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 !!!
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