Has anyone used the "advocacy services" provided by insuremytrip.com?

I am currently filing a claim for a cancelled cruise due to illness. I understand that Insuremytrip.com has advocacy services available to its customers. I learned this reading some of the reviews on their website.

Has anyone had any experiences with this service? It sure sounds like it could be something of value if needed.

I'm interested in this too. Hopefully, it will get some traffic over the weekend.

I am currently filing a claim for a cancelled cruise due to illness. I understand that Insuremytrip.com has advocacy services available to its customers. I learned this reading some of the reviews on their website.

 

Has anyone had any experiences with this service? It sure sounds like it could be something of value if needed.

Are you expecting a dispute about your claim?

If you've got all the proper documents, and nothing violates the terms of the insurance, then why anticipate any problems?

There do seem to be some insurers who are, shall we say, reluctant to pay.

However, the best thing would be to avoid those companies, and go with insurers who do pay promptly and without lots of delays or inappropriate attempts to deny. And with this type of company, "advocacy" might not be so helpful.

After hearing lots of problems here (and elsewhere) about hassles/denials of claims, we were rather nervous when our very first major trip with insurance was cancelled due to a medical emergency with less than 2 weeks to go.

However, within about a week of submitting the final docs, we got a phone call that "the check was in the mail", and a few days later the check arrived.

We'll stay with that insurer (Travel Insured, purchased through TripInsuranceStore.com).

GeezerCouple

They tried for me once. Unsuccessfully.

I lost my Hotwire auto rental payment when my flight was cancelled and we were rerouted to another airport. I wound up paying for another car rental from the second airport. My biggest complaint was that this was a small claim, about $125.00. It really wasn't worth going through too much over it.

But I would have been satisfied if they offered to pay for the second rental fee which was about $50.00. The insurance was over $500.

Not sure if the OP is at the stage where they need an advocate. The first step is to simply file the claim (according to the policies claim filing rules) and document the situation as best as possible. With a little luck the claim will be properly paid. If not, that is the time to look towards an advocate. Just keep in mind that any insurance company is going to demand specific information regarding the nature of the illness and verification from a licensed physician.

We once files a claim for a cancelled trip (due to illness that led to a death) with one of Insure my Trip's insurance carriers. We simply downloaded the claim form from the insurer (in our case it was CSA), completed the form, submitted it with documentation, and received payment in about 2 months.

Hank

I am the OP. Thank you for your responses. I have filed a claim with all of the necessary documentation required by the insurance co. I came down with “acute gastroenteritis” the day before we were to fly to Miami and two days before we were to board the ship (Like any cruise ship would let me on board with that dx!) Not only did the MD fill out his part of the insurance form, but he also wrote a brief letter on his clinic letterhead stating that I could not travel, specifically stating air and cruise travel, until I was asymptomatic for 3 weeks. He also described me as being “contagious.”

I asked about advocacy services from reading reviews of those that filed claims. My issue was that my claim papers were not arriving at the insurance company (Insure Assist) and I was getting worried. It took 10 days until the insurance company told me that they had them.

We are out a lot of money and I sure hope that we will prevail. We lost our airfare as we booked flight tickets well ahead of time and cannot make the one year from booking date to schedule another flight. I did not know that you could add flight cost to the insurance plan.

This has been very depressing to lose our cruise that we planned over a year in advance.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

Judith

I am the OP. Thank you for your responses. I have filed a claim with all of the necessary documentation required by the insurance co. I came down with “acute gastroenteritis” the day before we were to fly to Miami and two days before we were to board the ship (Like any cruise ship would let me on board with that dx!) Not only did the MD fill out his part of the insurance form, but he also wrote a brief letter on his clinic letterhead stating that I could not travel, specifically stating air and cruise travel, until I was asymptomatic for 3 weeks. He also described me as being “contagious.”

 

I asked about advocacy services from reading reviews of those that filed claims. My issue was that my claim papers were not arriving at the insurance company (Insure Assist) and I was getting worried. It took 10 days until the insurance company told me that they had them.

 

We are out a lot of money and I sure hope that we will prevail. We lost our airfare as we booked flight tickets well ahead of time and cannot make the one year from booking date to schedule another flight. I did not know that you could add flight cost to the insurance plan.

 

This has been very depressing to lose our cruise that we planned over a year in advance.

 

Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

 

Judith

I hope your claim is paid in full for the cruise.

We had a similar medical emergency (different dx) less than 2 weeks before we were scheduled to leave home for our "first major pre-retirement trip" - a Hawaiian cruise plus a week land-based, and we paid for flat bed seats given the length of the flight.

We were fully reimbursed.

(And yes, we also had a little bit of difficulty/annoyance finding out that our claim and substantial documenting paperwork were all received and filed promptly. But then, it was soon "the check is in the mail", and it was.)

It's too bad you didn't realize that independent travel insurance (not through cruise lines) is just that: TRAVEL insurance.

Taking a cruise isn't at all necessary.

(One could even insure an expensive non-refundable stay at a hotel in one's home town, for example.)

We've insured air/land based trips as well as cruises ever since that first one.

We especially want to be sure we've got medical coverage wherever we are.

Because at our ages, we've each got assorted pre-existing medical conditions, we always get coverage that waives the pre-existing condition exclusion.

We had that waiver for the cancelled Hawaii trip.

Would there have been a problem otherwise? We have no idea if the insurer would have started demanding all sorts of past medical records or not, or if there would have been any attempt to link the emergency to something previous.

But we didn't have to worry about that.

I suspect it also made the payment faster.

We also have the annual MedJetAssist policy, so IF we are admitted as an inpatient more than 150 miles from home, we'll be able to be flown to the hospital of OUR choice.

That policy covers us for the shorter business and shorter vacations, too.

GeezerCouple