Trip Mate a real problem

[KTLucke]

Our wonderful Viking River cruise experience has been marred by Trip Mate.  A massive storm on the northeast coast of the US forced us to cancel our initial cruise date due to multiple flight delays causing us to miss our connection to Amsterdam for the cruise.  To our relief, Norman from Viking and a Trip Mate representative both assured us our trip would be fully refunded due to the weather-related cancellation. But Trip Mate now refuses our refund, making the preposterous claim that our cancellation was not weather-related. They still have our $10,000 – it has been 4 months! After their assurance of a refund, we rebooked the cruise and paid another $10,000. This problem has forced us to reconsider booking future excursions and look to other ways to enjoy our retirement.

[Bo1953]

I can only presume that all documents necessary to support your claim was submitted to Trip Mate, have you re-contacted the Viking Rep on the call for assistance with this?

 

This is the first time I have heard of TM, are they an affiliate or recommended by Viking? How did you come by them?

 

bon voyage

[terry&mike]

I don't know the circumstances for your travel in regards to the storm and delays making you miss your connection, but in the case of a river cruise, generally guests continue to make their way on towards Europe and meet at the next stop. If it was Viking and your starting port was Amsterdam, your next port is just a short train ride away.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the deny of claim, in that you chose to return home and file a loss for the entire trip, rather than continue on and arrive a day later, and file a loss for a partial claim. 

[Bo1953]

7 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

I don't know the circumstances for your travel in regards to the storm and delays making you miss your connection, but in the case of a river cruise, generally guests continue to make their way on towards Europe and meet at the next stop. If it was Viking and your starting port was Amsterdam, your next port is just a short train ride away.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the deny of claim, in that you chose to return home and file a loss for the entire trip, rather than continue on and arrive a day later, and file a loss for a partial claim. 

t - Thank you for this, I was not aware of the progression in terms of river cruises.

 

bon voyage

[dogs4fun]

2 hours ago, KTLucke said:

Our wonderful Viking River cruise experience has been marred by Trip Mate.  A massive storm on the northeast coast of the US forced us to cancel our initial cruise date due to multiple flight delays causing us to miss our connection to Amsterdam for the cruise.  To our relief, Norman from Viking and a Trip Mate representative both assured us our trip would be fully refunded due to the weather-related cancellation. But Trip Mate now refuses our refund, making the preposterous claim that our cancellation was not weather-related. They still have our $10,000 – it has been 4 months! After their assurance of a refund, we rebooked the cruise and paid another $10,000. This problem has forced us to reconsider booking future excursions and look to other ways to enjoy our retirement.

Is Trip Mate the company with whom you purchased your travel insurance? Do you have any written documentation to support your promise of a refund?

[terry&mike]

4 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

t - Thank you for this, I was not aware of the progression in terms of river cruises.

 

bon voyage

Yes, the next day's port is Kinderdijk for Viking sailing from Amsterdam (Rhine Getaway, or Grand European), which is less than a 2 hour train journey from Amsterdam. Or if they were on one of the Tulip cruises, it stays docked in Amsterdam for day 2. 

 

I only mention it as I had a client in the Fall headed to meet a river cruise, and they were delayed from New Orleans due to a bad storm. This was going to cause them to miss their connection for the international flight, so they decided to head home from the airport and called me to find out when they could reschedule their river cruise for another sailing as they didn't want to "have to spend the night in Houston" and miss a day of their trip. 

After some back and forth with the cruise line, the airlines, and the clients, they were placed on flights the next morning and arrived a day late into the next stop on the itinerary, very close by.  They received compensation from their insurance company for travel delays. I think they would have been denied had they continued with their idea to scrap the entire journey. 

[Bo1953]

3 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

Yes, the next day's port is Kinderdijk for Viking sailing from Amsterdam (Rhine Getaway, or Grand European), which is less than a 2 hour train journey from Amsterdam. Or if they were on one of the Tulip cruises, it stays docked in Amsterdam for day 2. 

 

I only mention it as I had a client in the Fall headed to meet a river cruise, and they were delayed from New Orleans due to a bad storm. This was going to cause them to miss their connection for the international flight, so they decided to head home from the airport and called me to find out when they could reschedule their river cruise for another sailing as they didn't want to "have to spend the night in Houston" and miss a day of their trip. 

