Our Commitments – 2020

We extended our standard Tuition Due Date(s) by around 50 days to April 20th, 2020.  This is now the final tuition due date for all summer 2020 enrollments that applied earlier than April 1st, and supersedes any date printed on program invoices, emails, on your Student Portal or published in the Spring Forms Pack.

ActionQuest has always taken the position that students should strongly consider insuring their investment. Coronavirus aside, life is uncertain, and purchasing Tuition & Travel Protection Insurance provides coverage for unexpected travel emergencies, including medical, airline*, and trip interruption coverage. Most U.S. residents who are enrolled for a program for less than 30 days in duration and $15,000 in cost can also select a policy that includes “Cancel For Any Reason.” With this provision, if you cancel your trip for any reason not otherwise covered by this policy, the insurance company will reimburse you for 75% of the unused non-refundable prepaid expenses for travel arrangements you paid for your trip.

*Please note that the TripMate insurance plan will only cover the cost of your flights to and from our teen travel programs under very specific circumstances. For this reason, we suggest that you insure the cost of your flights directly through the airlines.

If you are already enrolled in a 2020 Summer Program and are not currently enrolled in the TripMate Tuition & Medical Insurance Policy, and are eligible to enroll, you can still enroll below.

Eligibility Requirements:

1. In all cases, you must purchase before full tuition has been paid.

AND/OR

2. If you enrolled and deposited for a program that starts 60 days or more from the date on which you deposited, payment for the insurance plan must be received PRIOR TO 60 days before the trip start date.

3. If you enrolled and deposited for a program that starts within 60 days of the date on which you deposited, payment for the insurance plan must be received within 14 days of your deposit date.

4. In all cases, trip cancellation must occur more than 48 hrs before the trip start date.

Learn more about the Trip Mate Insurance
CLick Here to Purchase Trip Mate Insurance

We recently learned from our travel coordinator, Leah Hernandez, that flight fares are particularly inexpensive at the moment. We also understand that most major US airlines have relaxed or removed their rebooking policies and fees should a traveler need to change their plans. Of course, the cheaper fares and flexible policies are being offered in response to the overall decrease in international travel.

Our families join us from all over the world, so recommending how and when to book flights has always been a family decision, not an ActionQuest decision. This remains true today. If you are looking to take advantage of booking during this low-cost period, we recommend that you check the airline’s rebooking terms and/or refund policy to ensure you feel comfortable should your plans change, or the program needs to be modified as ActionQuest is not responsible for any fees associated with travel.  Due to this uncertainty, ActionQuest has made the suggestion to postpone having our independent travel coordinator, Leah Hernandez, book any flights until May 1st, 2020.

What pre-screening and testing protocol will GXG adopt before the voyage to ensure no staff or students are arriving with COVID-19?

Due to the rapidly evolving nature of COVID-19 treatment and testing, and summer still months away, GXG has not yet finalized a specific pre-screening protocol. We are actively monitoring the development and availability of rapid testing kits and antibody tests, and believe that airlines and governments will be the first to establish these protocols in order to allow the freedom of travel we all took for granted just a few weeks ago. As we get closer to the start date of the program, we will establish and communicate our pre-screening protocol/policy utilizing the best available resources and information at that time.

What additional procedures will GXG take to minimize the risk of disease transmission during the program?

GXG adheres to a robust hygiene protocol on all of our programs to minimize the risk of disease transmission. We will include any additional CDC recommended practices when possible to further strengthen our protocols. Additionally, we may add other program modifications such as:

• Altering itineraries to avoid areas with documented active COVID-19 cases if and where possible.
• Limiting or removing visits to areas we consider to be a high populace or highly trafficked by tourists.
• Restricting locations and durations of time ashore.

What if a student or staff member displays symptoms of or contracts COVID-19 during the program?

Similar to the pre-screening & testing question above, the best course of action for individuals displaying symptoms of, or testing positive for, COVID-19 and those who have been exposed to that person may change as new information and resources become available. As we get closer to the start date of the program, we will establish and communicate our protocols utilizing the best available resources and information at that time.

The world’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been unpredictable, so here are a couple of scenarios that might force us to consider postponing or canceling a trip.

• If borders are closed to a country where we are scheduled to run a program, and we are unable to move to a different location or country.
• If the CDC issues a Level 3 Travel Advisory (Avoid all non-essential travel) to the country or region within a country that we are scheduled to run a program, and we are unable to move to a different region or country.
• Since the majority of our staff and students originate in the United States if the US Department of State issues a global level 4 “do not travel” directive.
• If a trip’s enrollment was too low to run that trip effectively. This could be due to enrolled students canceling or postponing from a trip or could be caused by overall low enrollment.
• Any other reason that AQ or our risk management partners consider as adding unacceptable risk.

