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Trip Insurance Rip-off: Travel Insured, Intl


shuff01

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The contract states what it states. Travel Insured, International is not abiding by their own wording. Just curious, If you aren't in the insurance business, why on earth are you even involved in this boring insurance forum?

 

DROP IT!! You are wrong. You got 7 days of "cruising" on the ship. That is what you paid for.

 

DON

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  • 3 weeks later...

Unfortunately, travel insurance is one of the most misunderstood insurance products. I work in the profession, and even I had misconceptions until I learned the hard way, having to file a claim myself.

 

The best advice is read the policy, word for word, during your grace period. If there are things you don't understand, call the insurance company for explanation. If they won't explain, cancel the contract and shop elsewhere. If there are policy provisions you can't live with, cancel the contract and shop elsewhere. That's what the grace period is for.

 

But don't buy a policy, stuff it in a drawer, and go on your trip thinking everything that doesn't go as planned will entitle you to payment. It won't.

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  • 4 weeks later...

We always take out travel insurance whenever we do major trips like cruises or overseas holidays. We had a cruise earlier in the year and were called home early because my wife's mother took ill suddenly and passed away before we could arrive home. We took out insurance with Allianz Global Assist and they refused to pay our claim because they "dont recognise anyone over the age of 85 years". This is a disgrace and we have just been advised from Anti Discrimination Queensland Agency that it is discrimination on the basis of age.

Avoid Allianz Global Assistance travel insurance at all costs, as we have found since our experience, there are others who have lost many more dollars due to refused claims by Allianz

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  • 4 weeks later...

I think a lot (many?) people underestimate the amount of changes a cruise line cam make to a cruise without any recourse. Cruislines can literally change your cruise to a cruise to nowhere and you don't have any recourse.

 

I think a lot of posters over estimate the value of (maybe what's covered by)

travel insurance. I think of the posters who think book a flight, day of the cruise, schedule to land a few hours prior sailing. They can miss their cruise but not by enough for the trip delay to kick in.

 

The OP made both mistakes. The cruise line substantially changed the itinerary. The change wasn't a covered event under her policy, or any other policy I've heard of.

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I feel bad for the OP as his vacation was not what he had planned it to be.

 

When I first started cruising, I used to look at the basic declaration page and now I look at reading the entire policy. I also have started to read the fine print closely on travel insurance documents to see what is covered/not covered.

 

A few years ago, we had a friend of ours who had to disembark in St.Thomas for a severe life threatening infection which left him hospitalized there for a week. Both of us just simply purchased the insurance that was recommended by the travel agent without reading the fine print, as we thought everything we needed would be covered. Needless to say their experience in dealing with the insurance company was challenging and not what they expected.

 

I do have the question for the OP in regards to him looking at TravelGuard being his choice of insurance the next time he travels. I know his travel agent states that TravelGuard would have provided coverage, but I really think that's giving you a false sense of what is/is not covered if you were to have to make the same type of claim again.

 

I looked at TravelGuard's policy terms for a platinum plan, and they also have similar verbiage to the plan you referenced which denied the coverage. They also reference weather as a reason, but the caveat would be that weather permitting the insured from reaching the final destination. I can see TravelGuard's denial being as the cruise line did pay for you to reach the final destination, there was no "loss" incurred, even though you did not get the full enjoyment of your cruise.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a insurance plan that works for everyone. I wanted a coverage plan where the insurance company would be primary for medical expenses as well as my personal physician being able to make the determination for medical evacuation, not the insurance company's doctor. The recommendation I got through this forum was that I would need to piecemeal several separate policies together.

 

My opinion is that most people do get a false sense of things that would be covered by insurance, when in fact unless it's a catastrophic incident and being abandoned, it's not going to be covered.

 

Hoping your next cruise goes more smoothly and you aren't faced with a similar situation.

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I do have the question for the OP in regards to him looking at TravelGuard being his choice of insurance the next time he travels. I know his travel agent states that TravelGuard would have provided coverage, but I really think that's giving you a false sense of what is/is not covered if you were to have to make the same type of claim again.

 

I looked at TravelGuard's policy terms for a platinum plan, and they also have similar verbiage to the plan you referenced which denied the coverage. They also reference weather as a reason, but the caveat would be that weather permitting the insured from reaching the final destination. I can see TravelGuard's denial being as the cruise line did pay for you to reach the final destination, there was no "loss" incurred, even though you did not get the full enjoyment of your cruise.

 

 

Without having heard exactly what the TA told the OP it's tough to say what passed between the two of them. But here's a thought about what might have been said/meant:

 

Just as 95% of the cruise lines out there use BerkleyCare as their "in-house" insurance provider, AmaWaterways uses Travel Guard. The plan provisions and costs are different from the Travel Guard plans you'll see elsewhere online. But from a quick reading of the plan terms it looks like it would not have covered this situation.

 

But there's another factor. If the client purchases the Ama/Travel Guard plan, for an additional premium of $60 a "Cancel for any Reason" benefit can be added to the coverage.

 

This CAR benefit has a couple of very nice features:

 

Some plans that offer a CAR benefit but block out the 48 hour period to your scheduled departure. This plan doesn't -- you can cancel at any time right up to your scheduled departure.

 

Some plans only offer a payment or credit of usually about 75% of your forfeited penalties. This plan doesn't -- you get a credit of 100% of your penalties to be applied to a future cruise in the following 24 months.

 

So, if the TA had actually said that if the OP had purchased the Ama/Travel Guard plan with the optional CAR upgrade it's very possible the whole mess could have been avoided with no loss and no hassle that could have been correct.

 

River cruises are notorious for water level problems -- either too high or too low for normal operation. But these circumstances don't just pop up overnight. Water levels on any of these rivers (and the possible disruptions) are known well in advance and if the OP checked prior to departure it would have been obvious he would not be getting the vacation he was hoping for before he even got on the plane.

 

So, he could have checked the water level situation the day before he was to leave, seen that there were problems, and decided to reschedule at no loss at any time in the coming 24 months.

 

Is that actually what the TA meant or the OP heard? Who knows. But it's possible.

 

I know that many advocate NEVER buying a policy from the TA and/or cruise line. But if you do that without investigation what's really being offered you might be missing a good deal. If I were to book an AmaWaterways cruise I'd definitely seriously look at what they have.

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Just want to say I've used Travel Insured many times. Have only had two fairly small claims, but they were handled efficiently and settlement was fair. I will continue to use them (I do not work for the company!).

Sorry the OP has had these difficulties, but it does seem to be an unusual case.

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