Allianz Travel Insurance - Buyer Beware

[LuvCruising8]

I took out travel insurance for myself and my family for a 7 day cruise. Unfortunately on the cruise I broke my wrist which required surgery. Since the cruise medical staff deemed the surgery non-emergency, it was scheduled for when I returned from the cruise. Due to the injury and subsequent surgery I incurred significant out of pocket medical costs. I submitted a claim with Allianz travel insurance since the injury occurred during my covered period. However they denied my claim since the medical expenses I incurred were not incurred during the cruise or "covered period." Allianz will ONLY cover your out of pocket expenses incurred during the covered period, which is the time period of the cruise. This is despite the fact that the injury clearly occurred during the covered period. I had no way of having my surgery during the cruise. Logically, the surgery took place shortly after returning from my cruise. Allianz denied the claim. Most travel agents are not aware of this policy exclusion from Allianz Travel Insurance. We will never take out another insurance policy from Allianz. Allianz was happy to take our insurance premium and deny our legitimate claim that occurred during the covered period.

[GeezerCouple]

I don't think any (or not most anyway) travel insurance covers medical expenses once one is home.  That's what your regular health/medical insurance is for.

 

Most travel insurance will cover extra expenses incurred due to covered reasons *while* you are traveling.  This could include medical costs, extra transportation or housing needed during that time, etc.

... but not something that would have been otherwise paid for if you were home... once you *are* home.

 

ETA:  I should have added what I wrote in partial response to your other same question:  Unless one has travel insurance with *primary* medical coverage, the travel policy will only pay AFTER your regular health insurance has declined all or part of your medical costs while traveling.

 

GC

Edited June 16, 2023 by GeezerCouple
clarification

[Jersey42]

As @GeezerCouple mentioned, many (probably most) policies will not cover you outside of the "coverage period".  Definitions may vary, but the coverage period typically ends on your scheduled return date.  Sometimes it can be extended due to certain unforeseen circumstances, but I can't recall ever seeing one that extends beyond you actual return home. For example, if you are hospitalized beyond your scheduled return date, you are often covered for that extended period.  The one Allianz policy I looked at (One Trip Prime) unfortunately excludes your situation.

 

That said, there are policies that would have covered your medical expenses after returning home.  Here is sample wording from the Princess Platinum policy:

 

If You incur Covered Medical Expenses for Necessary Treatment of an Accidental Injury or a Sickness that occurs during the Trip. You must receive initial treatment for Accidental Injuries or the onset of the Sickness while on the Trip. All Necessary Treatment must be received within fifty-two (52) weeks of the date of the Accident or the onset of the Sickness.

 

Here is an excerpt from another policy (Travel Guard Deluxe):

 

The Company will pay a benefit to reimburse the Insured for these expenses for all treatment related to the initial Injury or Sickness for 365 days from the date of the first treatment during the Trip, or until the Return Date, whichever is later

 

In the future, when you read the policy look for this type of language.  Or, deal with a good broker such as tripinsurancestore and ask questions.  I have never seen this type of detail in any of the online summaries, the devil is in the policy details.

 

If you have something other than Allianz One Trip Prime, read your policy just to be sure your situation is actually excluded.  If you see promising language, you can always appeal citing excerpts from your specific policy.

 

 

[GeezerCouple]

14 minutes ago, Jersey42 said:

As @GeezerCouple mentioned, many (probably most) policies will not cover you outside of the "coverage period".  Definitions may vary, but the coverage period typically ends on your scheduled return date.  Sometimes it can be extended due to certain unforeseen circumstances, but I can't recall ever seeing one that extends beyond you actual return home. For example, if you are hospitalized beyond your scheduled return date, you are often covered for that extended period.  The one Allianz policy I looked at (One Trip Prime) unfortunately excludes your situation.

 

That said, there are policies that would have covered your medical expenses after returning home.  Here is sample wording from the Princess Platinum policy:

 

If You incur Covered Medical Expenses for Necessary Treatment of an Accidental Injury or a Sickness that occurs during the Trip. You must receive initial treatment for Accidental Injuries or the onset of the Sickness while on the Trip. All Necessary Treatment must be received within fifty-two (52) weeks of the date of the Accident or the onset of the Sickness.

 

Here is an excerpt from another policy (Travel Guard Deluxe):

 

The Company will pay a benefit to reimburse the Insured for these expenses for all treatment related to the initial Injury or Sickness for 365 days from the date of the first treatment during the Trip, or until the Return Date, whichever is later

 

In the future, when you read the policy look for this type of language.  Or, deal with a good broker such as tripinsurancestore and ask questions.  I have never seen this type of detail in any of the online summaries, the devil is in the policy details.

 

If you have something other than Allianz One Trip Prime, read your policy just to be sure your situation is actually excluded.  If you see promising language, you can always appeal citing excerpts from your specific policy.

Thanks Jersey42.  I just learned something, which is always good! 🙂 

And although it's unlikely to be useful to us (but hey, who knows!?), it will help me to give better information to others, especially about that Travel Guard policy, which isn't restricted to use of one specific travel vendor.

(It sounds vaguely familiar, so I probably did hear about it before and just forgot.  We always get our travel insurance through TripInsuranceStore.com - and they have one particular policy from Travel Insured that is "just right" for us, so we now just "order the same", so to speak, when we call TIS. 😉 )

 

And the best advice of all is to ALWAYS read all of the terms and conditions of any insurance policy (not just travel insurance), and more generally, *any* contract that one is agreeing to.

 

GC

 

[Jersey42]

43 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

And although it's unlikely to be useful to us (but hey, who knows!?), it will help me to give better information to others, especially about that Travel Guard policy, which isn't restricted to use of one specific travel vendor.

I don't know if there are other non cruise line specific policies that offer this coverage, but I suspect there might be.  I looked at a handful of of policies that I had PDFs for, and Travel Guard was the only one I found. 

 

Most of the major cruise line policies do seem to cover this situation.  The ones that use Aon Affinity and Nationwide all seem to have the same language as the Princess one I previously mentioned.  Most of the other cruise line policies that I have seen also cover expenses up to a year after the incident.  BUT - the cruise line policies usually have a very low cap on medical expenses (10K - 25K), so the risk to offer this coverage is much different than a third party policy that usually offers $100K++ coverage. Two cruise line policies that I know would not cover this situation are Disney and Viking.  Viking offers $100K of medical coverage (the only one I know of with a reasonable amount), so I get it.  Disney offers the typical $20K medical coverage, so I am not sure why they specifically exclude the OP's situation.

[jclinard]

Always read the policy.  I was reviewing one from Travel Insured where they specifically exclude coverage if you're directly involved in a traffic accident en-route to your trip departure city or scheduled destination.