A difficult question to answer is exactly when (how far in advance of a trip start date) we would consider postponing or canceling, but this would typically be no less than 21 days before the trip start date and perhaps longer for those programs that take more pre-planning.

Review the information below and call us with any questions.  Our team has been reaching out to each enrolled family via phone and email to discuss your options.  As always, you are welcome to call or email us to discuss, however, most of our staff are now working remotely, and this transition has had its challenges!  We will do our best to continue the same level of customer service that you have become accustomed to yet ask for your understanding if it takes us a little longer to respond to your questions.

More than anything, stay safe and do your part to “flatten the curve;” we care about your well-being! All we ask is that you do your part to stay healthy by following the recommendations of officials.

As per our standard Terms and Agreements, so long as we have space and we are more than 30 days out from your current program start date, you can move your application to any other 2020 program.  Within 30 days of the program start date, this can get a little trickier, but we will always do what we can to accommodate you. For reference, many of our June and July trips are full, but we have good availability in the BVI for programs that start on July 29th and run until August 14th.

Yes. While deposits and tuition payments are typically non-transferrable, these are unprecedented times, and we want to help. If you would like to postpone your enrollment to summer 2021 between now and 14 days prior to your trip, we would apply your 2020 trip deposit and reserve your space on that program. Additionally:

• Your 2020 program cost would be honored.
• If you selected to enroll for the Trip Mate travel medical and trip interruption cancellation insurance, this would continue to apply to your 2021 trip.
• Any previously applied early enrollment discounts, savings, and scholarships would still apply.
• At the time when a family selects to postpone their trip to 2021 they have the option to receive a refund for up to 50% of the trip tuition cost over the deposit amount. For families willing to leave your tuition payments on your account, we would reciprocate the gesture by considering those payments worth 10% more than their value (up to 50% of the trip tuition cost less the deposit). These funds would be applicable to any GXG program (ActionQuest, GoBeyond, Seamester).  The new final Tuition Due Date for postponed 2020 trips is January 1, 2021.

Should a family need to cancel their application after April 20th (our extended tuition deadline), our standard cancellation policies would apply. Families who enrolled in a Tuition and Travel Protection Insurance policy should then contact the insurance company to learn whether their reason for canceling is “covered” under the policy. Typical “covered” reasons include a death in the family, traveler illness or injury preventing participation, etc. Cancellation for a “covered” reason will result in a 100% refund. Many premium Tuition and Travel Protection Insurance policies offered to US residents of states other than New York include a Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) provision. Under the CFAR provision, the traveler can cancel for any reason and receive a 75% refund, so long as the cancellation occurs before 48 hours prior to the trip start date.

If you selected to purchase the TripMate Trip Cancellation Insurance and need to initiate a claim, please contact Tripmate directly on 1.800.888.7292 or go click on the button below. Please note that our plan number is F436A.

Initiate a Claim

We will work with TripMate to provide them with the details about your enrollment and they will refund all of the appropriate deposit and tuition amounts directly to you.

If you need to download a copy of your policy documents you can do so by clicking HERE.

If ActionQuest cancels a program, we will work with all enrolled families to select one of the following options:

• Switch to a different 2020 program.
• Postpone the trip to summer 2021.  If you would like to postpone your enrollment to summer 2021 we would apply your 2020 trip deposit and reserve your space on that program.  Additionally:
  • Your 2020 program cost would be honored.
  • If you selected to enroll for the Trip Mate travel medical and trip interruption cancellation insurance, this would continue to apply to your 2021 trip.
  • Any previously applied early enrollment discounts, savings, and scholarships would still apply.
  • If you would be willing to leave your tuition payments on your account, we would reciprocate the gesture by considering those payments worth 10% more than their value (up to 50% of the trip tuition cost less the deposit). These funds would be applicable to any GXG program (ActionQuest, GoBeyond, Seamester).  Any family that is currently fully paid would receive a refund for the overpayment, and any family wishing to take advantage of this opportunity would be able to pre-pay up to 50% of their tuition.  The new final Tuition Due Date for postponed 2020 trips is January 1, 2021.
• Rest assured, if none of these options work for your family and you would rather have a full refund for the deposit and tuition payments made to us, we will honor your request. Yet, we would ask for your understanding as this may take us some time. As you can imagine, the impacts of this pandemic are incredibly challenging for most small businesses, but particularly for a team like ours that works full time from September through May to plan and prepare for the trips we run in June, July, and August. Deposits and tuitions are committed well in advance to cover costs like vessel charter, purchasing teaching and certification materials, equipment maintenance, business overheads, and insurance. For this reason, we intend to refund all tuitions in excess of $2000 within 14 days of notice of cancellation, and the remaining balance within three months of notice of cancellation. The reason for this is that we need time to work with our program partners and vendors to recover the fees and deposits we committed on your behalf. We will endeavor to complete the processes faster if we can, but thank you in advance for your understanding.

