flights a day on that route, and it could be they were all booked solid or overbooked by that point (especially if their entire planeload of passengers had been dumped onto the next several flights leaving Boston). The OP was traveling with a friend, so they’d have needed at least two seats.

    Of course, they *might* have been able to fly standby in case there was a no-show on a flight, but then they run the risk that they won’t be able to get a connection out from Los Angeles on the trans-Pacific part of the flight.

    The only thing I’d have done differently, originally, in their case? I’d have taken the train from Boston to Washington, as it’s faster than any bus, and less prone to breakdown. From Union Station in Washington, they could have gotten a shuttle to the Dulles airport (I assume Dulles as it’s a transcon flight) or taken the metro and airport shuttle bus. But that’s water under the bridge now.

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