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My experience-Covid Positive in France before RS tour

My husband and I tested before our Rick Steves tour Paris & The Heart of France starting on April 12th. Neither of us had symptoms, but my husband tested positive the day before our tour started in Paris. We were kicked off the tour and told to work with Travel Guard to help us secure accommodations for the next weeks. Frankly, Travel Guard was no help at all. When we called they said "Well, what do you want us to do"? I said well, we would like help finding accommodations in Paris. They said they would call us back, but didn't. We called them again and they said "you may have to stay outside Paris". Um, no. So we just got busy ourselves and called I think every hotel in Paris! This was a week before Easter and we spent hours on the phone (thank goodness we had a french phone number due to our esim) calling hotels, with 90% of them being fully booked. We did manage to get hotel stays, but we had to move around a lot and paid a bit more some nights than we would have liked. I was negative the whole time. My husband flew home as scheduled on the 22nd of April as he tested negative and I stayed another week as I was doing the Best Of Paris tour. In the end, it all worked out ok, but was definitely not the trip we had planned!

EditedJust to clear up some confusion on this thread. We did not have travel guard insurance. The RS organization has employed travel guard to help it's tour members who test positive. As I stated, they were no help in regards to finding us acceptable accomodations. The medical part of travel guard was helpful in setting up an appt with a doctor to get a letter of recover should my husband have still tested positive before his scheduled flight, but thankfully, we didn't need to do that as he tested negative.

Posted by
1601 posts

Oh, I am sorry to hear about this SNAFU! I know you were looking forward to this trip. I'm glad you'll get to do at least part of it.

Posted by
2548 posts

Tammy, I am so sorry this happened to you. I am also glad everything turned out well and your husband was symptom free at least. Were you insured with Travel Guard or just working with them as part of the RS tour? This is very concerning as the assurance was that TG would help you out in some way.

Posted by
6797 posts

Sorry to hear this happened, but you know (as we all do), travel during a pandemic carries some risks, and when we choose to go, we also accept those risks. As for being "kicked off" the RS tour, I'd suggest you look at it from others' perspective: if you were on that tour, would you have been OK with the RSE staff allowing someone who had just tested positive to climb aboard the bus with you and join in with everyone else? Probably not. They have the responsibility to help their COVID-negative customers stay that way (negative).

Popular places around the world are pretty crowded right now, getting more so as the days and weeks go by. Finding a place to stay in one of the world's most popular destinations on very short notice can be a challenge even when you are feeling well.

International travel during a still-raging pandemic is not for the faint of heart. Glad to hear you are both OK and you were able to salvage something out of the first part of your trip, hopefully the second part goes more smoothly and with less drama. This should serve as a reminder to all though, that even for experienced travelers, COVID is still out there and it can throw a spanner into the works and send things sideways quickly. Hope the rest of your trip makes up for the initial bumps.

Posted by
2768 posts

Sorry to hear this!

Did you look at all the booking websites, including vrbo and airbnb as well as hotel sites, and individual hotel websites or did you only rely on calling? It seems to me that putting in your dates into a search and seeing what comes up would be much easier than calling hotels individually, but maybe I'm missing something.

Posted by
537 posts

does travel insurance typically offer concierge-type services (like finding accommodations for you)? That's disappointing if that was included and they didn't come through.

I have to agree with the previous poster that saying you were "kicked off" the tour probably isn't an accurate characterization. For the safety of the rest of the group, they couldn't let you participate. You wouldn't want to spend time in close company with someone who was confirmed positive for Covid, would you?

Did RS issue a credit to you for another tour?

Posted by
3567 posts

David, sorry you did not like my wording about being kicked off the tour. Of course, that is exactly what happened and yes, we did know that it was a possibility during these times. This post is not about debating the policy of RS. Of course, like everyone else who is out traveling right now, we didn't actually think it would happen to us!

We were give a full refund for the tour.

