Travel Insurance & a death in the family

As many of you already know I was planning on leaving for Hawaii (Kuaui) on Saturday April 15 with my wife and another couple who we are very good friends with. Well, those plans have been cancelled. I have had a death in the family. An Uncle of mine has lost his battle with cancer. Within 6 months he was diagnosed, attempted treatments and died. A young man, only 58 yrs old. My uncle's wife was like my father's sister since my father was an only child. They are actually cousins, so he is really my cousin, but was always known as Uncle Billy.

I was supposed to leave on Apr 15 @ 1:00pm from Newark Airport..... I got the call at 3:30 pm on Apr 13. Thank goodness I bought the insurance when I purchased the tickets. Called the insurance company and they were very helpful, they e-mailed me the claim form and explained how it works and that I should have an answer in 7-10 days after the form is received. This is the best $62.00 ($31.00 each) that I have ever spent.

I was gonna need to take a "puddle jumper" from Honolulu to Kuaui aboard Aloha Airlines. they don't offer insurance. Customer Service was just some employee sitting behind a computer reading the policy, "Sorry Mr Reid, but the tickets are non-refundable"...... She then told me I could call Customer Relations and see if they could help me. Well they did, they were able to refund the tickets minus $25 for each one.

I also needed to stay in Honolulu for one night. So we booked a room thru Hotels.com. I called them also and told them I needed to cancel my reservation and explained to her about the death in the family. The girl on the other end told me, "I'm sorry Mr Reid, but you needed to cancel this yesterday in order to get the full refund, we are gonna need to charge you one nights stay plus tax".... My response: "Maybe you didn't hear me when I said, I had a death in the family. What was I supposed to do, anticipate his death and call you yesterday to cancel. You want to charge me for one nights stay ??.... Did you even bother to look at my reservation ?..... I'm only staying for one night"..... After she told me she couldn't help me..... I politely said "Thank you for your help, let me speak to your supervisor"..... after a couple of minutes on hold, she came back on and told me she would be able to refund the amount minus $25.00....... I will never book thru Hotels.com ever again !!!

Sorry to hear about your uncle. My condolences.

Good that you stayed with that hotel lady - sometimes folks just go with what they might think is right before considering it very much, expecting others to accept it no questions asked. Glad you got your money back.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Your family is in our prayers.

condolences on your loss,tommy.....may your uncle billy rest in peace....prayers are sent..

Sorry for your loss Tommy. Prayers and condolences to you and your family.

Sorry to hear about your loss Tommy. We will have you and your famaily in our prayers.


Chris

I'm very sorry to hear about your uncle Tommy, cancer is a horrible disease.:smiley13:
Thank you also for telling us about your experience with the airlines and the hotels, that's a bigt help.

Good thoughts and prayers for your loss.... :smiley6:

We used orbitz once when we were going to atlanta, and they come to find out it was a hotel that wasn't even finished. They pictures on the website were from another hotel. After a few words we got our money back, and went to another hotel.

Very sorry to hear this. Prayers are out to you and your family.

Sorry to hear about your loss

Tommy, sorry to read about your Uncle. God bless your family.

Sorry to hear of your loss, God be with you.

I work in travel and we always attempt to get people to buy the insurance. We even make them sign a waiver releasing us from liability if they refuse to buy insurance.

And for anyone else reading this, it is "caveat emptor" when buying travel online. Some great deals out there, but a lot of fraud, and a lot of "gotchas".