Cancellation Refund Information for 2021 Participants from a Rescheduled 2020 Tour

Should you need to cancel your participation on your 2021 trip in the future, we will honor the enhanced cancellation policies we put into place in Spring 2020 until 65 days prior to your 2021 tour’s departure date. For a cancellation after that date, the policies in our standard terms and conditions apply. We created this hybrid cancellation policy to protect your interests as a thank you for sticking with us and to protect ours when we start actively paying suppliers for your 2021 tour.

Cancellations Up to 65 Days Before Your 2021 Tour:

Should you have to cancel from your 2021 trip at any point up to 65 days from your new departure date, your cancellation refund policy will be identical to that of a participant who cancelled from your 2020 trip. The operational costs that we incurred in organizing 2020 trips that did not run existed for all participants whether they chose to cancel or reschedule.  Therefore, we are maintaining the cancellation refund amounts we put into place based on those costs.

This cancellation fee appears in your account balance as “Non-refundable Credit from Previous Year” and will always apply regardless of when you cancel.  If you would have received a voucher as part of your refund in 2020, that amount will be returned to you in the form of a voucher with an expiration date of 12/31/22.  This amount would appear in your account balance as “Voucher Redemption.”

Any additional insurance you purchased for your 2020 trip was transferred onto your 2021 trip and is listed as a “Non-refundable Insurance Credit from Previous Year.”  Insurance premiums are always non-refundable, but any upgraded insurance you purchased protects you on your 2021 trip too.

For example, if you paid $4,000 towards a 2020 trip with our Basic Protection Plan and the applicable cancellation policy at the time your trip was rescheduled was to receive a refund of all payments less $650 and a $350 travel voucher, that same policy still applies to your 2021 trip.  Therefore, if you cancel any time up to 65 days prior to your 2021 departure, you will receive a cash refund of $3,000, along with a $350 travel voucher that can be used on future touring, study abroad and internship programs.

 

Cancellations Within 65 Days of Your 2021 Tour:

If you need to cancel within 65 days of your 2021 departure date, our cancellation policies change. As of that date, we will have begun incurring non-refundable costs from our suppliers for your second trip as well.  The refund amounts in our Standard Cancellation policy chart (see below) reflect these new costs that we would then face.  When calculating your 2021 refund on the Standard chart, these amounts would be based on the payments listed under “Payment Moved from Previous Year’s Program” plus any additional payments you made toward your 2021 program.

As noted above, the non-refundable credits on your account remain non-refundable and do not factor into any 2021 refund calculations. Again, if a voucher was part of your potential refund in 2020, this voucher would be returned to you.

The important point to understand is that cancellation penalties from 2020 carry over to 2021, and that additional cancellation penalties will be applied for cancellations within 65 days of your 2021 departure date.  For example, if you cancelled 40 days prior to a 2021 overseas departure date with the Basic Protection Plan, you would have an additional cancellation penalty of $1,300 on top of any cancellation penalty carried over from 2020.