<p>Knowing that someone out there in CC land probably knows the answer to this question: as some may remember, my mother-in-law is taking my daughter to Paris. They were supposed to leave in less than two weeks. But now my MIL has a virus and she can’t walk for a week and she’s had to cancel out of the trip. It’s a Rick Steve’s tour. My daughter (and I) want to substitute a local friend of hers for the trip. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how it works if one person cancels out of a tour and how substituting a replacement works???</p>
<p>She will call them directly tomorrow to find out for sure but I was hoping someone on CC might know the answer quicker (that would be the instant gratification generation rearing its’ ugly head!).</p>
<p>No advice, but I just want to say that I’m sorry that your MIL has fallen ill. It had sounded like such a wonderful opportunity for your daughter to spend time with her grandmother. I do hope it still works out for your daughter.</p>
<p>Do you know whether your MIL purchased cancellation insurance? You might want to double check with the travel agent who booked the tour. Usually cancellation insurance is a very small fraction of the cost of airline tickets or a tour; since you pay for it at the time of booking, it is the kind of thing your MIL could have purchased but now has forgotten about.</p>
<p>My MIL did have trip insurance and my H used miles for the plane tickets for both of them. So we could easily transfer the plane tickets to a friend of my D’s. But I’m thinking the trip insurance is a non-factor if we can just switch the tour part to a friend. I’m just wondering if tour operators let you do that. Cross your fingers that they do! My D is already really disappointed (and has spent quite some time crying over it) and if she can’t get to go with a friend I think it could be even sadder for her. Worst comes to worst, I will go with her but that will be a major hassle: I have an expired passport and in order to get one within the next 2 weeks, I have to travel to Chicago. This is messy…just hoping we can substitute a friend and be done with it.</p>
<p>My H had a ticket transferrred to him at the last minute for a golf trip. It cost a little and he was “tagged” at the airport for extra looking at, but all went well. I don’t see why they wouldn’t let you switch- the tour operators, have you called them? Many have 24 hour numbers of emergencies, and don;t ask them< TELL THEM (nicely of course)</p>
<p>How old is your daughter and/or the friend? I would think that a substitution would be no problem for the tour part – but I went on the Rick Steve’s site and found this: " All travelers must be at least 18 years of age to travel unaccompanied by an adult. " <a href=“http://tours.ricksteves.com/tours05/faq.cfm[/url]”>http://tours.ricksteves.com/tours05/faq.cfm</a>
So at least one of the travelers needs to be 18.</p>
<p>In fact they may both need to be 18, because I found this in the “Terms & Conditions” on the site: “Children under age 18 must room with and be accompanied on the tour by a parent or guardian.”</p>
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<p>OK - Edit here - I dug up your original post and see that your daughter is 18. So now my only caveat is that the friend needs to be 18 or older, too. I couldn’t find anything about transferring the spot in the Terms & Conditions, but I honestly don’t see why that would be a problem. Is your daughter’s last name the same as her MIL’s? If it is still the “Fredo” party traveling & sharing rooms, there woudn’t even need to be a name change on most of the hotel reservations.</p>