Tragedy strikes twice for Passion Play widow

The Oberramergau Passion Play is a once-in-a-lifetime experience — an event held every decade — and this was to have been Bente Krarup’s year to experience it. But then tragedy struck twice, and now she is may have paid for a trip she can’t take.

Her unfortunate story underscores the need for reliable travel insurance and sound advice from a qualified agent, particularly for travelers who may have health risks.

Here’s what happened to Krarup:

In August 2009 my husband and I made a downpayment of $500 to a AAA travel agent here in Stuart, Fla., for a trip to Oberammergau arranged by Trafalgar Tours. The proposed trip started in Vienna, Austria and ended in Munich, Germany.

Being Danish we wanted to travel by train to Denmark after the tour, so the agent told us, she would work on the train trip and no insurance was due, as the plans were not finalized. In December she called and said more money was needed and was authorized to collect $2,000 towards the trip.

On Jan. 2, my husband was diagnosed with an aortic aneurism and was told that if the repair was done, he would have to be on dialysis for the rest of his life. I called the agent and cancelled our trip.

Unfortunately my husband passed away on Feb. 19.

I have called the company AAA repeatedly and they have told me my $2,500 is lost, even though I would like to do the trip alone. The most they can offer is to do away with the single supplement, I would still have to pay full fare again. I find that unacceptable. Can you help?

When I read her account, I was relatively certain that there had been a misunderstanding.

The terms of her tour are clearly spelled out on Trafalgar’s site:

For cancellations made prior to 105 days prior to the tour the cancellation penalty is the non refundable deposit amount of $250 per person. Cancellations received within 105 days prior to the commencement of the tour will forfeit the total $1,250 per person deposit. Additional cancellation fees for the tour, air or other products purchased may apply.

Krarup should have been well within that window, if my math is correct.

Typically, when someone dies before they can take a trip, the travel company (including the airline) will offer a full refund. What’s more, you can — and should — consider taking out an insurance policy at the time of your booking.

So her agent’s advice that she didn’t need a policy must have been garbled. The agent must have said that she should consider insurance.

I can’t believe Krarup’s agent would tell her that her entire trip was lost. I asked AAA if it could look into the matter. A few days later, I heard back from Krarup.

I cannot thank you enough for referring me to Janet Stevens in AAA Tampa. She has been a most caring and efficient person I could have dealt with in these difficult times for me. She has promised me a full refund. But the credit goes to you for the referral. I am so grateful and wish you all the best.

What’s the takeaway? Work with a good agent, definitely. Also, don’t wait for your agent to suggest travel insurance — do some research yourself. And don’t take the first “no” as your final answer.

(Photo: Axel-D/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • barbie45

    My sympathy goes to the OP in this case. I also want to express my total disdain for AAA travel services. This is the second AAA complaint that you have had to resolve recently.I wonder how many more complaints have there have been. The thought that the OP had to contact Chris for something so basic is beyond me. Insurance is a must usually for people involved in foreign trips. I wonder if she had AARP she knew she was entitled to a an additional five percent discount. I wonder if she also knows that AARP has additional benefits from Tralfalgar in regards to sole travelers.Considering how incompetent this agent was I wonder if she really even suggested travel insurance.By the way . By the way I am not suggesting membership. I was and have ceased my membership in AARP because of their poltical advocacy in certain legislation.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    Chris, your advice is very good about working with a good agent, buying travel insurance and doing some research yourself.

    Finding a good agent takes time and trials. In regards to AAA, I am sure that they have some good travel agents located throughout the US. Based upon my experiences with AAA, it seems like they are good for certain type of domestic travel like Disney packages than international travel. In the past, there were discussions at your other site, Consumer Travel, whether or not if the travel agents at AAA can stacked up or be compared to travel agents from other travel agenices (both corporate and independent).

    In regards to travel insurance, I think that every one should purchase travel insurance if they can’t afford to lose their deposits, the cancellation fees, etc. as well as the benefits like trip delays, lost baggage, etc. The key is not to purchase travel insurance from the tour operator, cruise line, etc. because it is very common for those policies are written to benefit the travel provider not the traveller.

