Travel Tip #60 - Should you Buy the Travel Insurance?

     Typically, I don't purchase warranties, product insurance or travel insurance. I figure that the people offering the warranty are making money off of the deal, so you would be much better off saving the money in your own little emergency fund that over time will more than cover any benefits you would have gotten from a successful claim or two.
     Last fall, my mother needed a travel companion for a tour she wanted to take in Israel. I agreed to go with her and we purchased the tickets 6 months ahead of time. Since my mother felt strongly about buying the travel insurance, we did it. A few months later, the CO-VID 19 virus started spreading in China. Our tour guide monitored the situation closely and finally decided to cancel the tour about a month before we were supposed to go. We immediately filed a claim, feeling lucky that we purchased the insurance. It was the start of a 3 1/2 month headache.
     Within a couple of weeks, we got a notice from AIG (the company who sold us the insurance) saying that our claim had been denied because it didn't exactly fit the description of what was covered as specified in the fine print. By the time we received notice of the denial, additional factors had occurred that we felt strengthened our case: Israel had issued a mandatory 2-week quarantine of all visitors; Israel then shut their doors to all foreigners; Austria (where we were supposed to have a layover) was closing its borders to foreign visitors; and then our flight was cancelled. Armed with all these additional factors, we resubmitted our claim. Again it was denied, citing their very specific fine print of which cases would covered and claiming that our situation didn't qualify.
     I was incensed. This time I called the company and voiced my complaints. The lady I talked to said that I shouldn't worry about it because the airlines would grant us credit for the cancelled flight. I explained that we didn't want the credit because we weren't sure when or if we would have the opportunity to use it within their time frame and that because we had purchased the insurance we deserved a complete refund. When she informed me that she wasn't authorized to grant our claim, I asked to speak to her supervisor. I was placed on hold for an hour without any indication that the call would ever be continued and finally hung up.
     We filed a third claim, submitting additional documentation that showed that our situation did indeed meet the conditions in the fine print, but this time, we got the runaround. The different people assigned to our case kept requesting documentation that we had already submitted and took weeks to respond to our e-mails despite their company's assurance that most requests receive answers within 10-15 days. We decided to recruit help by filing a complaint with the California Department of Insurance. Finally, 3 1/2 months later, we got an e-mail saying that our claim had been granted. I'm not sure what eventually coerced the company to finally grant our claim; but we were pleasantly surprised, having already given up any hope of seeing the money again.
     Should you buy the travel insurance? That's up to you. All I know is that I will never again purchase travel insurance that is conditional upon the fine print.