USVI-On-Line

I have not even started the process of getting reimbursement for the hotel rooms, meals, etc...from our trip during during hurricane Irene.

As you know, we evacuated from our rental home on Topsail Island three days early and spent those days in a hotel (three rooms).

Before I start, does anyone have any tips?

Thanks!!

I just called CSA this morning to ask some questions about what I am supposed to do for my trip (not related to Irene) and they had a special prompt on their phone line for Irene related claims/calls. Maybe call first and get the scoop from TravelGuard?

I am having an issue with a claim from February.

You are already probably doing this but my advice is keep every single piece of paper relating to any thing related to your trip and be prepared to get additional documentation from your rental agent as to why you needed to leave.

I am relating your case to what is going on with mine so take that for what it is worth.

For example, if your policy reads "will cover in the event of a mandatory evacuation as declared by Agency XYZ" you are going to want to make sure any support from the rental agency clearly states "the Marcia Family was forced to leave their vacation rental on (date) because Agency XYZ ordered a mandatory evacation of Topsail Island on (whatever date)...."

Basically, don't leave any wording to chance. Give the rental agency a copy of the portion of your insurance policy with the language highlighted.

My case is bordering on comical the way the insurance company is trying to use any means possible to avoid paying my $188 claim.

You ever feel like just not starting the project of this mess? That's where I am. I have a lot of other crap going on (not as much as MB, by any means!), but for me, it's a lot of emotional crap and I hate to dive into this. I know it's going to be a massive headache and UGH! Okay, enough on that.

I did call Travel Guard while we were in the hotel, after evacuating, and the nice lady told me to save the receipts and call back when we arrived home safely.

I'll report back.

I had to make a claim with Travel Guard when we were in Jamaica and Hurricane Emily brushed by. I had no problem whatsoever, had my receipts. They did however want "proof" that there was indeed a hurricane. One of the forum members found me an on-line article about the airport closing and I sent it to them. My policy coverage was enough to pay entirely for our stay at an AI in Montego Bay. We had uprooted from Negril to try to get a flight out and couldn't. Good luck! I don't think it will be all that bad. I also had to cancel a trip once due to a family illness. Again no problem. We had paid extra for that coverage at the time.

Dug into this process today and so far, Travel Guard has been incredibly helpful; to the extent of telling me that given the coverage I opted for (the max), the three nights we lost at the house we rented will be reimbursed, including the expenses paid (linen rentals, beach chair rentals, food loss) AND the hotel we stayed at in its stead, plus expenses up to $150.00 per person, per day, if I have receipts. Wow.

All I need to do to get the whole process rolling is prove that we felt the need to evacuate per the city of Topsail. The Mayor's message is quite clear and I have a copy of it. It was an issue of getting off of the island, due to road flooding, more than anything.

Again, I'll keep you all posted as this goes but, so far, I have to say, Travel Guard rocks.

Good to hear! I found them great to work with too. Your situation sounds similar in that they want "proof" that you had to leave. We pretty much always get the insurance now. Not just for weather reasons, but if an accident happened or one of us gets sick and has to be taken to a hospital outside of the islands. Small price to pay for peace of mind.

I have to agree about Travel Guard..I dont deal with anyone else but them (I sell travel partime) and have had nothing but great luck with them, I once had a couple cancel a cruise a few weeks after booking and buying their Ins...I was even able to get back their premium for them... I too, highly recommend them !!!

Marcia (Mrs. Pete) wrote:Dug into this process today and so far, Travel Guard has been incredibly helpful; to the extent of telling me that given the coverage I opted for (the max), the three nights we lost at the house we rented will be reimbursed, including the expenses paid (linen rentals, beach chair rentals, food loss) AND the hotel we stayed at in its stead, plus expenses up to $150.00 per person, per day, if I have receipts. Wow.

All I need to do to get the whole process rolling is prove that we felt the need to evacuate per the city of Topsail. The Mayor's message is quite clear and I have a copy of it. It was an issue of getting off of the island, due to road flooding, more than anything.

Again, I'll keep you all posted as this goes but, so far, I have to say, Travel Guard rocks.

This is very encouraging news. Keep us posted. I need to get trip insurance for our Feb SJU and STJ trip and I need a new provider.

PA girl - you probably already named them, but can you tell us in this thread who is the trip insurance provider that is making you jump thru so many hoops on your claim? Thanks!

jmq wrote:PA girl - you probably already named them, but can you tell us in this thread who is the trip insurance provider that is making you jump thru so many hoops on your claim? Thanks!

The name of the company that is processing the claim is Seven Corners.

What makes this ultra-frustrating is we purchased the insurance through the same agent that handles all our property, life, liability, and car insurance.

Our agent is also fighting with Seven Corners on our behalf.

And our agent was on the very same trip with us, submitted the very same claim and got paid. (our close friends)

The difference is our agent had his boarding pass from the delayed flight in question and I did not. The company says the boarding pass is the only proof they will accept. The three seperate letters sent directly from USAir stating we were on flight X isn't good enough for Seven Corners.

Seems that in some of the reviews of Seven Corners on insuremytrip.com from those that actually filed a claim have had similar issues with onerous documentation requirements etc. (even for that Euro volcano!)

And, not saying your agent friend did this (because he chose them too and is interceding on your behalf), but other agents may recommend a particular insurance not because it’s the best fit for you but because it gives them the best commission.

It might be too late, by the time all of our claims are settled, for me to give you advice on how it all went down with Travel Guard, PA Girl. But, as I mentioned earlier, so far, I would highly recommend them.

At this point, my rough estimate for our total claim is $4100.00 (bear in mind, there were six of us!). I'm missing one receipt for a meal which we paid for in cash (it was a diner and the power was sketchy, so we did cash~they were scrambling to close up the place before all hell broke loose Friday afternoon~neither of us were thinking about receipts at that point) but, whatever...

Once I get everything mailed in, it will be at least a week before an agent is assigned to this claim and then, we'll see what more he/she needs. After that, once all is cleared, a good month before money is sent to us.

So, I'll keep you posted.

I received a letter stating SevenCorners was paying our claim. When I have the check in hand, I will post about how it finally got resolved.

I received the check for our trip insurance claim.

What a giant pain in the butt.

Sevencorners repeatedly denied the claim, stating each time that I needed to provide the original and new itinerary. The orginal was no problem but I didn't have a "new" itinerary as our flight was cancelled and we were rebooked at the counter. I should have asked the agent for some sort of print out of our "new" flight.

USAir wrote three seperate letters for me, all clearly outlining why we were delayed and which flight we were rebooked on, times, dates, etc. The trip insurance company would not accept this a proof of our delay, a delay that required an overnight stay in Charlotte, or as proof we were rebooked and actually took the new flight.

I have no doubt Sevencorners was trying everything possible to not pay this claim. Our insurance agent was really upset about all of this. When we got the latest denial, she was loaded for bear, she was not taking no for answer. She called (again) spoke to someone higher up the chain of command and the claim was finally paid.

This took seven months, too many phone calls to remember, three denial letters, three faxes, and three letters from USAir to collect on a claim of less than $200.

Looking back on it, I would have asked the USAir agent for a print out of our new flight information. I also would have held on to our boarding passes. I didn't knowlingly throw them in the trash, they just seemed to disappear.

Something else I learned, our trip insurance kicked in after a 12 hour delay but most don't until 24 hours. Because we missed a 8:30pm flight and were rebooked the next morning at 8am, we were delayed less than 24 hours. Had it been the 24 hour type, we would have not been paid for our hotel stay and meal.