Japan ABD April 2020 cancelled :(

Disappointing, we were booked for our family of 5 but they couldn’t get enough reservations. Unfortunately we have to scramble a bit to see what to do...
Wow, that's disappointing. So sorry your plans were upset like that. I'm shocked that they aren't filling trips on only the second year. Such a great time of year to go, too. That's Cherry Blossom season, isn't it?
 
Disappointing, we were booked for our family of 5 but they couldn’t get enough reservations. Unfortunately we have to scramble a bit to see what to do...
I am SO sorry to hear this!! I'm surprised, but I guess because it's still the school year, and not like Spring Break or anything, people for the most part couldn't do it. The first May trip is Adults only, so I'm assuming that won't work for you, and the second one in may is waitlist only, so that's not an option either. :( Next one seems to be June. Again, I am SO sorry, that has to be seriously disappointing. What are they offering you? Can you re-schedule, or are you tied to the April date?
Wow, that's disappointing. So sorry your plans were upset like that. I'm shocked that they aren't filling trips on only the second year. Such a great time of year to go, too. That's Cherry Blossom season, isn't it?
That is Cherry blossom Season, although it varies a bit from year to year. The April trip last year was a bit after peak, but they still saw a lot of blossoms. Several of this year's trips are Waitlist only, so, unfortunately, it seems like the problem is likely the April timeframe.

Sayhello
 


I am so sorry to hear this. I tend to plan quite a ways in advance and then time passes and the excitement/anticipation grows. It feels like I'm so emotionally (and financially) invested that it shocks my system when the rug is pulled out. ABD has canceled on me three times. Each time I was able to reschedule or plan something new and wonderful, I hope you are able to do the same.
 
Wow, that's really too bad. I'm sorry that they cancelled on you.

Is there a minimum cut off for ABD to cancel? A certain number or days ahead of the departure date? We have China booked for late August, but with the issues in Hong Kong I'm worried that it will scare people away and we might be in a similar situation. There are a few things I might put off doing/booking until that date if there is one.
 
Is the price of these Tours putting people off ?

Maybe potential guests are finding cheaper ways to do these tours .
 


Is the price of these Tours putting people off ?

Maybe potential guests are finding cheaper ways to do these tours .

(raises my hand) The link I posted costs less than half of ABD. The hotels are not as fancy, the itinerary is a bit different, and most lunch/dinners are not included, but for $6,000/person less, I can gladly do that. And, because there are 8 of us in our group, we could book a private tour. Guaranteed to go. I've been eyeing ABD for years, but these Japan trips are, IMHO, insanely overpriced.
 
Is there a minimum cut off for ABD to cancel? A certain number or days ahead of the departure date? We have China booked for late August, but with the issues in Hong Kong I'm worried that it will scare people away and we might be in a similar situation. There are a few things I might put off doing/booking until that date if there is one.
Nobody (but ABD) knows what that magic cutoff is. It probably varies based on the trip and all sorts of factors. I've had Adult Only ABDs go with 14 people. Unless it's something out of their control, ABD will usually cancel well in advance of your Paid in Full date. I had an ABD canceled because only 3 people signed up, but they cancelled like 5 months ahead of time.

ABD will pay to rebook your flights if they cancel and you have to move to another departure. If you change trips, then that's "within reason". They will refund your money/reimburse you if you cannot rebook. There are a few really odd circumstances when that might not happen (we had one person re-book with another company and ABD wouldn't cover changing the date of the flight, things like that).

Sayhello
 
OP, we are doing Japan with Thomson Family Adventures in June. I'm not sure if they have an April date scheduled, but you can check their website or give them a call. They do custom/private trips as well if you don't see an April date offered, and they guarantee their departures from the first guest booked. Thomson also helped us add days for Mt. Fuji and Hiroshima at the beginning and end of their standard itinerary, respectively, as well. We also added on days for Tokyo Disney.
 
I think the cost was likely quite a large part of it. It’s extremely expensive. I think they had 8-10 people booked (of which our family was 5). Also, it overlaps with some but not all of school vacation so that probably was an issue for some families. We’re thinking we’ll still go (and already have the plane tickets) but will put a modified version of the trip together ourselves.
 
We’re thinking we’ll still go (and already have the plane tickets) but will put a modified version of the trip together ourselves.

