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View Full Version : Bank Associated Travel Insurance-Beware!!


Little Fokker
9th Jul 2006, 00:37
Hi All, Mrs Fokker & I were flying out of BHX on the 15/06 on the 08:00 KLM flight when the TNT plane had already made an emergency landing and scuppered the morning. As Mrs. F is expecting a Tiny Fokker in coming months, I suggested she pitch down and take it easy while I formed an orderly queue for KLM and find our fate. 3 hours past and I finally thought I would speak to ground staff using a bit of 'power'. He discreetly took my travel docs to arrange an alternative flight for tomorrow. 'And what about accomodation?' I remarked. 'KLM are not obligued to arrange accommodation for you'. I replied 'not even for a Platinum (for life) Member'. Anyway, he took my card and came back and kindly said that KLM put us in the Novotel and gave us £49.90 in vouchers for food. Well done KLM.

Later in the day I pop over to the airport and buy some sandwiches, water etc for Mrs. F. before the big match in the afternoon. I'm in the bar having a quiet drink and then 20 English fans come in and take the place over - (They were off to Spain for the weekend for a stag party). Before it got too rowdy and staff thought I was part of this lot, I asked if their insurance paid for hotel. Answer yes. So this got me thinking. If I was just a regular punter what 'priviledges' would Lloyds Platinum give me.
After the game I called their 'Hotline' and explained the situation. No hotel was available and you got £20 per 12 hours per person. Ok, so we must have spent £40 with food & drinks+drinks from the evening meal in the hotel. (Obviously the Stag Boys got more as they were well on their way by the time we came down for the evening meal!!).
Anyway, returning back to the UK 10 days later I call Lloyds Travel Insurance and explained the situation. This time they informed me that we were not covered for anything!! Why? - Because it was not our flight that was effected. 'Read the new Terms & Conditions that were sent out in March'. Thank you - Bye.
So off to local bank and ask for T & C. Sure enough, everything has changed and the 'free' travel insurance that I thought I had is pitiful. In fact useless. As I travel close to 80 times a year with laptop, i-pod, camera etc plus clothes and money, I had found out I am severly under-insured.

So after telling you all my woes, I want somebody out there to tell me the best annual, multi-trip, family travel insurance I can purchase that will cover the above articles probably totaling £5k and up to £1k in cash, plus making sure I have accomodation if things go wrong on the ground - either here or abroad without the wonderful KLM groundstaff to help out. POI, when Lloyds' travel insurance was ok, I claimed for some ski stuff that got damaged / lost. A few months later when my house & building insurance (also thru Lloyds) was up for renewal, the premium had gone up by 60% - the buggers had both linked into the same underwriters. Needless to say house insurance is elsewhere.....like my travel insurance I hope. Banks....just stick to putting our money in from our employers, taking it away for our mortgage and maybe paying a few pence on our interest when we have some left. Forget the 'carrot dangling' services you are offering - nothing in life is free! Had to get that in - sorry.

Look forward to your replies.

AGPwallah
9th Jul 2006, 21:52
Hi there Mr F,

If you go to www.moneysupermarket.com (http://www.moneysupermarket.com) you'll be able to compare hundreds of suppliers of travel (or any other) insurance> Hopefully there'll be one just right for you.

Regards,
AGP:ok:

SkyFish
10th Jul 2006, 06:15
Amex Platinum - best of all they have a excellent 24hour call centre to help with new flights & best of all they pay out (as I found out after a late night easyjet cancellation)

Has quite a few other benefits but has been the best I've used esp when comparing to a mutiltrip Insurance policy (and did I mention they pay out?)

slim_slag
10th Jul 2006, 10:01
It costs you £300 a year though, most people won't get their money worth and will find it cheaper to buy insurance separately. It's mostly a card to flash. Best insurance deal I have found are those you can get through work. The missis works for a huge multinational and their buying power gets prices down to ridiculous low levels. Also if you have the slightest problem they fall over themselves to help you, they obviously look after their corporate customers a lot better than their individual customers.

TG345
10th Jul 2006, 10:28
Amex Plat is excellent value if you add up the benefits, and as SkyFish says, they pay out without argument unlike many insurance companies who only want to know you when they are collecting the premium.
There is also the invaluable addition of the Priority Pass card, which comes free from Amex. If you travel frequently you can often cover the whole annual Amex fee just on bar bill savings alone, hence the insurance cover is effectively free.
As an example, last year I got stuck at Schipol for ten hours due to a missed connection. I have to shamefacedly admit that a colleague and myself decided that the best way to dispose of the time was to repair to the lounge and get a little "happy". Over that ten hour period, we kept a rough estimate of what the food and drink would have cost us had we bought it in the airside bars and restaurants. Now admittedly, towards the end of this time our accountancy was getting a bit fuzzy, but the rough total was in the region of 170 Euros. And that was only one day out of 365.

slim_slag
10th Jul 2006, 14:55
Skyfish and TG345.

