Travel Guard Insurance

[Hroswitha]

Not knowing this board existed, I just posted on the Royal Caribbean board about our recent experience with Travel Guard. Sorry to say, I'm too computer-illiterate to figure out how to link to it!

 

The main point of the post was that we had an extremely good experience with TG when a medical emergency forced us to cut short a recent trip to Canada and return home by an entirely different route from the one we were ticketed for.

 

We have insured our trips with a variety of companies in the past but based on this experience will probably stick with TG from now on.

[killineybay]

We too usually insure our trip with Travel Guard (gold) and have done so many times. We have never made a claim. However on an upcoming cruise next April we were told by Travel Guard that we will not be eligible for the pre-existing condition waiver (which we previously had) as we are using FF miles to travel home and did not include taxes we paid on that and also the fee we would need to pay if we cancel our flight and need to re-deposit the miles. I had no idea it needed to be included.

I am glad you had a good experience. My feeling talking to Travel Guard today is that they will use whatever excuse they need to get out of paying a claim. I hope I am wrong.

[LDVinNC]

Do they say you had to add this up front and cannot do so now? I thought insurance companies would let you add on to the policy as you made non-refundable payments for hotels, airfare, etc.

[cruiseco]

We too usually insure our trip with Travel Guard (gold) and have done so many times. We have never made a claim. However on an upcoming cruise next April we were told by Travel Guard that we will not be eligible for the pre-existing condition waiver (which we previously had) as we are using FF miles to travel home and did not include taxes we paid on that and also the fee we would need to pay if we cancel our flight and need to re-deposit the miles. I had no idea it needed to be included.

I am glad you had a good experience. My feeling talking to Travel Guard today is that they will use whatever excuse they need to get out of paying a claim. I hope I am wrong.

 

Yep. Many folks find out about Travel Guard's pre-existing waiver conditions the hard way -- after the claim is denied. Here's their fine print:

 

 

"PRE-EXISTING MEDICAL

CONDITION EXCLUSION WAIVER

The Company will waive the pre-existing medical condition

exclusion if the following conditions are met:

(1) This plan is purchased within 15 days of Initial Trip

Payment;

(2) The amount of coverage purchased equals all prepaid

nonrefundable payments or deposits applicable to the

Trip at the time of purchase and the costs of any

subsequent arrangements added to the same Trip are

insured within 15 days of the date of payment or deposit

for any subsequent Trip arrangements;

(3) All Insured’s are medically able to travel when this plan

cost is paid;

(4) The Trip Cost does not exceed $100,000 per person (only

applicable to Trip Cancellation/ Interruption).

 

This coverage will be terminated and no benefits will be paid

under this Pre-existing Medical Condition Exclusion Waiver

coverage if the full costs of all prepaid, nonrefundable Trip

arrangements are not insured."

 

Compare to a company like TravelSafe:

 

"If You have purchased this Plan within 21 days of the date Your initial

Payment or Deposit for Your Trip is received and You are not disabled

from travel at the time Your plan payment is paid, then the Plan exclusion for

Pre-Existing Conditions will be waived"

 

With them if you do not insure the taxes on your FF miles it won't affect your pre-existing coverage as there's no requirement that you insure every last dollar to be eligible for the waiver. You won't get caught in that trap that Travel Guard has set for travelers such as the OP.

Edited September 17, 2016 by cruiseco

[6rugrats]

Yes, this is one reason I no longer insure with Travel Guard and have switched to Travelsafe. I was very unhappy with how my last claim with Travel Guard was processed (though it was not due to this issue).

 

FYI, the person with whom I dealt at TG states they do read these boards and I told her I was going to post my experience; I just haven't had the energy to do so yet.

[iamtrustworthy]

We too usually insure our trip with Travel Guard (gold) and have done so many times. We have never made a claim. However on an upcoming cruise next April we were told by Travel Guard that we will not be eligible for the pre-existing condition waiver (which we previously had) as we are using FF miles to travel home and did not include taxes we paid on that and also the fee we would need to pay if we cancel our flight and need to re-deposit the miles. I had no idea it needed to be included.

I am glad you had a good experience. My feeling talking to Travel Guard today is that they will use whatever excuse they need to get out of paying a claim. I hope I am wrong.

 

Hi killineybay,

 

What was the first name of the person at Travel Guard that told you that? I know of claims that were 100% paid by Travel Guard for pre-existing conditions when neither the taxes paid nor the redeposit fees were paid.

 

What that person told you is not accurate. The trip costs that Travel Guard requires to be insured must be "prepaid" and "nonrefundable". Your redeposit fee is neither. It's only incurred after you cancel or interrupt your trip. You can still include it even though it's not required to get the pre-ex coverage.

 

I can check with Travel Guard on this for you, but it would be helpful to know the first name of the person so they can clarify it with their customer service person.

 

I hope this makes sense.

 

Steve

[cruiseco]

To the OP -- don't fret too much about his until you do a little math. Travel Guard assesses their premiums based on trip costs in $500 dollar increments: $501 to $1,ooo, $1,001 to $1,500 and so on. If your cruise totals $4700 you would have purchased a policy for trips totaling up to $5000. So as long as your FF taxes don't exceed $300 (in this example) those taxes are already figured into the policy you already purchased and would not be a factor ni your pre-existnig medical condition coverage -- they're covered under the policy as is.

Edited September 26, 2016 by cruiseco

[Bo1953]

Deleted...

 

bon voyage

Edited October 10, 2016 by Bo1953

[grandma*knows*best]

I used to use TravelGuard, but after filing two legitimate claims and going through the nightmare of jumping through hoops doing their paperwork; NEVER again. My claims were for very small amounts; one under $100 and the other under $300. It took almost a year to get the first claim paid and I have never received payment for the second claim, which was filed 14 months ago. I finally gave up, as it wasn't worth my time. I will never use them again.

[Hroswitha]

Cruiseco, I'm the OP, and my post concerned a positive experience with Travel Guard--not a complaint!

 

I'm truly sorry to hear that some others have had negative experiences with Travel Guard, but--now that our claim is fully settled--I can only reaffirm what I said in Post #1: Travel Guard took very good care of us!

 

All the people we had contact with--but especially a claims agent named Terri--were helpful, pleasant and efficient. There was, indeed, a good bit of paperwork involved, but once we completed it our claim was processed very quickly. We were reimbursed for everything we'd expected and even an item we had not thought to claim.

 

One thing that might have factored into our positive experience is that we contacted TG directly from the hospital emergency room. As a result, we were able to get a couple of essential forms filled out and signed by the medical personnel right on the spot and didn't have to try and get this done after the fact.

 

The ER doctor conferred during one of the calls directly with TG's doctor, which probably facilitated the authorization for our emergency transport home--which TG not only paid for but arranged in every detail.

 

Fully satisfied!