You can certainly do this - English is everywhere and transportation in Japan is a breeze. We had been to Japan before and so we couldn't stomach the cost for this trip as it was so much of a repeat for us. Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo are insanely easy to do, and even Takayama was not complicated (though it did snow in Shirakawa-go in April, so we were very glad we had booked a day trip on a bus from our hotel and weren't having to think about how to get around!).
 
This makes me concerned. Does ABD cancel often? We book our flights 10 months in advance in preparation and would hate it if a trip was canceled. Argh. We just booked our flights for Egypt. Doubt they will cancel that one as it has a waitlist. But still worries us for future trips. Have fun in Japan - it is a super easy country to get around and people there are ridiculously friendly and will help you with everything. I say go with the same itinerary as Disney and do it all on your own. Should not be a problem there!
 
I seem to recall seeing af least one March 2020 departure, which is also no longer showing up. Did that get canceled as well? It stuck out to me because we were on the April 2019 inaugural, as @sayhello notes was towards the end of cherry blossoms, and I was thinking the March departure seemed more likely to hit peak Sakura in some areas.
 
This makes me concerned. Does ABD cancel often? We book our flights 10 months in advance in preparation and would hate it if a trip was canceled. Argh. We just booked our flights for Egypt. Doubt they will cancel that one as it has a waitlist. But still worries us for future trips. Have fun in Japan - it is a super easy country to get around and people there are ridiculously friendly and will help you with everything. I say go with the same itinerary as Disney and do it all on your own. Should not be a problem there!
No, ABD does not cancel often. But it does happen on rare occasions. Although it *is* hugely disappointing, ABD will work with you to make you whole in whatever way works best for you. If you can't change your dates, they will either try to get you on a different adventure in the same timeframe, or refund all your money (including reimbursing you for your airfare, even if you didn't book it through them.) If you can switch to a different trip or a different departure, they will pay to move you to that other trip/departure, including paying to rebook your flights (within reason. If you switch from the Arizona trip to China, they are not going to foot the entire bill of upgrading your flight from Arizona to China. But they will pay for part of this.)

For the 2009 season, they had just finished a huge expansion of offerings when the economy nosedived. So they ended up canceling several departures with low numbers (mine had 3). I couldn't change the dates for my trip. So ABD let me switch from The Canada/Montana trip to an Alaska trip that left within a couple of days of the original trip, and paid for me to change my flight from Montana to Alaska. It all worked out fine.

There have been a couple of instances we've seen here where the results did not work out quite the way the person wanted (we had one person who, I believe, couldn't work out any different trips/departures, but still wanted to go to Italy, so booked with another tour company, but had to switch their flights to take that tour, and ABD gave them a full refund of the ABD cost, but would not pay to change their self-booked flights in order to make the other company's tour.) So it's not perfect. But they really will work with you to get everything worked out for you.

A lot of us don't like their policy that trips aren't guaranteed unless they mysteriously are (and they don't tell you if your trip is guaranteed unless you ask), but it's one of the things you kind of have to learn to live with if you love to do ABDs. I've done 11 ABDs and only had one canceled. And I usually travel in the off-season. And that cancellation was totally resolved to my satisfaction.

Sayhello
 
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I’ve had 3 of my 11 trips canceled . The first was during the 2009 season when they canceled quite a few due to the downturn in the economy. I was able to rebook the same trip (Flavors of France) for a couple of weeks later. The second was the first time they offered Egypt. They canceled due to the political happenings in the country. I was able to switch to Peru, which we loved! The third time was this past summer. They canceled Germany in August due to low numbers which surprised the heck out of me. I changed to a March 2020 South Africa trip. I’ve been crossing my fingers that this one won’t be canceled....it’s on my list today to call. 😆
 
I'm so sorry. I recently got a brochure from a company called InsideJapan, and they had a ton of different tours. They might be worth checking out to see if there is one that would fit your dates.
 
I'm a bit surprised though that Japan ABD, which was the hardest one to get last year, is now cancelling because of low numbers just on its second year... The price-point is high but in the same range as others like A&K
 
Dang I am surprised with what others have said that they canceled prime dates for cherry blossom viewing. I definitely want to go to Japan sometime in the future to see this as well. I would have done it if I didn't already have the Hawaii cruise.

I'm wondering what they will do with the China itinerary, if they will either cancel due to Hong Kong, or change the whole trip. Plus I'm hearing bird flu as well which doesn't help.
 

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