American Express Membership Rewards - Bad Experience with Amex Centurion Insurance

for those of you who are australian american express centurion card members who travel frequently, be wary of the travel inconvenience insurance cover that the centurion card provides. i was mistakenly under the impression that this was the best travel inconvenience cover available and often used this mistaken belief to justify the $4300 annual fee. i got stung due to limitations in the policy that i had no idea existed. so buyer beware. do not take for granted that emergency expenses are covered when you most need them.

last december i was flying on ba from cpt-lhr-cdg on an aone6. the flight was delayed for almost 6 hours in cpt for mechanical reasons which meant i missed the last connection to cdg and had to overnight in lhr where it was close to freezing with gusty ice cold wind. because it was peak season, the earliest connecting flight that ba could get me on from lhr to cdg was late the following afternoon. further, ba was unable to retrieve my luggage as it was checked through to cdg. this meant i was left in london for over 18 hours in very cold weather without a change of clothes and with no sweater. all i had packed in my carry-on was a light windbreaker thinking that it would more than suffice for the car ride in paris where my friends were waiting to pick me up and take me to their apartment.

while i was struggling through the long lines formed from a fully loaded 747's worth of similarly displaced passengers scrambling to collect hotel and meal vouchers and make rebooking arrangements at ba customer service desks in lhr (ba handled the deluge well) and then virtually freezing to death standing for 45 mins in the ice cold weather waiting for a bus to take me to the hotel that ba provided for the night, i repeatedly told myself that this was one of those times that the peace of mind you get when things go wrong really justifies the egregious $4300 annual cost of that titanium piece of wallet jewellery. i knew that my centurion card insurance policy covered up to AUD$700 for emergency items under the travel inconvenience part of the policy, so tired of feeling dirty and cold, the next morning i decided to make the best of my unplanned stop-over. i purchased some clean underwear, socks, a shirt and a sweater and went into the city to play tourist for a few hours until i had to get back to the airport to catch my rebooked flight late that afternoon.

when i returned to sydney i filed a claim with axa insurance (who underwrites the insurance for amex centurion) for the clothes i had to purchase. after long delays and follow-up providing "further information" including everything from proof that i had purchased the ticket and how i had paid for it (on my amex card) to proof of my itinerary (even though it was electronic and i had previously sent them original boarding passes and a letter from ba explaining what had happened), etc., i finally received a tersely worded denial letter from them (axa insurance) stating that because london was not my "scheduled destination point" none of my emergency expenses were covered.

moral of the story -- under american express' centurion insurance coverage, travel inconvenience cover is very limited. unless you reach your "scheduled destination point" you cannot claim emergency expenses for anything other than hotel and meals (which in my case were provided by ba) no matter how long or under which conditions you are delayed and/or without your luggage.

Thanks for enlightening us. I will make a point to read the fine print.

Thanks for enlightening us. I will make a point to read the fine print.

your welcome.
read the fine print carefully as it's quite misleading.

the terms and conditions lead you to believe that emergency clothing expenses are included when you misconnect or your flight is canceled and you are left without luggage for more than 6 hours. note that according to american express centurion and axa insurance, these emergency expenses are only covered if you arrive at your "scheduled destination point" -- which they interpret to mean as the point to where your bags were checked. in many cases this does not coincide with where you get stranded and incur the emergency expenses.

Call back and talk to a supervisor. I just filed a claim and had a somewhat similar issue and after further review it was approved right away and a credit was on my account 2 days later.

Axa are a pain in the butt.

I had reason to claim with them several years ago and they refused to pay out. I wrote back asking for the return of all my documentation as I was going to contact the insurance ombudsman, I received a cheque by return for the full amount, they didn't even remove the excess ;)

Had a family holiday booked and my daughter joined us from Sha the night before and she came down with the flue caught on board which worsened overnight. Couldn't catch the next day flight. That's when I got to deal with a whole bunch of incompetent, clueless, pencil pushing procrastinators sitting in AXA MUE as well. I had asked them for what they needed, so as that I would only have to deal with them -once- well, to no avail, dozens of Mails entailed. While the refund was imediate after all required docs finally gathered from the numerous agents -on- the case, they simply ignored the hotel charge for one night. Which was supported by an invoice fm amex that was forwarded to axa. When I fired off an email, stating that I wouldn't want to deal with them any longer or ever again with a cc copy to Amex, I got an imediate refund fm amex 1-2 days later. AX AXA.

Same nightmare in France with the Centurion travel insurance... They keep asking for more papers, try to deny coverage etc...

The OP should try to have BA reimburse his expenses in his particular case (as they were unable to deliver his bags in LHR)...

for those of you who are australian american express centurion card members who travel frequently, be wary of the travel inconvenience insurance cover that the centurion card provides. i was mistakenly under the impression that this was the best travel inconvenience cover available and often used this mistaken belief to justify the $4300 annual fee. i got stung due to limitations in the policy that i had no idea existed. so buyer beware. do not take for granted that emergency expenses are covered when you most need them.

last december i was flying on ba from cpt-lhr-cdg on an aone6. the flight was delayed for almost 6 hours in cpt for mechanical reasons which meant i missed the last connection to cdg and had to overnight in lhr where it was close to freezing with gusty ice cold wind. because it was peak season, the earliest connecting flight that ba could get me on from lhr to cdg was late the following afternoon. further, ba was unable to retrieve my luggage as it was checked through to cdg. this meant i was left in london for over 18 hours in very cold weather without a change of clothes and with no sweater. all i had packed in my carry-on was a light windbreaker thinking that it would more than suffice for the car ride in paris where my friends were waiting to pick me up and take me to their apartment.

