Question of the Week: “Why do I have to reconfirm my Grand Canyon Tour?”

Aug 27

Question of the Week: “Why do I have to reconfirm my Grand Canyon Tour?”

The Little Colorado River Gorge

Good afternoon, friends, and hope you’re enjoying this beautiful sunshine! We kind of feel like a bunch of doofuses here at GC.com ‘cause all summer long we’ve been warning y’all about our monsoon storms and how they can wreak havoc with your Grand Canyon tours, especially air tours. Well, this monsoon season turned out to be not much of a season at all; it’s beautiful out there. Oh well – better safe than sorry, forewarned is forearmed, yada, yada, yada.

And that, my forewarned friends, leads me to this week’s Question of the Week.

Q. “Why do I have to reconfirm my Grand Canyon Tour?”

A. Because we said so!

Blue Pools Arch near Lake Powell AZ (Rim shot, big laughs, applause, applause, applause…) but seriously, folks, yes, this particular component of your vacation can be a pain in the butt. BUT – it can also save your butt in many different ways. As a matter of fact, an example of that very phenomenon came up here recently: a gentleman called one of our tour suppliers, in this case Grand Canyon Airlines, to reconfirm his tour for the following day. The reservationist looked up his booking and whoops: turns out he wasn’t booked for the day he thought he was, but was booked one week from that day! Obviously he wasn’t staying in the area that long so that wouldn’t work at all. Grand Canyon Airlines called us, we looked up the gentleman’s paperwork, and turns out he inadvertently selected the wrong date for his tour (it happens). What’s more, his tour confirmation – which would have alerted him to the erroneous date – was diverted to his spam folder (which he discovered after the fact – more on this later).

Now, this story has a happy ending. Thank GOD that Grand Canyon Airlines had room on their tour for this particular customer’s family, so we were able to switch them without a problem. And thank GOD this customer wisely followed our advice and called Grand Canyon Airlines to reconfirm his arrangements. Otherwise, he would have found himself in a world of hurt and a disappointed family on his hands!

This is just one of many reasons that we ask you, our valued customers, to call and reconfirm your tours. Just a few cents of your hard-earned money and just a few minutes of your time is all it takes to nip potential problems in the bud, address any last minute questions you might have, and (ever consider this?) get yourself psyched up for the trip! You may recall in a post dating back a couple of years that I referred to a thread on the Fodor’s Travel Forum that addressed this very issue. I also shared my extreme discomfort at watching the movie “The Out-of-Towners,” the subject of which was the wretched ruination of a couple’s long awaited vacation. But even back in 1970, the couple in the movie was frequently admonished that a simple phone call would have saved them a lot of grief. And a phone call or e-mail can do that very thing for you, too.

Here are a few more reasons why a call to reconfirm your Grand Canyon tour is such a good idea:

* You can find out what kind of weather to expect; it’s also a good opportunity for the tour company to alert you to the possibility of bad weather and options for rescheduling, modifying or last resort, cancelling your tour;

* If you’re doing a Las Vegas Grand Canyon tour, and aren’t sure where your hotel pickup location is or what kind of vehicle to look for, you can address these questions when you call to reconfirm;

* If your desired tour time/date wasn’t available when you originally booked, you can take the opportunity to inquire about last-minute cancellations when you call to reconfirm;

* If the tour company needs to alter their tour schedule (which they reserve the right to do), they can inform you about it;

* It’s the best time to address any last minute questions you might have

Travertine pools, Havasu Canyon (pre-2008 flood) In fact, maybe a couple of weeks before you get ready to “hit the road,” gather up all your paperwork relating to your trip itinerary, set aside a few minutes of quiet time, and start making calls, to the airline, your rental car agency, hotels, tour operators, restaurants where you might have dinner reservations, etc. Take down the name or operator number of the person you spoke with. If they have a direct extension, take it down too, as well as the time and date you placed the call. Create a check-list in your favorite word processing program, or whatever works best for you. But the important thing is to write everything down. In fact there are many useful tools available online that can help you keep your trip details organized all in one place. One such tool is TripIt (www.tripit.com) or Google Notebook. Once you make the necessary calls and are ready to head out, have your itinerary, including confirmation numbers, stay dates and reconfirmation details, printed out and keep it within easy access at all times during travel. That way you can refer to it quickly and easily if, say, your flight is delayed and you won’t be able to make that 8:00 dinner seating or 7:00 Las Vegas show.

One last note: when calling to reconfirm 24-48 hours prior to your tour, be sure to call the tour company itself. Remember that GrandCanyon.com is a booking agency for the leading Grand Canyon tour outfitters, and while we do have direct access to the reservations systems for most of these companies, we don’t always have access to the first-hand information, such as unexpected weather developments, alterations in tour schedules, that our suppliers have. Be sure to thoroughly read your e-mail confirmations for the contact number of your tour company, and other pertinent information such as what to bring, what to wear, etc.

Oh, and one last note (for real this time): everyone who books a tour with GrandCanyon.com should receive a confirmation via e-mail within 24 hours of submitting their booking. If for some reason you don’t receive yours, absolutely please call us, but first, check your spam folder. Tour confirmations, because they contain symbols such as “$” signs and verbiage which might be construed as marketing language, are occasionally filtered out as junk mail.

So as the old phone company ad used to say back in the days of rotary dial phones and psychedelic flight attendant uniforms, “reach out and touch someone” to make sure that all the details of your Grand Canyon vacation are exactly as they should be.

‘til next time, have a “grand” day!