Travel Insurance - Part 1

In my youthful days, I never bothered with travel insurance. As I've gotten older and have greater time to visit more remote areas, travel insurance has become part of my trip expense. That said, up until my trip to Antarctica, I've never had to submit a travel-related insurance claim for reimbursement. I thought sharing my claim experiences could be helpful to others. This discussion is broken into two parts for readability. Part 2 will discuss the aftermath of my claims.

Available Insurance Coverage
As a starting point, lets review possible sources of travel insurance. I'm familiar with four types of travel insurance that could help cover necessary expenses after an incident that disrupts a trip. I currently have access to each type of travel insurance.

1) Travel insurance from a credit card: My wife and I use one credit card for all of our travel expenses. This card provides travel insurance for car rentals, trip cancellation/interruption, baggage delay, lost baggage and roadside auto assistance. This credit card insurance policy only provides secondary coverage - meaning this insurer will only consider payment after other sources of travel insurance coverage have been exhausted.

2) Private travel insurance: Depending on the company, there is often a base plan that covers trip cancellation/interruption, trip delay, baggage delay, lost baggage, medical benefits and medical evacuation. Higher dollar coverage levels, as well as add-ons for car rental, flight accident and reimbursement for "cancel for any reason" will increase the insurance premium. Companies such as Travelex and TravelGuard are among the many that provide travel insurance policies.

3) Medical evacuation insurance: Many of the travel insurance plans provide for medical evacuation to the nearest suitable hospital. This doesn't necessarily include medical plane or even commercial transportation to medical facilities back in your home country. Medical evacuation insurance can be purchased to serve this coverage gap. Insurers include Medjet Assist (actually a membership program) and Global Rescue.  

4) Homeowners or renters insurance: Your policy may provide insurance coverage for your off-premises possessions. Read your policy carefully to see of this type of coverage is available and, if so, the deductible. Also consider that a claim against your homeowners insurance could affect future premiums. For this reason, I hesitate to file a homeowners insurance claim for lost travel items.

My Travel Insurance Claims
During our Antarctica trip, we experienced:

• a damaged and unrepairable bag that required replacement at the start of the trip,
• a weather related trip interruption that caused us to miss pre-reserved hotel stays and pay one-night penalties and the costs for new flights, 
• a delayed bag (still missing after three weeks) that caused us to replace a rental item in the bag, and 
• the likelihood that the above bag was lost or stolen, along with its contents.

Starting The Claim Process

After returning home, I found the websites for each insurer and downloaded the claim instructions. Depending on the insurer, the actual claim forms could either be filled out online or had to be printed and submitted via postal mail and/or fax. I also found the documentation requirements to vary by each insurer, as well as the timeframe for submitting an insurance claim (ranging 30 to 180 days after the incident). It is important to fully understand both the documentation requirements and timelines for claim submittal - particularly if you want to avoid a claim processing delay or having the claim denied.

Damaged Baggage - I received my bag in Punta Arenas with a broken zipper. This damage prevented the main storage compartment from closing, I reported the damage to the LAN Airlines baggage attendant. The attendant dismissed me, responding that such damage was not the airline's responsibility. As I was boarding another flight in 36 hours, I took pictures of the damaged bag and replaced the duffel as a personal expense the next day. The damaged bag was discarded in Chile as I had no easy way of transporting a damaged empty duffel. I submitted a claim for baggage damage to American Airlines and Travelex, along with a photo of the damaged bag and receipts for the new duffel. I suspect that American will deny the claim and suggest the claim be directed to Travelex.  

Delayed Baggage - Airline carriers have some responsibility for delayed and/or lost baggage. I reported the baggage delay at the baggage claim area in San Francisco, my final destination. I provided bag description and route information and received an incident number from American Airlines. Over the next five days after receiving the incident report, I called American Airlines or checked online for bag status. The incident file wasn't substantially updated and a call to American Airlines revealed that LAN Airlines never responded to an American baggage query during the initial five days (I checked the bag at a LAN Airlines counter in Punta Arenas to San Francisco). After five days, the incident was transferred to American's central baggage service in Dallas. Interestingly, my 'delayed' bag had TWO personalized luggage tags. No one called in response to the tags and the likelihood of both tags being pulled off seems remote.

Unfortunately, I packed a battery charger belonging to a rented DSLR in my 'delayed' duffel. This charger and camera were both due to be returned soon after the end date of my travel. The only way to avoid continuing rental charges was to purchase a replacement charger and return it with the DSLR to the store. I submitted a delayed baggage expense claim to American Airlines for reimbursement of the new battery charger. 

Lost Baggage: Apparently, I need to wait three to five weeks for American's central baggage service to determine whether the bag is truly lost. Nonetheless, I submitted a claim to American and Travelex when American's central bag service took over the search. American requests a list of bag contents and bag description to aid the search effort. I wanted Travelex to have the same information to speed-up the eventual claim processing. The credit card insurer required receipt of the lost baggage claim within 30 days of the incident. However, it also wanted to know the lost baggage amount paid by American and/or Travelex before it would review the actual claim. Given that the credit card insurer has a 180 day window for claim submittal, I'll submit the credit card insurer lost baggage claim when I hear back from American and/or Travelex.

American Airlines covers the "value" of the items in lost baggage. In comparison, Travelex covers the "replacement" cost of the items in a lost bag. I suspect that "value" and "replacement" are two different dollar figures. American requires a full description of each lost item. American also asks for a receipt for any baggage item with a value of $150. I did not have a receipt for one item, so I simply provided a screen print of a comparable item and its pricing. Travelex requested a claim be submitted with a full description of each lost item and a copy of receipts for as many items as possible. For items I lacked a receipt, I provided a screen print of a comparable item. As you might imagine, the Travelex claim material was quite thick. I mailed the Travelex claim via a USPS priority mail envelope, with signature upon delivery ($7.40).

Trip Interruption/Cancellation: Travelex and the credit card insurer requires this insurance claim to be submitted 30 days after the incident.  I forwarded claims to both Travelex and credit card insurer about a week after the incident. Each insurer had similar documentation requirements.  Included with the claim form was a detailed description of when and how the interruption/cancellation occurred, a copy of the original and revised itinerary, a letter from my Antarctica expedition company confirming weather-related flight cancellations, documents reflecting a one-night cancellation penalty from two hotels due to "no-shows" and a credit card statement documenting new flight expenses imposed by the weather delay and any airline reimbursements for paid but unused flight tickets. The credit card insurer also required previous statements reflecting credit card payment for all trip expenses.

The preparation of all three types of travel insurance claims took several days. The lesson learned from the baggage incident is to pack all borrowed items - even just a battery charger - in your carry-on luggage. Also, maintaining an accurate pre-boarding inventory of ALL items in your check-in luggage will greatly ease the preparation of any future travel insurance claim.  Finally, if you have a baggage that was severely damaged in transit, take a digital photograph of the damaged area. I suspect this picture will help the insurer to understand the damage and why retaining the broken luggage throughout your trip was not possible.

In part two of this topic, I'll describe what actually happened with my claims and notes on my experiences with the claim representatives.