Hi @ Natasha, welcome to the community.
What is the standard policy of AirAsia on its website? You should be able to use that if it is supportive of your claim.
https://support.airasia.com/s/article/Covid-19-Refund-Request-Guide?language=en_GB
Is it the online chat (AVA) which is problematic?
If one can use all other travel services associated with the honeymoon, it isn’t rocket science that the flight will not be taken.
This might be helpful information dealing with AirAsia.
From the ACCC, which would require formal and written/receipted communications with AirAsia.
and Qantas has been dinged for their behaviour, which could be similar?
Thank you very much all.
We’ve tried asking World Nomads whether T’s and C’s would suffice but they also need confirmation that we aren’t taking credits with AirAsia - and there appears to be no way to reject the offer of a credit.
Ava is bad, but then the live chat is horrendous. You have to stare at your screen until is launches (20-70 mins) and then as soon as you start talking to someone it crashes. They’re not responding on Twitter
Interestingly we accepted $3k of credits with Qantas having confidence that we would fly with them again. But now that we’re struggling with AirAsia we’re thinking we should try and have our credits refunded from Qantas following yesterday’s news. But I’m having a bit of an ethical crisis wondering if that would be bad for an airline that’s important for Australia…
Thank you, this is re-assuring. We’ve asked World Nomads if we can claim our insurance in two parts to give us more breathing room to get the stuff with AirAsia sorted. Fingers crossed.
Have you asked if your travel agent can help you with this. They may be able to do what needs to be done and issue another letter. They may charge you for assistance though, but worth asking.
Attn @JodiBird
We were interested to read your update and change of recommendation for InsureandGo Travel Insurance in the June issue of Choice. Unfortunately, we did follow your recommendation and purchased that company’s Gold Cruise insurance in April 2019 for our trip to Antarctica from mid- February to mid-March 2020.
Our experience:
On 17 March our flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was cancelled and we were rescheduled to fly on 19 March. This meant that we missed our international flights, which departed on 18 March. At that time it was impossible to communicate with any of the airlines by phone or email and the only way we could get home before Argentina closed its borders on 20 March was to purchase new flights back to Australia at Buenos Aires airport.
On 27 March we lodged an Additional Emergency Expenses claim online and mailed the original documents to InsureandGo’s office. Receipt of the documents was acknowledged on 3 April.
On 1 May we rang the office seeking an update because we had heard nothing from them. The call was answered from an overseas call centre. We were given the name of our Claims Officer and told that he would be in touch with us. On 2 May we emailed the company confirming this telephone conversation and also advised that we were experiencing financial hardship because we did not have the funds to pay for the tickets on our credit card account.
On 5 May our Claims Officer emailed us requesting further information, which we supplied the same day.
On 11 May we emailed requesting an update on our claim and on 12 May we were sent a standard email advising that they were “experiencing a high volume of activities as a result of COVID-19. This means it will take longer than expected to get back to you, outside our standard processing times.” They also indicated that if we were experiencing financial difficulties, to contact the office by phone to discuss options.
On 13 May we rang the office (again diverted overseas) and advised that we were experiencing financial hardship. The telephone operator told us that she would contact our claims officer to expedite our claim.
As we had heard nothing by 12 June, we sent a further email requesting finalisation of our claim. To date we have had no response to this email.
On 18 June we lodged a formal complaint with InsureandGo, expressing concern about their lack of communication with us and failure to provide a timely resolution to our claim. Our complaint was acknowledged the same day and they advised that they would make every effort to respond within 15 working days. We are now waiting out this further delay.
In our formal complaint email we indicated that we would be providing Choice with information about our experience and also that we were prepared to lodge a complaint with the AFCA. If you have any other suggestions or advice, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Thanks for letting us know @atem and welcome to the community. You’re on the right track with the complaint process - raise an internal complaint first and if that doesn’t resolve the issue you can escalate the complaint with AFCA.
I’ll alert InsureandGo to this thread to make them aware of the issues here.
My wife and I took Travel Insurance with Insureandgo on 27 Sept. 2019 for a 5 week trip to Europe at a cost $11204.76 due to Covid 19 the holiday has not happened. No claim has been made, Insureandgo refused our request for a refund and have offered a credit for future travel. As explained to them, we are both in our 80s and have no intention of future travel outside of Australia. They say they are following ACCC instructions If I can find a mailing address for Insueandgo I will write to them before contacting the ACCC and Consumer Affairs Tasmania. Insureand go have been highly rated by Choice. Has anyone else had the same problem?
Welcome to the community @Rogerhombre
I moved your post here because many others have had similar problems, including of age where future travel is unlikely. If you scan this topic from the beginning you may find some useful information.
I skimmed through the ACCC pages and could not find anything that looked relevant as an ‘instruction’ but although
depending on how it ‘did not happen’, eg whether you cancelled it or they cancelled it as well as the T&C when the policy was purchased, it can fall into the ‘change of mind’ and a credit might be the best you can hope for. An option to ask about in your circumstances would be whether you can transfer the credit to another family member or person.
Good luck getting something sorted. Please let the community know if you get any satisfaction.
Thank you BBG for your advice, I will try for a good outcome but will not hold my breath.
I note your now “not recommended” regarding Insure and Go Travel Insurance. I chose it last year based on your favourable review. I was all set to buy silver online when a message popped up on the screen saying gold was recommended. So I bought gold. I notified Insure and Go that my trip had been cancelled in mid March, before closure of our borders, but following advice that my cruise had been cancelled. I emailed asking for a refund or future credit voucher. My flights, cruise and accommodation - I received future credit vouchers for. Insure and Go advised they were very busy. It was referred to their complaints section, they too were busy. They offered a pro rata voucher for $20. I referred it to AFCA. I was then offered a voucher for future travel for the full amount of what I’d paid. I thank AFCA for being there for consumers.
A review of current travel insurance issues in these days of COVID.
I did research last week & Covid cover as in cover for when you are sick & need medical assistance & or hospitalisation is available from various travel companies including Covermore & Allianz (the info is not on the website but in the PDS). I could find no Covid cover for ocean or river cruises except NIB which is currently suspended. Allianz is the only company I could find that will cover Covid for ocean or river cruises BUT Covid is not mentioned at all on the website,you have to access the PDS Product Disclosure Statement to then see that a Covid sickness/hospital stay would be covered overseas.Forget using free credit card travel insurance as NO cover at present for Covid.
I am sure in time that more travel insurance companies will offer Covid cover especially to meet demand from people wanting Covid cover foe ocean & river cruising
It’s been reported recently that 2 cruise lines offer Covid cover.They are MSC & Celestyal (not Celebrity).
At present the only Australian company offering Covid cover for river or ocean cruises is Allianz BUT this is not mentioned on the website BUT in the PDS.
Some hope for insurance, holes in cover included.
Probably better off just buying some Swiss cheese.
At least you can eat it.
Choice has a useful table showing which travel insurance policies cover COVID-19.
However you need to read each policies PDS to determine the level of cover.
Has anyone been able to find a policy that provides a good level of cover for CANCELLATION COSTS? All policies I have reviewed limit the cover to $3000 - $5000.
