When Gavin and I returned from our European train trip a week ago, Stephen mentioned he was interested in joining me on the Tauck trip to Switzerland in July. I told him he was certainly welcome to join me. I also mentioned that, unlike the cruises I am taking by myself, this is a land tour and I am not necessarily paying double for traveling alone. Therefore, an additional guest would be liable for a significant charge. Based on our experience when David joined me for the Tauck river cruise, I speculated the additional cost would be about $3,000 plus air fare of perhaps $1,500. As an alternative, I suggested that I still do not have anyone committed to the Seabourn Atlantic crossing in Apirl or the Viking Portugal river cruise in May. On both of these trips, I am paying double and someone could join me for essentially the cost of air fare...which I would be willing to pick up for family members.
Stephen said he would think about it. Today, he dropped me an email saying he would like to join me on the river cruise if it is still available. It was so I got Maxine to work on it. By the end of the day, Stephen is booked on the cruise for the additional cost of $69.00. Later this afternoon, I got details on the air fare. Non-stop Economy from IAH to EWR and then EWR to LIS on the May 2/3, arriving at 0820 hours. Then on the return, OPO to EWR and EWR to IAH on May 14. Pretty good rates as well.
Maxine sent me a new invoice from Viking showing the addition of Stephen to the trip. They wanted an additional $1,725.00. That was a bit more than what I expected since we had discussed the added cost would be $69.00 plus roughly $1,300.00 for round trip air fare. While there were a lot of additions and subtractions on the invoice (they seem to try to make it as confusing as possible), the one thing that stood out was that they included on Stephen's bill a charge for travel insurance. I had told Maxine I did not want to take out insurance on Stephen. I called Maxine and we had quite an lively discussion. She pointed out that they had "split" the insurance I had previously purchased for my travel between my bill and Stephen's bill plus added $100.00 for insurance on his air travel. She told me that the air fare insurance was not negotiable. I told her I did not understand that, but if that were so, OK. What I could not buy into however was the fact that my original insurance cost me $1,038.00. On the updated invoice, they charged me $719.00 and Stephen $819.00. So, they had not just split the original cost between Stephen and I but they had split the original cost PLUS $400.00, PLUS added $100.00 for insurance on Stephen's air fare. I asked Maxine for an explanation. She repeatedly tried, but without success. I told Maxine that I was willing to accept the $1,038.00 I had already paid, but I did not want to pay any more for Stephen. After much cussing and discussing, Maxine said she would talk with Viking, but she did not believe Viking would agree to my request. A couple of hours later, Maxine called to say that, to her astonishment, Viking not only agreed to drop the cost of Stephen's insurance (including the air fare insurance), but also decreased the cost of my insurance from $1,032.00 to $719.00! Therefore, the original $1,725.00 they had wanted for Stephen's addition was now down to $906.00. This is about $500 less than I expected the additional cost would be. GOOD WORK MAXINE!
What I have remaining as a solo traveler this year is the Atlantic crossing from Barbados to Lisbon and the Switzerland trip.
