Travel

Beware of Travel Insured International

Austin

Nov 09, 2009, 11:15 PM

We have used travel insurance several times before but never had to make a claim. However, we had a cruise schedule for Sept. 3 out of Cape Liberty, and decided to do 3 nights in NYC pre-cruise.

Our TA sold us a cruise and included travel insurance for our whole trip through Travel Insured International. In August my husband was hospitalized 4 times with heart related problems. The last time, the cardiologist was still saying we could cruise, but recommended that we cancel the NYC part of the trip.

I immediately contacted Travel Insured International and spoke with a nice representative, she said this was exactly what the insurance was designed to do. She said she couldn t absolutely say, but to go ahead and make the changes in the tickets. She also emailed me the forms to fill out.

The cost to change the tickets was an additional $260 for increase in airfare (since we were only about 10 days out and the flights to Newark were almost sold out). There was also a $300 change fee for the two tickets.

After the cruise (luckily without incident) I submitted all of the forms and backup that I had, along with the doctors note.

On 10/5/09, I received a letter from them stating: Please note that the additional cost of the airfare IS NOT A COVERED EXPENSE, only the cost of the change fees. What.

After emailing, this is the response from the adjuster:

“Thank you for your email of 10/6/09.

The additional cost of your airfare is not a refundable expense as this is a part of your trip cost. It is the cost of your airline ticket which you will use to go on your trip. We refund the change fees as this is not a part of your trip cost, they are fees charged to rebook your flights to go on your trip.”

I appealed (since this just doesn t make sense to me) and received a letter from their Claims Supervisor, who re-stated they would only pay the change fees, and the extra money was just the cost of taking our vacation.

I guess we are lucky just losing $260. And I worry that, if we had a medical problem on the ship and needed to get on a flight from a port - would they pay just for the change fees and not the extra money for the flight to return home? (Assuming we could get a flight with our scheduled carrier)

Just our experience with this company.