Follow Along. Let's See How This Goes

[klfrodo]

Just got back from a great cruise. Left from South Florida.

Since we live on the West Coast, we always stay an extra day and fly home the following day.

 

As with thousands of others, our return flight was canceled the morning of departure (4 April).

Alaska was able to rebook us for 5 April.

 

We had an out-of-pocket expense for an additional hotel night and a couple of meals.

 

We had a TravelSafe policy that I purchased from Steve at TripInsuranceStore. Total claim is for $321.78

Submitted receipts and a letter from Alaska confirming the cancellation (the letter states mechanical) and the rebooking.

 

Let's see what happens.

[canadianbear]

Will be interested to hear the outcome for sure.  

[Babr]

I expect things to go smoothly. Seems like a straightforward claim for trip delay.

 

Nevertheless, please keep us updated in case there are any pitfalls we need to be aware of so we can avoid them.

[GeezerCouple]

We had something very similar, but with late-then-cancelled-then-rescheduled JetBlue flight, on our return from Barbados.  That was a 7-day resort stay, but that part is irrelevant.  The flight arrived the next morning, and JetBlue had two flights out of Barbados that day.  (How JetBlue handled the late-then-cancelled flight was outrageous, but that's another story...)

We had a Travel Insured policy that we bought from Steve/TripInsuranceStore.com - the same as we always do, and this wasn't our first claim with them. 

It was the week before Christmas, just starting high season, and fortunately, the resort didn't have anyone arriving for "our" room until the next day.  Whew.  (There was very little availability, no surprise, and what the other passengers went through, with JetBlue, was apparently nightmarish.  We were *SO* glad we had our own insurance.**)

 

It was paid in a very timely fashion, as have all the others.
The only glitch was that I didn't get a receipt for the *tip* for the taxi driver; we had a receipt for the fare.  TI really does need receipts, and that's fair enough.  They have the right to be wary of fraud.  And it wasn't much, of course, so we just laughed at ourselves, and moved along.

 

** In fact, we had been waiting for hours in the airport lounge when we noticed from online mapping/etc., that "our" flight was NOT "arriving in 1 hour" (the 3rd or 4th claim like that).  It was sitting on the ground in Orlando (not a scheduled stop!) and the crew had timed out.

We went to a supervisor, had them check and confirm that, uh, yes, the flight was not arriving that night, at all, and they gave us that in a written note on airline letterhead.

So we quickly called our hotel, got that room "back", and grabbed a taxi.

Apparently other passengers had to wait until the wee hours for the JetBlue arrangements even to start, and they were then taken to what were described as "unpleasant" (euphemism) rooms, with little time to sleep anyway.

Note:  We would have done what we did even without travel insurance once we verified that there would be no flight at all that night.  However, since we paid for insurance, we submitted the claim and it was paid without any nonsense (except our little misstep about the tip receipt).

 

GC

[klfrodo]

7 May

 

Just a quick update.

Filed the claim on 8 April via the claim's website for TravelSafe on the cbpconnect website.

 

As of today, when I log on to check on my claim, I get this message " Please Note: New claims received by CBP will not be viewable on CBPConnect until processed."

 

I did speak with Steve at TripInsuranceStore and he indicated that I probably shouldn't expect to hear from them for about 5 weeks. So, another week or 2.

[klfrodo]

Follow-Up

7 June and if I look up my claim, it doesn't appear that there is any movement. It's been 60 calendar days since they received my claim

 

So, I sent an e-mail to my Washington State Insurance Commissioner asking what the time limits are to process a claim.

Insurance commissioner got back to me same day.

WAC 284-30-30 Standards for prompt investigation of a claim.

Every insurer must complete its investigation of a claim within 30 days after notification of claim.

 

I just let CBPConnect know of this information and have given them 3 days notice to get back to me before I file an official complaint.

[GeezerCouple]

35 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Follow-Up

7 June and if I look up my claim, it doesn't appear that there is any movement. It's been 60 calendar days since they received my claim

 

So, I sent an e-mail to my Washington State Insurance Commissioner asking what the time limits are to process a claim.

Insurance commissioner got back to me same day.

WAC 284-30-30 Standards for prompt investigation of a claim.

Every insurer must complete its investigation of a claim within 30 days after notification of claim.

 

I just let CBPConnect know of this information and have given them 3 days notice to get back to me before I file an official complaint.

 

What is "CBPConnect"?

GC

[klfrodo]

2 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

What is "CBPConnect"?