  • PauletteB

    I went to AAA first to book my most recent trip to Australia. I had the Qantas brochure with me and wanted to book one of their packages, but the AAA travel rep kept trying to push one of their own packages, which was nearly $2,000 more expensive. When I pointed out the price discrepancy, the TA took my brochure and told me he would check things out and get back to me within a day or two. Well, he never got back to me and I ended up going to another TA. She also was terrible (a whole other story!), but at least she booked the Qantas package for me.

    I belong to AAA and frequently use them to map domestic road trips, but I won’t book a package through them anytime soon.

    Re Barbie45′s comment about leaving AARP, I finally JOINED the organization for the very same reason she quit. As with most of her posts, I find that we cancel each other out.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ barbie45 – “I also want to express my total disdain for AAA travel services.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –
    We have used AAA two times. The first time, I will give a grade of ‘C’ to the travel agent. The tour that we took was outstanding but the agent didn’t made any suggestions for the nine days that we were on our own. It is my guess that she could have earn another $ 500 in commissions if she booked hotel rooms, the plays, the day tours, etc. that we ended up booking ourselves.

    The second time (five years ago), I will give a grade of ‘F-” to the travel agent that we dealt with.

    It seems like they are good in selling packages to Disneyland and Disney World but most of their agents are lacking (when compared to other travel agents) outside of these destinations.

  • Marcia

    Go and have a wonderful time..
    Buy or rent a blanket…….the wind has been known to blow through the auditorium.
    I was there in 1990 and fell in love with the music. At lunch, I went into a bathroom, only to return to the spot where my family had been…but were no longer. I took that time to walk around town……everyone totally disappeared and I had the streets and shops to myself.
    I walked into a small store that had cold Coke’s and blankets for rent or sale. A lovely woman, from Nicaragua, had noticed my being alone and invited me to join her family for a picnic. What a lovely memory that picnic on the banks of the Ammer has been for all these years.
    Traveling alone can be such fun. You will meet other women, who are alone, and will often invite you to join them on other trips, or in my case, to visit them in their homes.
    I was invited to paint with a group of women artists in Guadalupita, New Mexico. A woman in Munich invited my late husband and me to a museum and then to her home for tea. In a guest house in Switzerland, the owner knocked on my door and offered me her set of hot rollers.
    Be flexible. Never put your luggage in storage. Have a good time.

  • Steve

    “In regards to travel insurance, I think that every one should purchase travel insurance if they can’t afford to lose their deposits, the cancellation fees, etc. as well as the benefits like trip delays, lost baggage, etc.”

    I don’t think this is bad advice…but in this case, the issue was that the tour provider was not going to honor the terms of their own contract. Because she changed her plans more than 105 days in advance, the absolute most that the tour provider had a right to keep would be the $500 deposit. There is absolutely no way they would be entitled to keep $2,500. (This also doesn’t address the fact that she didn’t want to cancel *her* trip, just change it to single since she would be traveling alone, but the bottom line is that there is no conceivable way the tour company had a right not to refund the $2,000).

  • barbie45

    Arizona Road Warrior, Your posts are excellent. They provide insight, knowlege, and objectivity. By the way I have visited your state twice. It was fantastic. The sites especially Sedonna, the golf the scenery, the people etc.

  • barbie45

    Steve, Why should she be forced to lose her deposit?

  • Steve

    Barbie – I should clarify. I *don’t* think she should lose her deposit if she goes on the trip alone. What I meant was that under the stated terms, if she cancelled with 105+ days notice, the absolute maximum she would have to forfeit would be $500. So under no circumstances could there have been any justification for the tour company trying to keep the full $2,500 she had deposited.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Steve – “…but in this case, the issue was that the tour provider was not going to honor the terms of their own contract.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
    We don’t know if the tour provider, Trafalgar Tours, wasn’t going to honor the terms of their own contract. Another possibility is that the travel agent told Mrs. Krarup ‘misinformation’ in hope she won’t pursue it and waiting for her deposit actually becoming non-refundable thus making her commission on the package she orginally sold.

    I just want to be fair to Trafalgar Tours since nothing in the article or Mrs. Krarup’s letter to Chris stating that it was Trafalgar that didn’t want to refund the money. It could have been Trafalgar Tours. It could have been the AAA agent. It could have been both of them.

    IMHO, it seems to me that the problem was a sub-par travel agent.

  • Steve

    Fair enough…it could have been either party. The bottom line is that under no circumstances, travel insurance or no travel insurance, should she have had to forfeit the $2,000.