| Date Submitted: | July 4, 2010 |
| Travel Insurer: | Access America |
| Coverage: | 1 out of 10 |
| Claims: | 7 out of 10 |
| Customer Service: | 7 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 9 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | In process of claim right now - will update soon Booked a trip for my family and I from San Diego to Madrid...booked the tickets on AA August of 2009 for travel in June 2010 (way in advance) so I purchased a $24 Access America policy for my wife and I, but not for the kids. Main reason was in case of striking European transit workers - as well as trip interruption, etc. I DID READ the entire policy, which took roughly half an hour, to make sure that they were not "supplimental" coverage, and also called Access America to make sure they were not "supplimental / secondary" coverage - they assured me they were not and the policy does not indicate anywhere that they are either. Life was good - I bought the policies. The day of travel to Madrid, incredibly, American Airlines lost my wifes luggage and mine! It would be 3 cities and almost 4 days later that we would be reunited with our bags. The day of landing, once I knew we had no luggage and were in for more than a 24-hour delay (easy to determine since AA only has one flight a day into Madrid from Dallas, so >24 hour delay was assured we were told) I called Access America again and they reconfirmed / reassured me (on a speakerphone call listened to by my family and the American Airlines baggage rep) that they were not "secondary coverage" which I was specifically interested in, because I knew what would happen next. I knew American Airlines would eventually pay us "something" for clothing and essentials that we needed to purchase, but that it would take them 4 months - the major airlines are all criminals when it comes to the timeliness of a claim like that, and they hope that by inundating a person with paperwork requests and re-requests, most claims just fizzle away due to lack of stamina or ability for average people to stick with the claims process. I did not want this from my travel insurance. So, purchase a LOT of clothing, since we had lost a lot of clothing, and my wife was having a bit of a meltdown over our first family international vacation (which we don't speak Spanish) being kicked off with nada for essentials etc. Plus we were stuck - there is no way to find the "good deal boutique stores" when you are trapped in Spain and asking the local hotel people where to go purchase clothing and esentials - they all point to the biggest mall on the map and smile. I would too! So anyway, we spend a fair amount comfortable in the knowledge that Access America covers each of us $500 per person. No matter what. According to them. 4 days later we meet our luggage, and life is grand because we have a bit of new clothing, etc. and have a week of vacation left, plus I am comforted knowing we were not hosed on the $1500 we spent on stuff due to no bags. I get home and file the claim with American Airlines and Access America. So now, for the FIRST TIME EVER, Access American suddenly says they are "secondary coverage" and will happily take my claim, but have no plans to pay until American Airlines gets done with their claim. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I have them open up their FINE PRINT policy and show me this - IT DOESN'T EXIST AND THEY CAN'T SHOW ME!! However they nicely indicate that there is a line in the policy way down that indicates any reimbursement from American Airlines is taken out of the reimbursement for the Access America policy. Well here is the legal catch - that is fine with me - if American Airlines pays me my entire claim in 3 to 4 months, I am happy to pay Access America back the $500 each for my wife and I that I was expecting. However, I am pretty sure that this does not entitle them to wait to pay me based on their policy wording and the CLEAR repeated message from their reps which I documented. So, I am a week into this, and will be notifying them of all this in writing this week. I will post / update on this site how this ends - if they pay me immediately as I expect, then I will be overall pleased, because candidly as another person accurately posted, these are cheap policies so obviously they are going to push back on almost every claim - all insurance is a version of a scam for the masses, with only the somewhat persistent and informed customers getting what they should get. These types of policies are very much on the "don't pay for much" side given how inexpensive they are. That said, my case is as clear-cut and well-documented as it gets, so as another posted shared, if Access America tries to act like true secondary coverage vs paying me as they promise and allowing me to pay them back if American Airlines actually comes through 100% (which is highly unlikely) then I will correspond with the California Insurance Commission - not something I look forward to since this is a huge time waste, but something I will do. The key thing to do with these policies is take the time to read the real coverage, never the high-level summary of benefits, since the summary always makes it sound like everything is covered when we all know there are exceptions and exclusions hidden everywhere in these things. Good luck all. Steve |
| Submitted by: | Steve 40 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: San Diego |
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