How to prepare for trip insurance

[trav25]

Unfortunately, I now know more than I want to about trip insurance.  On our trip I fell and broke my ankle in three spots.  Had to fly home for surgery and rehab.

 

We had two insurance policies.  Allianz to cover the business class flight (we did on our own) and a week we did on our own before a Viking cruise.  We had Viking's tripmate for the cruise portion,

 

First of all, insurance is a MUST.  I know now that if you do a private tour on shore with a group other than the cruise, you should have a separate policy to cover anything not done while on a trip sponsored tour.

 

Keep all receipts in a file.  That includes the credit card or e-check statement that shows you actually paid for the trip.  Flights, tours, cruise all with billing statements showing you did pay.  Both companies wanted this information eventually.  

 

I found the Allianz claim site easier to navigate.  That said, they are the ones who keep asking for info.  No email.  They expect me to look and when it says more documentation needed, you have to call. Then you have to call and call some more with each new documentation they need.

 

Tripmate SEEMS to have come through 100% in that they say both my husband and I will be reimbursed minus the insurance cost and the claim is closed.  That said, I have not gotten a check but I am told it will be emailed this week.

 

I know we have 2 more paid for trips and seeing as some of them are paid way ahead of time, you need to copy your billing statements and put in a file or you are searching archives to figure out what month and year for the exact billing.

 

Just FYI.  Wish I had known.

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, trav25 said:

Unfortunately, I now know more than I want to about trip insurance.  On our trip I fell and broke my ankle in three spots.  Had to fly home for surgery and rehab.

 

We had two insurance policies.  Allianz to cover the business class flight (we did on our own) and a week we did on our own before a Viking cruise.  We had Viking's tripmate for the cruise portion,

 

First of all, insurance is a MUST.  I know now that if you do a private tour on shore with a group other than the cruise, you should have a separate policy to cover anything not done while on a trip sponsored tour.

 

Keep all receipts in a file.  That includes the credit card or e-check statement that shows you actually paid for the trip.  Flights, tours, cruise all with billing statements showing you did pay.  Both companies wanted this information eventually.  

 

I found the Allianz claim site easier to navigate.  That said, they are the ones who keep asking for info.  No email.  They expect me to look and when it says more documentation needed, you have to call. Then you have to call and call some more with each new documentation they need.

 

Tripmate SEEMS to have come through 100% in that they say both my husband and I will be reimbursed minus the insurance cost and the claim is closed.  That said, I have not gotten a check but I am told it will be emailed this week.

 

I know we have 2 more paid for trips and seeing as some of them are paid way ahead of time, you need to copy your billing statements and put in a file or you are searching archives to figure out what month and year for the exact billing.

 

Just FYI.  Wish I had known.

 

The very first time we made plans for a "big" trip (cruise and land), it was after learning here about Travel Insurance, and also learning about Trip Insurance Store.  We had *so* many discussions with them, it was like a private tutor.

 

In any event, with less than 2 weeks to go, we had a medical emergency and had to cancel everything.

 

Yup, we had to send in proofs of payment, charge card statements, for EVERYTHING.  It makes sense, of course, but we hadn't quite expected how much trouble, given that we had been paying in bits and pieces for the cruise, for excursions, etc.... it turned out there were so many little (and big) charges.

And we had used more than one charge card - gasp!

 

I ended up sending our insurer (Travel Insured, who were GREAT to work with), several months of FULL charge statements, a big stack, in pdf's.  Okay, now they know how much we spent at Whole Foods, for dry cleaning, for gas, some clothing, and on and on.  But I also figured that in this day and age, "they" already "all" know so much about us from all sorts of tracking, and in particular, tracking our charged spending.

 

So instead of just highlighting each line item on a thick stack of printouts, and then scanning the pages one by one (!!), we sent the files as they had appeared, and sent a list of charges and dates, and *they* could verify each.

They did, and about 2 weeks later, we had check in hand.  That remains our largest claim, with one other nearly as big, plus several much smaller.

 

The one thing I found really peculiar is that we also had to provide "proof" (charge card statement again) that we had actually PAID for the insurance.  What, they didn't have a record of *their* sales? 

 

Given that most of our trips do *not* end with a claim, we haven't done anything differently in case paperwork is needed, although we thought about it.  Too much trouble!

The real problem is that in any given month, we could be paying a deposit for one cruise, a final payment for another, airfare for one of those plus a third trip, a few pre-paid hotels (when we find bargains by pre-paying), some hotels we recently stayed at and paid for at checkout, and... and... !

 

But the amount of money claimed isn't trivial at all, so we'll do it the easiest way we can, even if it isn't downright "easy".

 

But we used EMAIL for EVERYTHING.  I can't even imagine the communication otherwise.

That also gave us a nice way to track *everything* they were asking us to do, etc. By phone, I wouldn't trust it as much, not to "change directives", etc.

And it also gave us proof that we *sent* what they wanted, when they emailed their confirmation of receipt, etc.

