Travel insurance: has anyone actually had to USE it?

How easy was your company to work with?

Were you able to get in touch right away?

Were they quick in issuing refunds/getting medical help/finding you alternate hotel, that sort of thing?

Re: Travel insurance: has anyone actually had to USE it?

I know I live in another country, but I have had to make claims on my travel insurance a few times. Once was when I travelled to NY with my son and he was sick and we couldn't fly for another week, they covered the cancellation cost of my BA flight.

ANother time I went to Florida and we were due to go home on Saturday and my son got Chicken Pox on Thursday, so we had to stay there for another week and they paid for a weeks stay at a fancy hotel, car hire and food. It was fantastic, they were so easy to deal with and I got more money than I claimed for (due to the exchange rate)

Re: Travel insurance: has anyone actually had to USE it?

I had to cancel a rebook my trip last August when Hurricane Dean interupped our trip to Playa del Carme. We had Liberty Travel any reason insurance. We just called up, cancelled the trip and applied the balance to a new trip! I always get insurance.

Re: Travel insurance: has anyone actually had to USE it?

WE had to use it once and it was GREAT. We went on a cruise and my mom and her bf rented a motorcycle. They got in an accident and she was badly hurt. The accident was in St. Maarten and they determined that she broke her leg. She did not want to have surgery there so the travel insurance arranged everything. A flight from St. Maarten to Puerto Rico and then a first class flight from Puerto Rico to NY with an escort. A limo was waiting for her at JFK to take her to LIJ.
The insurance was travel guard. Well worth the money.

Re: Travel insurance: has anyone actually had to USE it?

Ha! Funny you should ask this, we just had to use it for the first time last month. THANK GOD we had it. We were supposed to take my FIL on a cruise for his 70th Birthday, but we canceled two days before our departure date because my Aunt, who had been battling breast cancer all year, was hospitalized and I didn't want to leave her. I was nervous that the insurance company was going to give me a hard time, but they didn't and cut me a check covering the cost of the trip. My Aunt since passed away and I'm so grateful I made the decision to stay with her. And I just rebooked my FIL's cruise today and will be purchasing insurance again.
I used Berkley insurance and booked everything through Liberty Travel.

Message edited 12/20/2007 1:17:40 PM.

Re: Travel insurance: has anyone actually had to USE it?

My best friends parents purchased it and ended up having to use it on the their trip to Turkey two years ago. The first day they were there my friends mother, fell in the middle of an open air market and shattered her elbow. She ended up having to have to have surgery in a Turkish hospital, and two days later with the help of the insurance company, all the travel arrangements had been made to get her back home to Boston. They flew her and her husband home business class and had transport waiting for them when they landed.