while i was struggling through the long lines formed from a fully loaded 747's worth of similarly displaced passengers scrambling to collect hotel and meal vouchers and make rebooking arrangements at ba customer service desks in lhr (ba handled the deluge well) and then virtually freezing to death standing for 45 mins in the ice cold weather waiting for a bus to take me to the hotel that ba provided for the night, i repeatedly told myself that this was one of those times that the peace of mind you get when things go wrong really justifies the egregious $4300 annual cost of that titanium piece of wallet jewellery. i knew that my centurion card insurance policy covered up to AUD$700 for emergency items under the travel inconvenience part of the policy, so tired of feeling dirty and cold, the next morning i decided to make the best of my unplanned stop-over. i purchased some clean underwear, socks, a shirt and a sweater and went into the city to play tourist for a few hours until i had to get back to the airport to catch my rebooked flight late that afternoon.

when i returned to sydney i filed a claim with axa insurance (who underwrites the insurance for amex centurion) for the clothes i had to purchase. after long delays and follow-up providing "further information" including everything from proof that i had purchased the ticket and how i had paid for it (on my amex card) to proof of my itinerary (even though it was electronic and i had previously sent them original boarding passes and a letter from ba explaining what had happened), etc., i finally received a tersely worded denial letter from them (axa insurance) stating that because london was not my "scheduled destination point" none of my emergency expenses were covered.

moral of the story -- under american express' centurion insurance coverage, travel inconvenience cover is very limited. unless you reach your "scheduled destination point" you cannot claim emergency expenses for anything other than hotel and meals (which in my case were provided by ba) no matter how long or under which conditions you are delayed and/or without your luggage.

This interpretation of the T&Cs by Axa is very narrow minded and I would appeal.

3. Luggage delay checked on Scheduled Flight
If Your accompanying luggage checked on the Scheduled Flight is not
delivered within six (6) hours of Your arrival at the scheduled destination
point of Your flight, We will reimburse You for the emergency purchase
of essential clothing and requisites up to AUD700 incurred at such
scheduled destination.

Maybe appeal with Amex directly and not with AXA. I found the Sydney Cent team to be a lot better to deal with than the AXA team.
Otherwise, you can charge your hotel and meal costs to AXA as this is covered and you can hand in the invoices for the clothes to BA.

This interpretation of the T&Cs by Axa is very narrow minded and I would appeal.



Maybe appeal with Amex directly and not with AXA. I found the Sydney Cent team to be a lot better to deal with than the AXA team.
Otherwise, you can charge your hotel and meal costs to AXA as this is covered and you can hand in the invoices for the clothes to BA.

I have had them refer to "scheduled destination point" a number of time when attempting to process claims.

Interestingly it rears its head in the next paragraph of the T&C's, ".....is not delivered to you within 48 hours of your arrival at the scheduled destination point (not being your place of residence) of your flight...".

I have had two delayed/lost baggage claims for flights arriving into Melbourne. One was a transit ADL-MEL-LAX, where I wasn't going home and hadn't checked the luggage from ADL to LAX, and the other was when i was returning to Melbourne for a weekend prior to heading to my other residence in QLD.

Both times they referred my scheduled destination point being my home base. In both instances the delay in receiving my luggage caused inconvenience and I was genuinely in need of the goods and was required to replace them.

AXA would not budge, despite a number of futile attempts.

Same nightmare in France with the Centurion travel insurance... They keep asking for more papers, try to deny coverage etc...

The OP should try to have BA reimburse his expenses in his particular case (as they were unable to deliver his bags in LHR)...

thanks for the suggestions. the claim wasn't that large and i don't think it's worth the hassle of resubmitting everything to ba. axa has all the originals (for everything relating to this and the kitchen sink) and has delayed this for months so i look at this as an unfortunate lesson on just how valuable amex centurion insurance is not.

This interpretation of the T&Cs by Axa is very narrow minded and I would appeal.



Maybe appeal with Amex directly and not with AXA. I found the Sydney Cent team to be a lot better to deal with than the AXA team.
Otherwise, you can charge your hotel and meal costs to AXA as this is covered and you can hand in the invoices for the clothes to BA.

i complained to the sydney centurion team (or rather the "premium services" team) and after explaining my story and specifying that i wanted to register my concern with centurion--not axa, i was put on a long hold and then dump-transferred to the emergency medical rep for axa. do you have a recommendation as to what centurion department you found most helpful?

I have had them refer to "scheduled destination point" a number of time when attempting to process claims.

Interestingly it rears its head in the next paragraph of the T&C's, ".....is not delivered to you within 48 hours of your arrival at the scheduled destination point (not being your place of residence) of your flight...".

I have had two delayed/lost baggage claims for flights arriving into Melbourne. One was a transit ADL-MEL-LAX, where I wasn't going home and hadn't checked the luggage from ADL to LAX, and the other was when i was returning to Melbourne for a weekend prior to heading to my other residence in QLD.

Both times they referred my scheduled destination point being my home base. In both instances the delay in receiving my luggage caused inconvenience and I was genuinely in need of the goods and was required to replace them.

AXA would not budge, despite a number of futile attempts.

sorry. i feel your pain. i generally think i have a thorough understanding of the ts and cs but their legal-ese deceived me too.

hopefully others can learn from this thread and not make our same mistakes. the "scheduled destination point" is vague, confusing and very limiting to the value of the amex centurion insurance.