 

GC

[trav25]

As I lay in bed with with my foot elevated, as it has been since September 29, I got a huge laugh out of your response when you talked about how the travel insurance co now knows our bank balance and what we charged on our credit card the months we charged things!!!  Thanks for the laugh. I was aghast to send them all of that but that is the way it goes. I did ask one if they needed a copy of the policy they issued!  They said no. With tripmate, we could not download as easy as Allianz so we had to mail a huge packet. I would never do expensive travel without insurance. Now I see that optional tours with other operators would be an issue. Thankfully I didn’t have that but worth knowing. 

[GeezerCouple]

13 minutes ago, trav25 said:

As I lay in bed with with my foot elevated, as it has been since September 29, I got a huge laugh out of your response when you talked about how the travel insurance co now knows our bank balance and what we charged on our credit card the months we charged things!!!  Thanks for the laugh. I was aghast to send them all of that but that is the way it goes. I did ask one if they needed a copy of the policy they issued!  They said no. With tripmate, we could not download as easy as Allianz so we had to mail a huge packet. I would never do expensive travel without insurance. Now I see that optional tours with other operators would be an issue. Thankfully I didn’t have that but worth knowing. 

 

  Indeed!

 

First, I hope you are recovering well and will be fine soon... for more travel of course!

 

I forgot that my first "bright idea" had been to print out all of those pages (and there were sooooo many, given all of the months involved) and blacking out everything other than travel expenses.  It would have looked like some redacted governmental document, almost all black lines!

And then, we'd have needed to scan each page back in... DH and I looked at each other after I described my "plan", and... nope!

What's "privacy" in this day and age, eh?  The younger generations don't even seem to care much about it, but we DO.

Er, we *used to*....!

 

However, *medical* information... we keep that at the "Just The Facts, Ma'am!" and not a thing more.

(Thus far, we've only needed forms filled out by physician(s), not "full medical records"... we'll see in the future...)

 

Again, I hope you are healing well.  What a dreadful way to interrupt a trip, but YES, thank goodness for the insurance.

 

We *always* get third party insurance so that *everything* is covered, starting from the moment we shut the door and get in the car, until we are home again.  So, the trip to the airport, etc., the cruise (or just land trip), all excursions even if done "on our own", pre- and post-cruise hotels, etc.

Check with Trip Insurance Store.  If you ask them about comparing types of coverages, we found them very, very patient, and we learned a LOT.  We also explained the types of trips early on, so *we* learned a lot, too.

 

I got a chuckle in return that you felt the same way about "now they know what we spend..." 

 

GC

[Hlitner]

I just measured the pile of documentation and associated info I have in a file....which we used to file claims (two insurance companies) because of a recent travel medical emergency.  My file measures 8 1/2 inches thick (its all paper).  I sometimes wonder how many in the general public deal with all the hassles, requirements, and road blocks encountered in complex claims.  Personally, I have over thirty years in the Medical Insurance/government industry and found the entire process overwhelming and quite frustrating.  

 

Hank

[SempreMare]

 

 

Search turned up this thread when I was searching for info about TripMate.

 I just booked a Viking cruise and Viking partner's with TripMate to offer a 100% cancel for any reason policy.  

 

2 strikes against TripMate before reading this thread:

1) WOW their recent ConsumerAffairs.com reviews are terrible.

2) They are not one of Steve Dasseos' Trusted 9 insurers 

 

In quoted text below, I added bolding to the original quote:

On 11/13/2018 at 1:55 PM, trav25 said:

I know now that if you do a private tour on shore with a group other than the cruise, you should have a separate policy to cover anything not done while on a trip sponsored tour.

 

I did not realize that.    Many thanks for starting this topic @trav25

 

Goodness, if I'm going to the hassle of buying a trip insurance policy, I only want to have to buy one of them.  

 

On 11/13/2018 at 1:55 PM, trav25 said:

Keep all receipts in a file.  That includes the credit card or e-check statement that shows you actually paid for the trip.  Flights, tours, cruise all with billing statements showing you did pay.  

 

Is the PDF statement from the cruise line good enough proof that I paid? 

Are you saying I will need my credit card statement showing the transaction as well? 

 

re: Allianz

On 11/13/2018 at 1:55 PM, trav25 said:

 they are the ones who keep asking for info.  No email.  They expect me to look and when it says more documentation needed, you have to call. Then you have to call and call some more with each new documentation they need.

 

That sounds like Allianz intentionally designed a terrible customer service experience. 

Goal:  Make you go away and accept defeat.

Good to know.

 

 

On 11/13/2018 at 1:55 PM, trav25 said:

I know now that if you do a private tour on shore with a group other than the cruise, you should have a separate policy to cover anything not done while on a trip sponsored tour.

[SempreMare]

On 11/14/2018 at 11:00 AM, Hlitner said:

I just measured the pile of documentation and associated info I have in a file....which we used to file claims (two insurance companies) because of a recent travel medical emergency.  My file measures 8 1/2 inches thick (its all paper). 

 

!!!