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Flight reservations for Australia/NZ trip
Those of you who have been or are planning to go on this trip --did you make your flight reservations yourself or did you book your flight through Tauck? If you booked your own flight, did you have any problems with booking the Sydney to Wellington flight? I will be flying American to LAX and then Quantas to Melbourne. AA partners with Quantas so I am now trying to determine whether I will receive American frequent flier miles if Tauck books the flight as well as a cost comparison. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
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We had Tauck book our flights to/from the US for the England, Scotland, Wales, last year. It was easy, painless, the fare competitive, and we didn't have to pay until 60 days before departure so the airline or some booking agency didn't have my money on the float for months and months.
However, we only received partial frequent flier miles from Delta because it (Tauck's price) was a "special unpublished fare." After digging deeply into the Skymiles info, I was able to verify this was in accordance with Delta's Skymiles award program- certain group travel and special unpublished fares do not receive full frequent flyer miles. Similarly, if booking through some travel sites like Travelocity, etc. you may not be eligible for any frequent flyer miles.
If frequent flyer miles are important to you then you need to dig into the fine print to verify you will be eligible.
I have always done my own flights and had in issues.
I am only doing the Aussie trip but I booked my own flight.
I got a quote from Tauck and actually beat their rate.
If I am not mistaken Tauck locks in prices in Jan, therefore if prices go up their customers are safe.
If they go down I don't think they refund the difference. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I am scheduled to receive my FFM from Delta and Virgin (their partner).
I booked my flight when I went to HI in 2012 and saved money.
When Delta changed my return times I argued the change and they dropped my price.
I don't know what Tauck does in that scenario.
When booking yourself you do have to pay at that time.
Twice I have seen someone mention a special Tauck rate or sale.
Please explain that scenario.
I always do flights on my own and when I flew out of Grand Rapids at the end of the Yellowstone tour the people that book thru Tauck had 3 connecting flights to get to Boston and the 1st went to Salt Lake in the opposite direction. I had one connecting that headed east that day not west.
We did the Australia only part of the tour last year in August, we spent an extra 2 days in Sydney,visited a relative there and chilled out before our return home. New Zealand will have to wait! We booked Premium economy which was good and more within our budget.
Oh, the joys of the US airline hub system. It took me a few trips to the States to realise the airlines only have their own peculiar, aka pecuniary, sense of direction. Now I tell the travel agent exactly where I want to go and more importantly, the connection times I want built in. The ones the airlines build in have little relation to the reality of their "on time" statistics. You only get what you pay for and I suppose the hard fact is that if you miss their connection time, they will make more money out of you when you have to scramble to find a flight. Perhaps my peace of mind costs more, but I would much rather have that! Good karma is important at strange airports.
In Tauck's defence, I guess they contract for their flights & fares eons in advance and when the time comes, well, reality can strike. Of course, then it would be Tauck doing the scrambling, I guess. I must confess that this comment is all conjecture on my part since Tauck don't make the getting to the departure point air arrangements for foreigners.
Cheers,
Jan
We're on Day 2 of the tour now. I'm posting a daily blog at www.rabo.com/blog
Cheers,
Jan
The standard Tauck blurb on this site says:
You will probably only know if you are getting a "significant savings" if you checked fares on your own, first. Tauck quoted a higher business class fare for our flights to/from Munich this summer than I paid when I purchased the tickets directly from Delta. The Delta flights are non-stop to/from Atlanta, the layover for our short connecting flight home is quite lengthy, however. Tauck routing may have been different, with less layover, or it may not have been one of the "select flights," I didn't ask. I don't know if Tauck actually identifies which flights are "select" or the possible savings, but I do know the Tauck booked economy class fares for our flights to the UK last summer were classified by Delta as a "special, unpublished fares" so we received less FFM.
I guess each person needs to weigh all the factors and decide which are important, then decide where to buy tickets.
Cheers,
Jan
I booked my travel on the day 11 trip my self. I understand from Tauck the flight is Qantas 161, Sydney to Wellington. Very easy to do.
Bill