I have two new rules before I publish a Blog post:
- Don’t stay up all night the night before
- Have someone without Austism review it first (I have Asperger’s)
My good friend Amrit reviewed this one. If you need a good writer, don’t hire me. Hire Amrit. He provides professional content writing services.
In my previous Nov 30, 2016 post Why Kara’s Claim Wasn’t Paid I failed to say exactly why Kara’s claim was not paid.
About:
Kara bought a trip cancellation policy with “Cancel For Any Reason” coverage from our website. Due to some unavoidable reasons (a military coup in Turkey!) she was forced to make some changes to her trip, which is fairly understandable. The problem is, she made those changes without consulting us. The changes she made weren’t covered in the policy and had she contacted us before making the changes, we would have told her, and would have even advised her how to make the changes so that she would be properly covered.
Consequently, she didn’t get her claim and now she thinks we are responsible for the unfortunate predicament. She has shared her experience, although a bit misplaced when it comes to mentioning my business, on Yelp. Here is my response.
The reason her claim wasn’t payable is that she had a “Cancel For Any Reason” policy.
“Cancel For Any Reason” is just that – cancelling your entire trip for a reason that is normally not covered (e.g., changing your mind). It’s not “Delay For Any Reason”, nor is it “Change Your Travel Arrangements For Any Reason”.
As I said, Never start a sentence about how travel insurance works with “One would think …”. You will be wrong and potentially unhappy. In this case specifically, the error that led to the claim denial was making the words “Cancel” and “Change” synonyms even though they are not. Cancel and Change mean different things.
It is precisely the difference between Cancel and Change that is why the insurance company said “you can file for 75% reimbursement for the cost of the original tickets that you cancelled under the any reason option but the costs associated with changing or booking new tickets wouldn’t be covered because the insurance doesn’t cover the costs associated with the traveler deciding to change their trip around.”
This is exactly why I say “Contact us before you start changing your travel arrangements. If you do something that is not covered and then tell us after the fact, I doubt there’s much we can do to help you get your claim paid.”
Had she contacted us, we clearly would have said “You have to cancel all your travel arrangements at least 48 hours before you are scheduled to leave. Your policy will not cover changes”.
I hope this made sense. If not, let me know. And, be sure call us when you think you might have a claim.
I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we'll help you figure it all out.
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