After some back and forth with the cruise line, the airlines, and the clients, they were placed on flights the next morning and arrived a day late into the next stop on the itinerary, very close by.  They received compensation from their insurance company for travel delays. I think they would have been denied had they continued with their idea to scrap the entire journey. 

Thank you for the further explanation, as we have yet to take a river cruise, still doing the research and will keep this in mind.

 

bon voyage

[djett]

Trip Mate is not a travel insurance company. They are a company that some travel insurance companies use to process their claims. According to many posters in the Travel Insurance board, they are well-known for delaying the payment of claims and making the claim process very difficult. Unfortunately, it's usually difficult to know who will be processing your claim unless you really do some research by actually reading the policy.

[dogs4fun]

10 hours ago, djett said:

Trip Mate is not a travel insurance company. They are a company that some travel insurance companies use to process their claims. According to many posters in the Travel Insurance board, they are well-known for delaying the payment of claims and making the claim process very difficult.

Good to know - thanks.

[KTLucke]

The only option provided to us at the time by both Viking and TripMate, was to rebook the cruise since we qualified for a full refund according to the terms of the TripMate travel insurance.

 

A Viking representative did contact TripMate on our behalf, with a response that our appeal had been 'overlooked' and they would prioritize it now! kl

[npcl]

for a lot of policies weather fails under trip delay, not  covered reason for full cancellation, unless the weather issue lasts long enough that catching up to the trip is not possible.

[Coral]

On 12/20/2019 at 11:06 AM, KTLucke said:

The only option provided to us at the time by both Viking and TripMate, was to rebook the cruise since we qualified for a full refund according to the terms of the TripMate travel insurance.

 

A Viking representative did contact TripMate on our behalf, with a response that our appeal had been 'overlooked' and they would prioritize it now! kl

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I live in the middle of the US and have no direct flights anywhere. I have made it a point to fly out 3 days early for European trips. It gives me a few days in case there are weather, travel and luggage delays and if I am lucky and there isn't - I get to explore a great new city in European. I know it is not cheap and I am still a working stiff but it is not worth the stress of missing the trip or trying to catch up.

[PJLoveToTravel]

On 12/20/2019 at 9:06 AM, KTLucke said:

The only option provided to us at the time by both Viking and TripMate, was to rebook the cruise since we qualified for a full refund according to the terms of the TripMate travel insurance.

 

A Viking representative did contact TripMate on our behalf, with a response that our appeal had been 'overlooked' and they would prioritize it now! kl

This is good to know.  I hope I don't have to use it but it's important info.   Thanks

 

[WonderMan3]

On 12/19/2019 at 9:49 PM, djett said:

Trip Mate is not a travel insurance company. They are a company that some travel insurance companies use to process their claims. According to many posters in the Travel Insurance board, they are well-known for delaying the payment of claims and making the claim process very difficult. Unfortunately, it's usually difficult to know who will be processing your claim unless you really do some research by actually reading the policy.

 

They are indeed a travel insurance company. See their website here http://www.tripmate.com/main/

I am quite familiar with them as I used to work for a tour operator that owned a fleet of river cruise ships and Trip Mate was the insurance that we sold to customers. I will agree with you on the fact that they make it extremely difficult to process claims and look for any possible loophole to deny paying out. I had a number of instances of senior travelers on the phone with me in tears because Trip Mate refused to pay out claims on legitimate cancellation reasons. Caveat emptor!

[sharkster77]

We've always used Allianz and had no problems.  In fact, we had insured a trip that got cancelled by the tour company, and we argued that we were now insuring a trip that no longer existed.  They very quickly credited our credit cards for the cost of the insurance.  Very good service.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I also have had good experience with Allianz, and my TA mentioned today that she is helping another customer who is stuck in Europe and that she expects Allianz to do right by them – that's a good referral in my book!

[sharkster77]

10 hours ago, sharkster77 said:

We've always used Allianz and had no problems.  In fact, we had insured a trip that got cancelled by the tour company, and we argued that we were now insuring a trip that no longer existed.  They very quickly credited our credit cards for the cost of the insurance.  Very good service.

To add to my story, we took out the Allianz policy 6 months before the trip, which was canceled 2 months before departure.  We asked for 1/3 refund, since 2 months out of 6 is 1/3.  Allianz chose to refund the entire cost of the insurance.  Outstanding!