If you have already made the decision to switch to another summer 2020 program, that option is still available to you to switch again if you feel it necessary.

As per our standard Terms and Agreements, so long as we have space and we are more than 30 days out from your current program start date, you can move your application to any other 2020 program.  Within 30 days of the program start date, this can get a little trickier, but we will always do what we can to accommodate you. For reference, many of our June and July trips are full, but we have good availability in the BVI for programs that start on July 29th and run until August 14th.

While deposits and tuition payments are typically non-transferrable, these are unprecedented times, and we want to help. If you postponed your enrollment to summer 2021 before our new Tuition Due Date of April 20th, we applied your 2020 trip deposit and reserved your space on that program.  Additionally:

• Your 2020 program cost was honored.
• If you selected to enroll for the Trip Mate travel medical and trip interruption cancellation insurance, that will continue to apply to your 2021 trip.
• Any previously applied early enrollment discounts, savings, and scholarships also will still apply.
• The new Final Tuition Due Date for postponed 2020 trips is January 1, 2021, so at the time when families chose to postpone, they had the option to receive a refund for any tuition paid to us over the deposit amount. However, if they had made a tuition payment and were willing to leave it on your account, we reciprocated the gesture by considering those funds worth 10% more than their value (when applied towards the 2021 trip). Those funds are applicable to any GXG program (ActionQuest, GoBeyond, Seamester). For example, if a family had paid the $750 deposit plus $2500 in tuition, the total funds on account for their 2021 program would be $3,500 ($750 plus $2750). Any family that is currently fully paid received a refund for the overpayment, and any family wishing to take advantage of this opportunity was able to pre-pay up to 50% of their tuition.

If you were not in a place to consider switching trips or postponing your program to 2021, we extended our terms and committed to refunding any tuition amount paid on your account over the $750 trip deposit for any family that canceled before April 20th. Families who enrolled in a Tuition and Travel Protection Insurance policy could then contact the insurance company to learn whether their reason for canceling was “covered” under the policy. Typical “covered” reasons include a death in the family, traveler illness or injury preventing participation, etc. Cancellation for a “covered” reason would result in a 100% refund. Many premium Tuition and Travel Protection Insurance policies offered to US residents of states other than New York include a Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) provision. Under the CFAR provision, the traveler could cancel for any reason and receive a 75% refund, so long as the cancellation occurred before 48 hours prior to the trip start date.

If you selected to purchase the TripMate Trip Cancellation Insurance and need to initiate a claim, please contact Tripmate directly on 1.800.888.7292 or go click on the button below. Please note that our plan number is F436A.

Initiate a Claim

We will work with TripMate to provide them with the details about your enrollment and they will refund all of the appropriate deposit and tuition amounts directly to you.

If you need to download a copy of your policy documents you can do so by clicking HERE.

If ActionQuest cancels a program, we will work with all enrolled families to select one of the following options:

• Switch to a different 2020 program.
• Postpone the trip to summer 2021. If you would like to postpone your enrollment to summer 2021 we would apply your 2020 trip deposit and reserve your space on that program. Additionally:
  • Your 2020 program cost would be honored.
  • If you selected to enroll for the Trip Mate travel medical and trip interruption cancellation insurance, this would continue to apply to your 2021 trip.
  • Any previously applied early enrollment discounts, savings, and scholarships would still apply.
  • If you would be willing to leave your tuition payments on your account, we would reciprocate the gesture by considering those payments worth 10% more than their value (up to 50% of the trip tuition cost less the deposit). These funds would be applicable to any GXG program (ActionQuest, GoBeyond, Seamester).  Any family that is currently fully paid would receive a refund for the overpayment, and any family wishing to take advantage of this opportunity would be able to pre-pay up to 50% of their tuition.  The new final Tuition Due Date for postponed 2020 trips is January 1, 2021.
• Rest assured, if none of these options work for your family and you would rather have a full refund for the deposit and tuition payments made to us, we will honor your request. Yet, we would ask for your understanding as this may take us some time. As you can imagine, the impacts of this pandemic are incredibly challenging for most small businesses, but particularly for a team like ours that works full time from September through May to plan and prepare for the trips we run in June, July, and August. Deposits and tuitions are committed well in advance to cover costs like vessel charter, purchasing teaching and certification materials, equipment maintenance, business overheads, and insurance. For this reason, we intend to refund all tuitions in excess of $2000 within 14 days of notice of cancellation, and the remaining balance within three months of notice of cancellation. The reason for this is that we need time to work with our program partners and vendors to recover the fees and deposits we committed on your behalf. We will endeavor to complete the processes faster if we can, but thank you in advance for your understanding.