Chances of my travel insurance claim being approved.

[Sunburg1]

Here is the situation. In May 2019 I booked a charter cruise scheduled for March 19, 2020 (well before any talk of COVID) and at the same time bought third party (AIG) insurance for the trip. A week before the scheduled date the charter operator and Holland America both cancelled the cruise. I received my down payment and about a third of my final payment back from the charter operator. The operator in now out of business.

 

I filed a claim with AIG for the balance but have heard nothing except a claim number in five weeks.

 

What experience have others had in similar situations?

[GeezerCouple]

8 minutes ago, Sunburg1 said:

Here is the situation. In May 2019 I booked a charter cruise scheduled for March 19, 2020 (well before any talk of COVID) and at the same time bought third party (AIG) insurance for the trip. A week before the scheduled date the charter operator and Holland America both cancelled the cruise. I received my down payment and about a third of my final payment back from the charter operator. The operator in now out of business.

 

I filed a claim with AIG for the balance but have heard nothing except a claim number in five weeks.

 

What experience have others had in similar situations?

 

First, when you phoned AIG, what did they say?

 

Second, how did you pay for your trip?

 

If it was a charge card, there may have been a chance to make a dispute, but you may have missed a deadline - or not.  That would depend upon the terms of the card vendor.  Note that in cases like this, the "number of days from the problem event" may be the date of the cancellation, not the date of your initial payment... when the "item purchased" is to be delivered in the future, etc.

 

For the future, IF you had (or still can) been able to file a dispute with the card *after* making good faith attempts to get a refund from the trip vendor(s), then often the card company will have a lot more luck with them.  (That can include if they find in your favor, they just would withhold that amount when the trip vendor(s) file other charges, but it's not restricted to that.)

 

Some travel insurance turns out not to cover bankruptcy/etc., of the travel vendor(s), but the charge company would probably be a good backup on that.

 

This is a reason we ALWAYS use a good charge card for major purchases/trips.  Amex tends to be especially customer friendly/helpful with respect to this type of problem/dispute, especially when it is clear-cut.

 

Can you check what the terms are of the charge card you used?  CALL them ASAP to ask and to start the dispute so you don't inadvertently miss any deadline while you are investigating.

 

GC

[Babr]

17 hours ago, Sunburg1 said:

Here is the situation. In May 2019 I booked a charter cruise scheduled for March 19, 2020 (well before any talk of COVID) and at the same time bought third party (AIG) insurance for the trip. A week before the scheduled date the charter operator and Holland America both cancelled the cruise. I received my down payment and about a third of my final payment back from the charter operator. The operator in now out of business.

 

I filed a claim with AIG for the balance but have heard nothing except a claim number in five weeks.

 

What experience have others had in similar situations?

Are you asking about a claim against the charter operator who is now out of business?  I’m not sure where Holland America comes into the issue, and the outcome depends on that. The charter is defunct. Holland America is not.

 

Your policy may cover bankruptcy of third party vendors. That means you had to book through someone else. If you booked the charter through a travel agent (second party), then you should be covered for a company that has completely ceased operations, not merely pausing for reorganization.

 

I don’t have enough information about your situation to say one way or the other, but that is basically the way the bankruptcy clause works. As indicated in the other post, you need to talk to AIG to clarify your coverage and how it applies to your booking.

[iamtrustworthy]

On 8/10/2020 at 7:13 PM, Sunburg1 said:

Here is the situation. In May 2019 I booked a charter cruise scheduled for March 19, 2020 (well before any talk of COVID) and at the same time bought third party (AIG) insurance for the trip. A week before the scheduled date the charter operator and Holland America both cancelled the cruise. I received my down payment and about a third of my final payment back from the charter operator. The operator in now out of business.

 

I filed a claim with AIG for the balance but have heard nothing except a claim number in five weeks.

 

What experience have others had in similar situations?

Hi Sunburg1,

 

You can expect your claim to take at least 3 months.

 

What was the exact reason that you gave for why you were filing the trip cancellation claim?

 

Steve Dasseos

[Hlitner]

While I would not put myself in the same class (knowledge-wise) of Steve Dasseos, we lend support to what Steve posted.  In this situation no news (from the insurance company) is good news because they have yet to deny anything :).  If you are losing sleep over the long wait then you could certainly follow-up with AIG and ask for the status of your claim (they will likely tell you it is under review).  Also keep in mind you might have another avenue to get your money refunded.  Assuming you paid for the cruise on a major credit card you should still have "charge back" rights.   In your situation I would contact the credit card company and put the payments under dispute.  When you do this make sure to tell the credit card folks that you are waiting to hear back about your claim but want to get the dispute on your file (this can help you run afoul of possible issues due to the time it took you to file a charge back claim).   The credit card companies are very aware of most of the issues involving cancelled cruises so they will have heard the same story before :(.  

 

Keep good records of all your correspondence, e-mails and phone calls and do not give up the quest.  If the insurance company only refunds a portion of your cruise payments you should still be able to dispute (with your credit card company) the remainder and seek a charge-back for that amount.   When dealing with these companies try to keep your "charm hat on" as being polite can go a long way to helping resolve the issue.

 

Hank

[iamtrustworthy]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

While I would not put myself in the same class (knowledge-wise) of Steve Dasseos, we lend support to what Steve posted.  In this situation no news (from the insurance company) is good news because they have yet to deny anything :).  If you are losing sleep over the long wait then you could certainly follow-up with AIG and ask for the status of your claim (they will likely tell you it is under review).  Also keep in mind you might have another avenue to get your money refunded.  Assuming you paid for the cruise on a major credit card you should still have "charge back" rights.   In your situation I would contact the credit card company and put the payments under dispute.  When you do this make sure to tell the credit card folks that you are waiting to hear back about your claim but want to get the dispute on your file (this can help you run afoul of possible issues due to the time it took you to file a charge back claim).   The credit card companies are very aware of most of the issues involving cancelled cruises so they will have heard the same story before :(.  

 

Keep good records of all your correspondence, e-mails and phone calls and do not give up the quest.  If the insurance company only refunds a portion of your cruise payments you should still be able to dispute (with your credit card company) the remainder and seek a charge-back for that amount.   When dealing with these companies try to keep your "charm hat on" as being polite can go a long way to helping resolve the issue.

 

Hank

Hi Hank,

 

Thanks for the kind words. I've read enough of your posts to know that you are very knowledgeable about how travel insurance works. I don't know your background, but I wouldn't be surprised if you are a lawyer, accountant, engineer or some other highly educated profession.

 

As for the OP, if Financial Default wasn't the reason for the cancellation, I doubt a Financial Default claim will be paid. Instead, the cruise was cancelled by the suppliers.

 

I'm trying to explain a similar situation to seven different customers who were booked for separate trips with a UK company called "Cruise & Maritime Voyages". They were placed in receivership on July 20, 2020.

 

In every case, the travelers cancelled for various reasons that had nothing to do with Financial Default. This is what I've been telling them: "You cancelled your trip for a different reason, so if you haven't sent the claim forms in, go ahead and do that."

 

Steve Dasseos