Erin44

Our family is flying from the US to So. Africa using Delta mileage on South African Airways. We reserved our FF airfare in the fall, but just within the last 2 weeks actually paid for our other expenses. We purchased trip insurance through Travelex a few days ago mainly to cover all of our non-refundable, prepaid costs such as our Cape Town accomodations and Kruger safari.

My questions are whether our airfare should somehow be included in the actual trip cost? And whether we would still be eligible for pre-existing medical coverage and carriers' financial default coverage since we obtained the FF airfare more than 21 days before we purchased the trip insurance?

I spoke with several different agents at Travelex and other insurance companies regarding the coverage and each time was told something different. Some agents said that I should include the cost of a return plane ticket home into the trip cost, others said we couldn't because we didn't pay for it. One company refused to insure us because we didn't purchase our airfare. Then one person at Travelex told me that we would not be eligible for pre-existing medical or financial default coverage because we paid the taxes and ticketing fee for our FF tickets longer than 21 days prior to getting trip insurance. But when I actually bought our trip insurance, a different agent said that they do not insure FF tickets, so I would still be eligible since everything else was paid for within the 21 day limit.

Has anyone else encountered this confusion when traveling on a FF ticket and buying trip insurance? Any suggestions? I still have several days to cancel the trip insurance should I want to - so I'm open to recommendations.

Thanks so much for your help!

sandi

Every insurer has different rules.

It makes sense that your int'l flights tickets aren't covered as you haven't actually paid for these tickets. Also, FF award tickets can be rewritten should you have to cancel (or trip is interrupted) for an approved reason.

Thankfully, we have never needed medical and/or evacuation, but you are paying for this coverage, so it would seem you'd be covered in such an instance, regardless how you arrived (air, land, boat, train) at the place from where you need to be evacuated, if you need a physician or pay a visit to a hospital.

But, it's insurance - they make their own rules, so beats me! Though I never leave home without it if I've prepaid for a trip.

Patty

Are you trying to cover your FF tickets (I'm not sure if that's possible) or do you just want to know if your other prepaid costs are fully covered for pe-existing medical/financial default?

Have you tried emailing Travelex and getting a response in writing? I would feel much better if I had something in writing in case I needed to file a claim. If you don't like their written response, then I'd look for other carriers.

Erin44

Sandi and Patty,

Thanks for your sharing your thoughts. I did not want to insure our FF tix since they are refundable, but one agent made it sound like they were part of our total trip cost and needed to be insured to validate all coverage.

Then the confusion came up whether obtaining the airfare via mileage more than the allowable 21 day window would make us ineligible for pre-existing medical and financial default coverage.

Well, I took your suggestion, Patty, and emailed Travelex. I finally got a clear and consise response stating that the FF tix cannot be insured. Therefore they will have no effect on any of our other coverages. It's comforting to know I now have it in writing.

Thanks again for the help!

Ericka

Erin,

The response that you received from Travelex is consistent with how we handled our recent trip to Africa - FF tickets not covered by insurance.

FF Tickets: If you need to cancel your Africa trip, you can redeposit the miles. If the airline you got the miles from or the airline you plan to fly goes belly-up before the trip, then you are at their mercy. There is little you can do to pretect yourself in this situation. Just hope for the best.