Posted by
6797 posts

@EP - OK, so is the issue that Travel Guard was not helpful in finding accommodations? I know nothing about that company -- is that (booking accommodations for customers who purchased insurance through them) advertised as a service that they provide? If so, then yes, this certainly reflects poorly on them -- calibrate expectations appropriately. Bottom line: during peak travel season, in a super-popular destination, rooms can be hard to find on short (zero) notice. And despite us all wishing to put the pandemic behind us, COVID continues to throw random challenges at us sometimes. That's not going away anytime soon, so plan for the unexpected, and be ready to be extremely flexible and ready to pivot if/when needed. Sounds like Tammy was able to do that, although I'm sure getting through the necessary hoop-jumping was no fun.

Posted by
6797 posts

@Tammy -- Yup, stuff happens. It can happen to you, me, anyone. Even if you are careful. On this trip, unfortunately, your number came up. Hope that means you've already had your bit of bad luck and won't have any more for a long while...but you never know!

Reading the forum lately, it seems a LOT of travelers are getting COVID while abroad (or at least testing positive for it, though maybe not symptomatic). Of course this is not a scientific sample, but I'd guess that RS travelers and followers tend to skew towards the more careful end of the spectrum...which makes me suspect that among the general traveling public, the spread of COVID is probably quite high currently. I was just reading today scary news reports of how the "cruise" industry is booming again, and most ships are reporting significant outbreaks...

Be careful out there. This ain't over.

Posted by
7054 posts

What does the Travel Guard policy guarantee for someone in your situation? Did they breach their policy terms? Was the problem securing a hotel room related to hotels not wanting to accept guests with a Covid-positive result, or are they required to (granted, I don't know how that would be enforced)? I find third-party booking sites to be infinitely less painful for looking at available inventory than calling hotels individually, or emailing them. Did you try booking.com, hotels.com, etc.?

Posted by
14790 posts

Tammy so sorry this happened to you but very glad hubby got home OK and you got to stay in Paris and meet new friends!! 😉🍷

Posted by
2677 posts

I'm also sorry things didn't work out.
One of the documents provided on my tour page is about the help Travel Guard would provide to tour members who have not bought the insurance.
It seems odd that lodging help in emergencies isn't included in the list.

Posted by
5861 posts

What a bummer.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Posted by
1604 posts

Tammy, I am sooo sorry! Even though it could have been worse, it was bad enough.

I am leaving for a trip in one week. Are trip ends in Prague. In my head, I am planning on needing to add extra days at the end. If I don't, it will seem like a bonus.

Posted by
2148 posts

I wonder how he contracted the virus? Do you have any idea? Eating inside, from the plane, not always wearing a mask? I ask because we are on back to back tours in September and I just feel like a sitting duck.

Posted by
43 posts

Hello Tammy - I wondered what happened. Missed meeting you on the tour. I hope you get a chance to take it in the future. All the best!

Posted by
3085 posts

Tammy, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Definitely not the trip you imagined.

"We were kicked off the tour and told to work with Travel Guard to help us secure accommodations for the next weeks. Frankly, Travel Guard was no help at all."
and
"One of the documents provided on my tour page is about the help Travel Guard would provide to tour members who have not bought the insurance."

Travel Guard once again confirms my opinion of them. Did you have travel insurance that included trip interruption? How did that work for you? Which insurance? There have been so many threads over the past year, that I don't remember what anyone chose.

I hope your Best of Paris trip was good and you could enjoy yourself.
Kathy

Posted by
1022 posts

Tammy …. Sorry you missed that tour. Hope hubs is better.

I hate hearing everyone’s stories of testing positive. We all get excited and ready to go. The Covid occurrences seemed they were getting better, now they are on a rise Arrgg. We leave in 4..5 weeks. Going ho Iceland and Scotland on a much smaller tour. 🤞🏼 That on June is good for us.

Posted by
10651 posts

Ouch Tammy. I am so sorry the two of you missed the tour. Since you were negative, I hope you were able to get out and about a bit.

Posted by
15794 posts

Tammy, that is so sad. Kudos for staying positive under such trying conditions.