You both say Amex Platinum 'pays out', the implication being that they are better than the rest.

How often have you made travel claims on Amex Platinum, how many were paid out, how many refused. How often have you made claims on non Amex Platinum travel policies, how often were they paid out, how often were they refused? Just trying to get an idea of the numerical basis for your claims.

PAXboy
10th Jul 2006, 23:57
When I upgraded my AmEx from Gold to Plat I considered that I was currently paying the following annual charges:

Gold card membership
Priority Pass
AmEx Centurion multi-trip insurance
The cost of those three equalled the Platinum card, so I changed.

On Centurion I only had one claim (1984) and it was paid. Since going Plat ('94, I think) I have had two minor illness claims (both in South Africa) and the delay caused by the August 2003 power cut in New York and was delayed getting home for a couple of days. On all three occasions, AmEx paid out. For the two medicals it was in full. For the delay, it was the maximum allowed for flight delay (£200, I think) the fact that I had to spend a bit more due to the exceptional delay was irritating but that is life. They paid the maximum amount and on first presentation of the receipts and details.

The other reason why I stick with this travel is that, the first time I had the minor illness in Johannesburg (just before Christmas one year). I rang and reported the problem and got a claim number and went to the doctor. Two days later, AmEx Insurance telephoned me at my friends house and asked if I was getting better and was there any specialist help that they could organise!!! :D That clinched it! Yes, I know the AmEx annual charge is high (current year is £275) but I do think that I get a lot for that for those three services rolled into one.

Don't forget that I can get cash or trav chq (not that I use them any more!) in any country from a range of ATMs 24x7. As to 'flashing' the card. Expensive places have seen zillions of them and don't care and - at the other end of the scale - I have had places not recognise the card because they have never seen one before and start off by refusing it!!!

SkyFish
11th Jul 2006, 02:57
Forgot to mention - all supplementary cardholders are covered too no matter who you book travel with.

Have made three claims - generally in the GBP200 region all paid without quibble. Have had one experience with Natwest Visa and was told to go and try to claim off the carrier in the first instance - gee thanks

Finally.... as I pay all my bills on this, with membership rewards generally means I get 1-2 free return UK-HKG flights in Virgin upper class each year

I'll stop banging on about it now....

TG345
11th Jul 2006, 07:53
Skyfish and TG345.
You both say Amex Platinum 'pays out', the implication being that they are better than the rest.
How often have you made travel claims on Amex Platinum, how many were paid out, how many refused. How often have you made claims on non Amex Platinum travel policies, how often were they paid out, how often were they refused? Just trying to get an idea of the numerical basis for your claims.

Well, I've held the card for 14 years. In that time I have made I think five claims, so I haven't exactly abused it. The claims have all (as far as I can remember) been for lost/delayed baggage. Each claim around 150/200 GBP. Always paid out promptly, never quibbled.

As regards other insurers, I did have one claim on a "bucket and spade" package holiday many, many years ago under a policy sold by a travel agent. Bad value in terms of cost, and almost worthless in terms of cover provided.

My company also has to deal with many auto and injury insurance claims in the course of our business. As I said in my earlier post, most insurers that we deal with are only interested in customer service when selling to you or collecting premiums from you. When a claim is made the barriers go up pretty quickly. We often have to persue them through the courts to get satisfaction.

As you may have gathered by now, I do have a bit of a downer on insurance companies. Whilst I accept entirely that they need to make profits, as do we all, the way they conduct themselves leaves an awful lot to be desired IMO.

Amex however, I have nothing but praise for.

PAXboy
12th Jul 2006, 00:28
Heck - Yes, I forgot to mention Membership Rewards! They are a further bonus. I will say that not all parts of AmEx are as good. The Blue Card people are truly terrible I had two bad experiences that I shall not bore you with, one with Blue in Germany (when I worked there) and one with Blue in the UK. :ugh:

Suffice to say that the explanation that payments were missed due to the sudden death of my father were met by a letter informing me that the account was closed and had now been sent to a debt recovery agency. I pointed out that my Platinum card was still in good standing and my AmEx BA card too but this counted for nothing. So, I count Blue for nothing! :=

Another good story, last year, when I pointed out a mistake to Plat card services (with documentation) AmEx wrote a proper letter of apology, refunded the charges that had been levied, restored my credit rating (that they had erroneously lowered) AND paid me a small amount in cash as recompense. :D