Still Up in the Air...
The day after Thanksgiving, I received an email from Kathy from GAP telling me my trip had been cancelled because Julee and I were the only people who signed up. I crawled into bed and put my face in the pillows and was in shock... I felt deeply disturbed. What disappointment!
My options are to sign up for the next trip starting 2/1, to cancel and get my refund, or to go on a different trip only covering Egypt. My problem is once I have my heart set on something, I can never stop until I have it. It’s unthinkable that I will cancel the trip or skip Jordan. Never!
I had to wait till the weekend passed to call Kathy to ask the chance of us getting guaranteed trip for 2/1. She says there is nobody signing up for this date. There is only one person signing up for March 1 tour but if nobody else signs up for March, they would not leave for just three people either. Besides, I really cannot wait till March. I also read that March is prone to sand storms in Egypt. I must have sounded really perplexed on the phone, trying to make this happen. She suddenly says: “Maybe you can go with our supplier.” I have to admit I am a little surprised to know that they used to do business with Intrepid, a supplier for some of their tours and only recently decided to separate from Intrepid and run the tours themselves. Intrepid runs the same tour the same time but according to her, if I book the 1/25 or 2/1 tour, it’s guaranteed to go because enough people already signed up for it. I get off the phone and call Julee right away. Julee gives me three options: 1) we can go alone; 2) we can go with Intrepid; 3) we don’t go. I tell her the third one is not an option for me.
So now here is the deal still not confirmed though: we are booking via GAP with the Intrepid tour that starts on 2/1 and ends on 2/18 since all the waiting for confirmation made us miss the perfect Air France flight schedule for 1/23. This new tour covers everything in the GAP tour and is one day longer because we will stay by the Red Sea for an additional night. It’s slightly more expensive but still reasonable. The two companies basically operate in the same pattern. I figure GAP used to buy Intrepid tours and offers them as their own, so I am not too concerned about the quality. But again I am still waiting for final booking confirmation, travel insurance change and etc. This is no less work than planning the entire trip myself.
My options are to sign up for the next trip starting 2/1, to cancel and get my refund, or to go on a different trip only covering Egypt. My problem is once I have my heart set on something, I can never stop until I have it. It’s unthinkable that I will cancel the trip or skip Jordan. Never!
I had to wait till the weekend passed to call Kathy to ask the chance of us getting guaranteed trip for 2/1. She says there is nobody signing up for this date. There is only one person signing up for March 1 tour but if nobody else signs up for March, they would not leave for just three people either. Besides, I really cannot wait till March. I also read that March is prone to sand storms in Egypt. I must have sounded really perplexed on the phone, trying to make this happen. She suddenly says: “Maybe you can go with our supplier.” I have to admit I am a little surprised to know that they used to do business with Intrepid, a supplier for some of their tours and only recently decided to separate from Intrepid and run the tours themselves. Intrepid runs the same tour the same time but according to her, if I book the 1/25 or 2/1 tour, it’s guaranteed to go because enough people already signed up for it. I get off the phone and call Julee right away. Julee gives me three options: 1) we can go alone; 2) we can go with Intrepid; 3) we don’t go. I tell her the third one is not an option for me.
So now here is the deal still not confirmed though: we are booking via GAP with the Intrepid tour that starts on 2/1 and ends on 2/18 since all the waiting for confirmation made us miss the perfect Air France flight schedule for 1/23. This new tour covers everything in the GAP tour and is one day longer because we will stay by the Red Sea for an additional night. It’s slightly more expensive but still reasonable. The two companies basically operate in the same pattern. I figure GAP used to buy Intrepid tours and offers them as their own, so I am not too concerned about the quality. But again I am still waiting for final booking confirmation, travel insurance change and etc. This is no less work than planning the entire trip myself.
posted by Koshka at 11/28/2006
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