Maybe this is common knowledge but I didn't know it until I sought a my first refund ever on a recent Africa trip.

I had to produce all of my original credit card receipts (or statements) for deposits and payments on the trip. Had I paid by check, I would have needed the cancelled checks.

An invoice from the travel agent showing receipt of all payments and indicating "Paid in Full" with a zero balance was NOT acceptable.

I wonder if this requirement is just to discourage claims because it can be a hassle to track down several credit card statements (deposit, international air, local air, balance paid in a couple of payments) over an 18 month period.

On the positive side, the airline responsible for my claim refused to give me any letter indicating they had delayed and rerouted my flight. I did not want to create a disturbance and perhaps end up in jail instead of on safari, so I did not become too loud or persistent in the small airport where I was seeking airline assistance. Plus they had lost my luggage and I wanted it back.

But the insurance company did their own investigation into the delay/rerouting so proof from me was not needed.

The end result was that in 30 days from submitting my claim, I had what I thought was a very fair refund for trip interruption.

CSA was the insurance company.

atravelynn, thank u for this tip. I'm still compiling records for the horrendous expenses I incurred last summer while trying to get home from Lusaka during the SAA strike. Would you feel OK telling me which insurance co. you used? or email me at [email protected] (that is a numeral 1 right before the @). Thanks

as soon as i get the police report and taxi receipt from Chongwe (will be mailed early next week) i will be filing a claim against my travel insurance (travelex) for lost night at Stanley Lodge, missed/unused air tickets and cost of taxi ride from Lusaka to Livingstone ($250) and in the claim form it says they will check with the travel agent to verify-what if i didn't use a travel agent? Barry from Luangwa River Lodge made all the arrangements. Also since Chongwe gave us a free night there, would I still be able to claim the lost night at Stanley? p.s. since i scanned down to post 336, does this make me a true fodorite, seeing if i missed anything while i was on safari?
dennis

Dennis,
You're not only a true Fodorite but a safariholic now Good luck with your claim. Let us know how it turns out.

Know what you are buying. Trip Interruption does not cover airline tickets. They get around this because it only covers the unused part of your trip. It happened to me. On the first full day of our vacation my wife's father died. We returned the next morning. We purchased a 10 day 9 night vacation from Vacationtravelmart with the travel insurance. We received payment for 7 nights unused at the hotel. The reason given for not covering more was that we had used the airline portion of the trip and 2 nights at the hotel. Even the person at the travel agency was surprised at this. She like I thought that the whole trip was insured and we only got one day of our vacation and assumed that we would get 90% or so of the expense back so that we could take our vacation another time. So, in effect the travel part is not covered when it comes to trip Interruption

I got a full refund for lost night, unused airline tickets and taxi ride so I was happy.

Larry -

Though nowhere expert in insurance, in fact rather daft, know that all trip interruption and cancellation insurance policies aren't the same.

And, rule of thumb - it's not recommended to purchase insurance thru the company providing the trip. It's best to go with an independent insurance provider (as found on a site as www.insuremytrip.com) after reading all of what is covered and what is not.

I'm not an expert either but I think that if the original roundtrip airline ticket was used to return home, there would be no "unused" portion to claim.

Some policies will cover the cost of a newly purchased one way economy ticket (within the claim limits) to return home in the event of trip interruption.

Dennis,

Was this refund another chapter in your recent trip? If so, I don't recall it. Perhaps I was just fixated on the frequent Angola references and the wooden croc and just missed this episode.

Lynn, no, this was on my first trip where our bags were stolen in camp, missed the flight from Lusaka to Vic Falls and had to take a 7 hour cab ride instead of the flight. They paid for the unused air ticket, cab ride ($250 US), and unused night at the lodge in Vic Falls. (did get our bags back too so it worked out well)

During the BA strike in (maybe 2003?) i was stuck in London overnight as all connecting flights to the US were cancelled. They took almost a year to refund my hotel accomodations for the overnight. No voucher was given then, as there were tons of cancelled flights due to the staff pay dispute issues.....

It has been my life long experience (60 plus years) that no insurance of any type covers what you think it does. It always covers less.
Now a question please - I have been using travel insurance from Travel Guard (travelguard dot com). I have never made a claim with them. Can anyone kindly tell me their experience in having a claim with Travel Guard?
regards - tom

I have bought Travel Gurad for many years. I filed a claim a few years ago. I was going from L.A.-S.F.-Europe and S.F. was fogged in so by the time the plane took off, from L.A., and landed in S.F.(many hours later), my flight had been long gone to Europe.

So, I had to overnight in hotel in S.F., getting to Europe a day late(it was a 6-day vacaction then cut to 5). Anyhow, when I got home I called Travel Guard and was told I needed a letter from the airline stating why I missed my flight to make sure that it wasn't my fault.

The airline sent me the letter, I filled out all of the forms and mailed it to Travel Guard and many weeks later got a message on my machine saying that my claim had been denied. Well, I wasn't going to leave it at that so I called and called and called...not easy...since it's sometimes hard to talk to someone. Anyhow, it was denied because the airline had written the reason for the flight not flying as being due to control tower problems or something like that....and Travel Guard said that it didn't pay for that kind of problem. Well, the problem with the control tower was that it wouldn't allow the flight to fly due to BAD WEATHER...fog in S.F. But, the airline was not articulate in stating that. So, I called the airline again and was asked how it was supposed to have been stated and I told the person on the phone. The person just wrote it the way that I dictated it to him over the phone and then I resent all of the forms with the new letter and weeks later the claim was finally approved. This took months...total. I was only asking for a refund of the first night of the hotel in Europe since the hotel had charged me because I was a "No-Show". I didn't even file for the meals bought in S.F. that I had to eat at the hotel during the one day delay.
So, watch the wording. I still buy Travel Guard insurance. At least I know how things work with them. Happy Travels!