Travel Insurance Revisited – Proof it Can Be a Life Saver
June 13th, 2008 by TJ Mahony tj@flipkey.comIn January we wrote about Travel Insurance and the details to be aware of before purchasing it. All in all, we determined Travel Insurance to be a useful mechanism to avoid ‘economic’ surprises while on vacation, but we were discouraged by the difficult claim process. In a different, but loosely related story, you may also remember our story on vetting the legitimacy of boat charter operator prior to a trip to Croatia. Having returned from Croatia I would like to revisit both of these stories to shed new light and a new found sense of appreciation for travel insurance.
Background
My family chartered a sail boat in Croatia to celebrate my brother’s 40th birthday. We found an amazing boat through a company called Navicula (www.navicula.hr). Navicula required a bank transfer to reserve the boat and crew. We were hesitant to send so much money over a wire, but followed up on various references and determined it was a legitimate operation.
Despite feeling confident in the company, we choose to take out a travel insurance policy through AIG Travel Guard just in case something went wrong.
Something Went Wrong
As we boarded our flight from Boston to Croatia we received an email from law@navicula.hr explaining that the boat had been damaged in transit and that they were canceling the charter. (Note: This is a true story). Navicula did not help us find an alternative charter, but through some heroic efforts by my sister in-law we were able to find www.lazywinch.com and its brilliant captain Paul Scowen.
The trip was amazing and we will forever be indebted to Paul and his hostess Tea for accommodating us on such short notice. (Read my review on TripAdvisor Forums here).
Paul Scowen of Lazywinch.com and hostess ‘Tea’ (Tee-a)
However, the story doesn’t end there. After returning back to the states we discovered Navicula had never refunded our money.
Final Outcome
After several emails and phone calls we finally gave up and called AIG to file our claim. Had we not purchased travel insurance the cost of our trip would have doubled. Thanks to Lazywinch, Captain Paul Scowen and AIG Travel Guard for saving our trip.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
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