Anyone
who has ever booked a trip or vacation of any length has
probably been hit up to buy something called “travel
insurance”. If you are ever tempted to buy this stuff,
do yourself a favor and call me so I can tell you what
to do.
As the saying goes…fool me once, shame on you…fool me
twice…shame on me.
Some years ago, being the good Samaritan that I am,
decided to send my Mother in Law on a trip to the Holy
Land. Being the wise steward that I am I signed her up
for travel insurance since she was almost eighty years
old, and who knows what can happen. The first rattle out
of the box, she slips and falls and has to be rushed to
the hospital in Jerusalem for surgery. I end up
canceling a trip my wife and I had booked to England so
that my wife could get over and help out with her
mother. In short, my Mother in law’s trip was cancelled,
and so was ours.
If you think the trip insurance paid for any of these
you are sadly mistaken. On the trip we had booked to
London, they gave us some flimsy excuse about our need
to send anyone to help my wife’s mother…they took the
position that we could have sent someone else. Who? I
don’t know. Claim denied.
As far as paying a part of the costs of my mother in
law’s surgery or reimburse us for her trip being
cancelled, sorry Charlie, but you’re out of luck again.
Seems the only thing they really pay for is shipment of
your body back to the US if you happen to die. Anything
else is not covered in the policy.
Fast forward to this week. We are scheduled out to
Hawaii for a cruise when we hit a major snag in our
business and have to cancel this trip for the time
being. You think any part of this is going to be
refunded? Nope, not a chance. Nada, nothing, zero, zip.
Seems you can only cancel (see the fine print) up to 30
days (thirty) days prior to your departure date. I don’t
consider thirty days to be an emergency. I deem
emergencies to be things that happen to you the night
before, not the month before.
Needless to say, this isn’t something I’ll ever spend my
hard earned money on again in the future. These things
aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Looks to me
like you’d have to meet certain qualifications that are
virtually impossible under normal conditions. If I
wanted to verify this for myself, I’d probably find that
they only pay full benefits in the event you are:
captured by aliens and forced to accompany them to the
planet Zerk for at least 35 days, but not longer than 51
days. You are injured while scuba diving in Phoenix,
when there is a full moon, but not in any months having
the letter ‘r’ in them. Your train, boat, plane is
delayed more than six days causing you to cancel your
vacation since you had to spend your entire allotted
time in the terminal, if you left for any reason than
the payment offer is null and void. They would pay
replacement cost for your luggage and belongings up to
the claim limit of $15.00. Loss of any arms or legs on
any trips would have to be proven to have been the
responsibility of the Republic of Burma.
Your body would be transported back to the United States
in the event you were to die. However, the claim forms
would have to be filled out and signed, in triplicate
and notarized by you before any consideration for any
payment would be made.
As I said….’shame on me.”
