Hoc

I flew AA last week, and for the first time in, well, ever, they lost my bag. I had travel insurance on this trip. The strange thing is that both AA and the Travel Insurance company want me to send in my original receipts in order to get reimbursed, and the travel insurance company states that it is secondary insurance, so it will not reimburse unless AA does not. So, for anyone else who has ever been in this position, how have you handled the receipt issue in this instance? And with what result?

Sant

Where did you purchase your travel insurance? Which company is it?

Often1

First, you will need to make a claim to AA. Only if AA does not reimburse or does not reimburse enough will you have an insurance claim.

As to receipts, there's no way of telling how your particular carrier will handle it, but you should simple explain as to the items for which you don't have receipts, that you don't and try to provide something such as a CC statement (with non-relevant information blanked out).

Remember that most policies pay fair market value, not replacement cost. In other words, a shirt which cost $50 and has been worn 15 times over a year, isn't worth $50 or anything close.

hillrider

AA has to cover you up to $3,300 by law so you probably won't need to send receipt to the insurance company. If so, then you send copies with a statement explaining how the requirement is unreasonable.

hillrider

Incidentally, here's the law: http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/254.4

I doubt too many people have bumped above $3.3k, and insurance policies are usually written to avoid any meaningful payment (any type of valuables, including electronics, cameras, etc. are excluded, and other stuff is at "cash value", or the amount the amount the item is worth based on its current market value, as defined by the insurance company, so your $1k suit is valued at $100 because it's used and that's what a used suit costs at Salvation Army), but YMMV (I presume you read the fine print before plunking down your $$).

Please do provide updates to this post as to what happened in your case; it's always instructive to others.

yyzAAguy

I don't buy travel insurance from Allianz since they confirmed, in writing, that they would not cover any claim involving travel on an airline which "is in US Chapter 11 or the foreign equivalent" when the trip was booked.

I have it in writing. If your trip is booked on AA, Allianz won't pay a claim.

Guess which insurance company underwrites the travel insurance offered to Canadians on aa.com?

You can't make this stuff up.

Microwave

Wow. This is kinda mind blowing...

StevenH123

My parents successfully filed a trip cancellation claim 6 or 8 months ago on AA with Allianz for medical reasons. I believe that they will not pay for things like trip interruption due to carrier failure but will still cover other items. They cover things like lost baggage, medical costs, trip cancellation due to medical events.

AlwaysAisle

Little OT, this is not just travel insurance, it is common to have original receipts requirement for insurance claim. Once my mother sent me some old dishes she had it for long time. It has some value so she purchased an insurance when she sent me dishes via USPS. Everything was fine except for one dish which was broken. When I called UPSP toll free number I was told to show up at a local post office with my content in original package which was used for shipping along with the original receipt of the content.

Back to travel insurance, it is common that many travel insurances has “act of war” as exclusion in the policy. If planning to go to the area with conflict (if it is volunteer work or just out of curiosity), purchase a travel insurance in case the situation got worse and decide to cancel the trip. However, many travel insurances do not cover situation like that. Some years ago saw a news program about travel insurance, and the reporter could find only one travel insurance which covered act of war. Even that insurance had the condition that the insurance has purchased least 6 months before the conflict started.

Hoc

I bought it through insuremytrip.com Company is Tru Travel.

Hoc

Yeah, purchase cost of my items was about $1,400 (the biggest cost was my suitcase for $495). I assume I'm going to get a severely depreciated value. No suits, I was going to Hawaii.

yyzAAguy

Yes and my correspondence to them focused on the word "failure". I asked whether they defined the word as a company ceasing or curtailing operations, or does it refer simply to the company's "failure" to transport me on the booked flight?

They said it was the latter, in other words if an airline that happens to be under Ch 11 [AA] "fails" to honour my booking because they oversell NRT-DFW oneday, Allianz will not honour the Trip Interruption coverage. If a different airline behaves exactly the same way they WILL honour the Trip Interruption coverage.

I repeat: I have it in black and white. I repeat that, because many of you will believe, as I did, that something is wrong with this picture and it must be me. It isn't. As I said, you can't make this stuff up. If you buy Trip Interruption insurance from Allianz, and you fly AA, you have no coverage. If you fly any other carrier, you do.

AA's "My Trips" page promotes Allianz Insurance.

StevenH123

I'm not disagreeing with you about the terms of their ch. 11 failure to transport clause. (Actually I'm not agreeing either - I'd have to reread it). What I was pointing out was the OP's issue, lost baggage, should be covered as would many other problems. I am not an advocate of travel insurance for most travel and certainly not a cheerleader for Allianz.

Hoc

Just a status update. AA paid about 80 percent of the value of the items that were in my luggage, stating that the amount paid was "payment in full." It stated that it would not be paying for the items I bought while on my trip, since that would be a double payment, given the reimbursement for the lost luggage.

My private insurance asked for an explanation of what items AA had paid and what it had not, but since AA gave no explanation, I just forwarded the letter accompanying the AA payment and my original claim. I am now waiting to hear from my private insurance.

CloudCoder

This actually makes sense.