A perfect storm of an insurance nightmare

[jonikal]

After submitting our claim to Allianz insurance, we finally received notification from them that they would only pay a very small fraction of our claim.

Due to our United flight out of Tampa (booked through Hurtigruten's travel team)  being delayed by Newark's Air Traffic problems, we missed our onward connections to Norway and were unable to board our expedition ship, MS Fram, in Bergen.  All other flight options were fully booked and we had no alternative way to get there in time for a 6pm sailing.  Due to the ship's Covid protocol, there was no possibility of joining the ship at a later port.  Our booking was a suite and  included hotel and airfare amounting to a significant sum.  

Allianz apparently will not cover any delay due to Air Traffic control issues unless it is something drastic such as the control tower catching fire.

Is there any recourse to recover some of our costs?  Thank you!

 

[iamtrustworthy]

18 hours ago, jonikal said:

After submitting our claim to Allianz insurance, we finally received notification from them that they would only pay a very small fraction of our claim.

Due to our United flight out of Tampa (booked through Hurtigruten's travel team)  being delayed by Newark's Air Traffic problems, we missed our onward connections to Norway and were unable to board our expedition ship, MS Fram, in Bergen.  All other flight options were fully booked and we had no alternative way to get there in time for a 6 pm sailing.  Due to the ship's Covid protocol, there was no possibility of joining the ship at a later port.  Our booking was a suite and  included hotel and airfare amounting to a significant sum.  

Allianz apparently will not cover any delay due to Air Traffic control issues unless it is something drastic such as the control tower catching fire.

Is there any recourse to recover some of our costs?  Thank you!

 

Hi jonikal,

 

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with Allianz. In 2003, when I was their 9th largest seller, I stopped doing business with their predecessor Access America for good reasons like you have experienced.

 

If you haven't done so yet, you need to get help from whoever sold you the Allianz policy. They would have earned a commission from your sale and, in my opinion, they are morally obligated to help you with your claim.

 

Steve Dasseos

[jonikal]

5 hours ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi jonikal,

 

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with Allianz. In 2003, when I was their 9th largest seller, I stopped doing business with their predecessor Access America for good reasons like you have experienced.

 

If you haven't done so yet, you need to get help from whoever sold you the Allianz policy. They would have earned a commission from your sale and, in my opinion, they are morally obligated to help you with your claim.

 

Steve Dasseos

Thank you, Steve.  Unfortunately we did not use an agent to purchase this insurance but rather contacted them ourselves. Lesson learned.  And a very costly one at that.  

[Jersey42]

On 8/3/2022 at 5:57 AM, jonikal said:

Allianz apparently will not cover any delay due to Air Traffic control issues unless it is something drastic such as the control tower catching fire.

Is there any recourse to recover some of our costs?  Thank you!

You may want to keep fighting.  Other than the time you will have to spend, you have nothing to lose.

 

Take a look at the thread below which involved another Allianz plan (I assume) and had a happy ending. It's not exactly your situation, but it was similar.  I had looked at the policy that Allianz had posted on line for the OP's state and the situation did not appear to be a covered reason, even though it might have been covered for another state.  I'm not sure what caused Allianz to change their mind, but they eventually paid. Good luck.

 

 

[GeezerCouple]

Wow.  That certainly isn't good, to put it mildly.

 

I haven't seen the actual wording of the policy, obviously, and I'm not a travel insurance expert (or any insurance expert), and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

 

But... might it be worthwhile to contact the Insurance Commissioner's Office in your state?

Insurance is regulated by the state, so maybe?

It sounds like it might involve enough money to give it a try.

 

As far as the policy wording, I guess the traveler buying the policy is always (or almost always?) at a disadvantage.  After all, it's the insurance company that knows why they are using certain specific wording, and what that actually means wouldn't be covered, etc.

😱

I wonder at what point something like that could/would be considered deceptive...

 

Good luck.

 

And it's problems like this that make us very happy that we learned about Steve (comment above) and www.TripInsuranceStore.com from reading CruiseCritic very soon after planning our very first major trip (after our honeymoon).  We've had several claims, (including for a medical emergency that caused us to cancel entirely that first trip less than 2 weeks before our planned departure).   We purchased all of the policies from TIS... and every claim was paid without nonsense.*

 

*The only bit not paid was for tips for a taxi driver overseas.  I didn't think to get a receipt for that; we had a receipt for the taxi fare.  "No receipt = no payment" is the general rule for insurance.  After all, insurers do have the right to see receipts (or other proof of loss) to avoid fraud.  And it was such a small amount that it wasn't worth fussing about.

 

GC