Comments on: Missed connection, denied claim

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:22:24 +0000

Yes document up the wazoo. Please do not think an insurance company is going to open their wallet easily. If you have a claim it should be paid. Access America paid my claim but the documentation was key. Black and white no gray area’s and you should reimbursed.

By: Catherine51

Catherine51 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:46:17 +0000

As a 25-year+ airline employee and travel agent, I cringe when customers ask me to book them on the next possible flight after an international connection on separate tickets (or, for that matter, on domestic flights where airline #2 does not accept baggage checked through from airline #1). I take the minimum recommended time and automatically double it — in San Diego, for example, from domestic to domestic with checked baggage, theoretically 90 minutes is enough but I always advise three hours. At Kennedy Airport, international to domestic with or without baggage, theoretically two and a half hours is enough but I always advise four to five hours. I do not know of a single travel insurance policy that covered missed connections from airline to airline, especially if non-thru-checked baggage is involved. When customers press me for closer-than-advised connections, I document the record up to wazoo. Other agents would be well advised to do the same.

By: David

David — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:29:12 +0000

My wife was also denied reimbursement. I’m not going to go into details here but the government should shut down Access America. They purposely lead you to believe (especially on the airlines site) that this insurance is for not being able to make your flight. In order to see if you will ACTUALLY get reimbursed you have to read pages and pages of gobbly gook to see if what happens to you will be covered. This is a simple one time purchase that will be immediately used. Not like a homeowners insurance plan. I think the entire thing is a scam to just rip people off. Under no circumstances should you use Access America! The chances of your situation actually occurring and being covered are slim to none considering all the little exemptions they put in. I sure hope someone files a class action lawsuit against them.

By: Michael Guerra

Michael Guerra — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:16:26 +0000

Access America is telling my I’m not covered either even though the New Mexico Highway Department closed all highways to Santa Fe because of the biggest storm in history on new year’s eve. I wonder if anyone has filed a class action lawsuit. I’m going to look into it.

By: Louis

Louis — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 14:43:12 +0000

Norwegian Cruise Line sold us an air-sea package including travel insurance over the internet. Contract arrived with tickets before we could read terms and conditions. Flight cancellations over a two-day period required catching up to ship 3-4 days after departure with no guarantee of safe travel along the coast of Chile for three seniors. THEIR insurance agency offered a refund of $1500 on $6000 fare. There is legal protection for fraud against them, but none for consumers. Ouch!

By: drwong

drwong — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 05:53:46 +0000

This illustrates the problem in asking too broad or too general of a question to anonymous telephone agents, particularly when the contracts are written by company lawyers who earn their pay in part by limiting the company’s liability!

If you gave them the facts of a specific situation, the agent could easily refer to the contract to tell you whether or not it was covered (unless you happened to have the contract in hand).

Second, this illustrates the hidden costs of trying to save a few bucks by booking separate flights, instead of using one carrier (or its partners). I’ve missed several international connecting flights due to delays at Customs – when that happens, the carrier has always put me on the next available flight without a surcharge – in Copenhagen, SAS even paid for my lunch because the next flight wasn’t until that afternoon!

By: carol

carol — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 05:14:05 +0000

Why on earth did she have to buy a new ticket? I assume she was ticketed separately for domestic and international. Otherwise, the airline would have taken care of it. I will admit I’ve occasionally booked flights this wasy, but maybe I’d better re-think it.

By: Matt Turner

Matt Turner — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:24:11 +0000

Clearly, by the response from their folks, I won’t consider Access America as an insurer for a forthcoming trip to India.

Thanks for the advice on double-checking coverage.

By: wary about travel insurance

wary about travel insurance — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:11:23 +0000

This is why I will NEVER buy travel insurance. It is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

By: ken howard

ken howard — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:19:23 +0000

oh, this really stinks. A company like that should be put out of business, whether they put the details in (in fine print) or not. Even when you conscientiously do the right thing you can’t do the right thing. The right thing to do is insure yourself and publicize that company’s bat faith.