On October 4, 2011, we agreed to purchase the travel insurance recommended by our travel agent for Royal Caribbean Cruise: Aon/Berkley Travel. We did not see a copy of this policy at the time we purchased it. It turned out to have a "pre-existing condition" clause in it and does not want to pay our claim. I had severe bursitis at the time of the trip in February and a good doctor's excuse. Allianz which serves Delta Airlines paid without any trouble, but this company refuses to pay.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
Trip Mate and Grand Circle Travel (GCT), in my experience, were complicit in my problems. GCT talked me into buying the insurance at the time I booked the trip saying that by doing this "pre-existing conditions would be accepted". As may be noted, my wife had a pacemaker implant prior to booking the trip. She thought she felt well enough to take the river cruise with minimum walking. Subsequently, she had a bad reaction to medication she was taking and we had to cancel the trip and incurred an $800 penalty from GCT.
Putting in a claim form to Trip Mate incurs a 20-working day response time and was useless. They seem to have a large staff of claim examiners whose job is to deny claims and our claim was denied.
I took a trip to the Caribbean (Beaches Resort) this summer and I knew that it was a risky proposition because it was hurricane season. The bought insurance through TripMate since the policy stated that there was coverage for trip interruption. Hurricane Irene struck the island of Turks and Caicos and our resort was flooded. Our room was flooded. The entire place was shut down. The airport was closed for days. Naturally we were trapped until our departure. There was running water and some food, but we were stranded for days until our departure.
Tripmate refused to pay us any benefit since they claim that we were unsatisfied with the amenities we received and stayed for the duration of our trip. What exactly was I supposed to do? Swim back to Florida? They claim that I did no incur any additional expenses to leave. How was I supposed to leave when the airport was closed? They claim that there is no benefit for amenities that were unavailable. I think that a hurricane ravaged island flooded by waters and airport closure qualifies as "trip interruption. " I filed a complaint with the BBB and all they did was forward my emails to TripMate. I got nowhere. Even when the policy states that there is coverage for "trip interruption" because of "flood" or "inclement weather, " they will not pay unless you find a way to incur additional expenses to escape your demise and then have to file a claim after the fact for the unused portion of your trip. Good luck trying to file any claim with them. They will find any excuse to misrepresent the facts and twist the language of the policy to deny the claim. I have yet to read any online posts praising them for paying a claim.
Trip Mate refused to reimburse for lost items out of luggage on trip to Peru. The trip was cut short by riots at Lake Titicaca and a bomb in the Cusco airport. Trip Mate's reasoning was losses were not reported to authorities. Well, we did not sleep for two days. And the authorities were busy with riots and bombs. We did not have the time to inventory possessions, until we were safely back in Lima. I did tell the hotel in Lima, but they did not give me any documentation. Trip Mate took three months to decide that they would not pay up.
This unreliable and unethical company stalled for three months and finally refused to pay claim for a cruise I had to cancel prior to the sailing date because my husband died unexpectedly in May. Instead of honoring my June 2010 claim they waited until mid September when the cruise company went out of business and then said I had to try to recover my loss from the entities handling the Cruise West bankruptcy as if my trip had been cancelled by the Cruise West rather than me. Cruise West paid their share of my claim promptly in June and said TripMate would pay the remainder. No one from TripMate ever questioned my claim or contacted me after I filed the claim until Oct 2010 when they sent two checks for $60.....they owe me $13k.
In March 2010, my wife and I traveled on their grand circle tour to Chile and Argentina led by your excellent trip director, Nick ** On an air descent into Argentina, my ear began to bleed. Nick wanted me to see a specialist and sent me in the hotel car to the british hospital. He filled out the insurance forms and said there would be no trouble with reimbursement.
After months of correspondence and waiting we finally received $52.00 -- nothing for our travel expenses to and from the hotel or compensation for the two planned trip events that my wife and I missed. For this reason, I have decided that we will no longer travel with grand circle travel or oat. We have asked on at least three occasions to be removed from their mailing list but continued to receive anywhere from two to seven piece of mail from their company each day. Please remove us from your mailing list for all documents immediately.
I bought this travel insurance policy and when I needed to file a claim, they took more than 3 months to process a claim. They were rude and harassing me and my family, trying to make me tired. So I gave up on the claim. Until today, they haven't finished my claim and every time they ask for a document, I send it to them. Then they ask for more documents. Please help!