GC

CBPConnect is the company (I'm guessing here) that TravelSafe has contracted to handle their Travel Insurance claims. That's where the TravelSafe link takes me when I click to file a claim anyway.

[GeezerCouple]

2 hours ago, klfrodo said:

CBPConnect is the company (I'm guessing here) that TravelSafe has contracted to handle their Travel Insurance claims. That's where the TravelSafe link takes me when I click to file a claim anyway.

 

That's interesting.

 

When we have claims with Travel Insured, we deal entirely with them.

 

GC

[klfrodo]

On 6/7/2022 at 1:21 PM, klfrodo said:

Follow-Up

7 June and if I look up my claim, it doesn't appear that there is any movement. It's been 60 calendar days since they received my claim

 

So, I sent an e-mail to my Washington State Insurance Commissioner asking what the time limits are to process a claim.

Insurance commissioner got back to me same day.

WAC 284-30-30 Standards for prompt investigation of a claim.

Every insurer must complete its investigation of a claim within 30 days after notification of claim.

 

I just let CBPConnect know of this information and have given them 3 days notice to get back to me before I file an official complaint.

10 June

Heard back from CBPConnect via e-mail

"Thank you for your inquiry.  We received your documents on date and they are currently in line for processing.  We are currently experiencing a high volume of claims, please allow additional time for review.  If any additional information is needed you will be contacted by an examiner."

 

Doesn't appear to me that they are too concerned.

I fully understand that they may currently be experiencing a high volume of claims. However, that's not MY problem. That is THEIR problem. I certainly didn't experience a higher degree of communications to let me know they had received my claim. No higher degree of communications to keep me up to date on my claim. Nor a reduction in price for purchased insurance for to reduced level of service.

After Close of Business today, I will go ahead and take the advice of the Insurance Commissioner and file a complaint. At least it will be on record then.

 

[happy cruzer]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:41 PM, klfrodo said:

10 June

Heard back from CBPConnect via e-mail

"Thank you for your inquiry.  We received your documents on date and they are currently in line for processing.  We are currently experiencing a high volume of claims, please allow additional time for review.  If any additional information is needed you will be contacted by an examiner."

 

Doesn't appear to me that they are too concerned.

I fully understand that they may currently be experiencing a high volume of claims. However, that's not MY problem. That is THEIR problem. I certainly didn't experience a higher degree of communications to let me know they had received my claim. No higher degree of communications to keep me up to date on my claim. Nor a reduction in price for purchased insurance for to reduced level of service.

After Close of Business today, I will go ahead and take the advice of the Insurance Commissioner and file a complaint. At least it will be on record then.

 

Keep us posted.  Yep, most of the processing companies have a high volume of claims excuse, maybe if they resolved some the volume would go down? I had a claim in March for trip delay too; still pending.  I think that I will give a couple more weeks until I start a complaint.

[klfrodo]

Received 2 checks today for total amount claimed. They divided the checks equally between myself and my wife. We were both on the same policy.

 

2 for 2 on claims where I followed procedure and had valid claims.

 

Thanks Steve at TripInsuranceStore

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

Received 2 checks today for total amount claimed. They divided the checks equally between myself and my wife. We were both on the same policy.

 

2 for 2 on claims where I followed procedure and had valid claims.

 

Thanks Steve at TripInsuranceStore

 

 

Good to know.  Thank you for the update.

 

The more I read here (and elsewhere), the happier we are that we learned about Steve and TripInsuranceStore.com - and right here on CruiseCritic.

 

Every single claim we've made has been paid.

I give Steve and his associates a lot of credit for that, because they spent a fair amount of time with us (and did so especially early on when we were new to travel insurance) trying to get a policy for us that meets our needs for that trip.  They aren't necessarily the least expensive policies, but... they *work* the way we expect them to!

 

Even with then, we *strongly* encourage people to PHONE them and NOT just rely upon the online summaries.  It's just too easy not to realize what might be excluded that never occurs to someone... perhaps until *that* is what happens.

And it doesn't cost extra to speak with them.

 

We also owe Steve a lot not just for help with claims (especially our first claim for our first insured trip, which was a big one) but also for helping us decide "what to do" during a trip, when I was suddenly hospitalized in the middle of an overseas trip.  That made a mess of all of our careful planning, but we really didn't want to end the entire trip and go home.  We are sure we'd have been fully reimbursed, but that's not what we wanted.  We ended up being reimbursed instead for some additional and different travel plans to get to our final stay before returning home on our originally planned flight.

 

GC