Claim documentation

[IslandThyme]

Hey Steve - I was going to ask this by email, but it occurs to me that many people may need this information. The question is: what documentation do we need to collect to support a travel insurance claim? Here are two real life examples:

 

1) A tour company's web site states that it will give you a 100% refund on the pre-paid price if the port stop is cancelled due to extreme weather. However, the port stop gets cancelled due to political unrest, which the tour company doesn't cover. What do we need to do to document the cancellation of the visit and the fact that it wasn't refundable by the tour company?

2) A passenger is forced to leave a cruise early because of an emergency at home, but it's not a medical emergency. What do we need to collect to document the need for the trip interruption, lost cruise days, additional airline cost to change flight home, and possible food and lodging costs associated with the change in flight date?

 

In the middle of events like these it can be hard to remember to gather information to support a claim, and it's difficult or impossible to do so after the fact. Can you give us some guidelines? Thanks for all you do for us,

 

Abra

 

[iamtrustworthy]

53 minutes ago, IslandThyme said:

Hey Steve - I was going to ask this by email, but it occurs to me that many people may need this information. The question is: what documentation do we need to collect to support a travel insurance claim? Here are two real life examples:

 

1) A tour company's web site states that it will give you a 100% refund on the pre-paid price if the port stop is cancelled due to extreme weather. However, the port stop gets cancelled due to political unrest, which the tour company doesn't cover. What do we need to do to document the cancellation of the visit and the fact that it wasn't refundable by the tour company?

2) A passenger is forced to leave a cruise early because of an emergency at home, but it's not a medical emergency. What do we need to collect to document the need for the trip interruption, lost cruise days, additional airline cost to change flight home, and possible food and lodging costs associated with the change in flight date?

 

In the middle of events like these it can be hard to remember to gather information to support a claim, and it's difficult or impossible to do so after the fact. Can you give us some guidelines? Thanks for all you do for us,

 

Abra

 

Hi Abra,

 

I'll ask my companies these exact questions and answer here.

 

Steve Dasseos

[philbird]

I'm not Steve but as to #2 above I don't think you would have a claim for losses. Every policy I've read says something about emergency meaning medical or death of a family member. Can you tell us what the emergency was?

[IslandThyme]

It was that my house flooded with sewage. I know, gross. 

[DCGuy64]

On 8/17/2023 at 3:10 PM, IslandThyme said:

It was that my house flooded with sewage. I know, gross. 

Oh, no, I am sorry to hear that! BTW you framed your initial questions brilliantly. I hope things improve soon. We lost our condo in FL due to Hurricane Ian, it wasn't sewage but it was definitely gross.

[IslandThyme]

Hi Steve - I'm just bumping this up to see whether you heard anything definitive back on these questions.

[philbird]

On 8/17/2023 at 1:10 PM, IslandThyme said:

It was that my house flooded with sewage. I know, gross. 

I'm guessing "no coverage". Hope I'm wrong.

[Turtles06]

I’m not Steve, but as to your number 2, whether you have a claim for trip interruption would typically depend on what caused the interruption. I think that with most policies, your right to make a claim would not turn on the mere fact that your trip was interrupted, but whether it was interrupted because of a covered reason. So, for example, an injury that prevented you from continuing your trip. 
 

Obviously, I’m generalizing here, but the key is whether what happened was covered by the policy. 
 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Turtles06

[GeezerCouple]

3 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

I’m not Steve, but as to your number 2, whether you have a claim for trip interruption would typically depend on what caused the interruption. I think that with most policies, your right to make a claim would not turn on the mere fact that your trip was interrupted, but whether it was interrupted because of a covered reason. So, for example, an injury that prevented you from continuing your trip. 
 

Obviously, I’m generalizing here, but the key is whether what happened was covered by the policy. 

 

One thing that was apparently added (or changed?) with travel insurance CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) a few years ago was that it also included "Interruption For Any Reason".  For our policies, it's still the same 75% cash back of the costs that remain unused.  

 

Note that we have not invoked this feature.  In part that was because once when we might have needed to go home early, the insurer (also with Steve's help) arranged to help us "recover" the last week of our trip instead of heading home after a hospital stay.  I'm sure we would have been covered for the "Interruption", because I couldn't "do" anything that last week (I was still not fully well), but I sure preferred to "recuperate" on the shores of Lake Como than to just return home early and get 75% of those non-refundable costs back.  Who knows when we would have gotten back to the area...!?

 

We just didn't do any excursions except the one pre-paid one, which was a chartered boat to scoot us around the Lake for the day.  Wonderful.  I could just sit on the hotel balcony, and then one day sit in the little boat looking at the beautiful scenery, including one amazing hidden cove. 🙂 

 

[I should ADD that I couldn't even use our planned transportation (trains and ferries), so that all had to be changed as well.]

 

GC

Edited September 6, 2023 by GeezerCouple

[Turtles06]

30 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

One thing that was apparently added (or changed?) with travel insurance CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) a few years ago was that it also included "Interruption For Any Reason".  For our policies, it's still the same 75% cash back of the costs that remain unused.  

Thanks for that information, it’s good to know. Of course, it all comes down to the terms of each policy. 
 

Glad it worked out for you!