Important Tips for Making a Successful Claim

In order to successfully make a claim on your travel insurance policy, it’s important to understand these tips.

Timely notification is necessary

You must notify the travel insurance company as soon as reasonably possible in the event of a possible claim – either before or during your trip. This includes trip cancellations, trip interruptions, travel delays, missed connections, baggage loss or delay, and more depending on the policy.

This has a dual benefit – the provider knows you need help and can start the process to get you out of trouble, and you have established that a claim may be filed, so there are no surprises later.

Example copied from Travel Guard’s Gold plan regarding trip cancellation or interruption claims	“The Insured must notify Travel Guard as soon as reasonably possible in the event of a Trip Cancellation or Interruption claim. If the Insured is unable to provide cancellation notice within the required timeframe, the Insured must provide proof of the circumstance that prevented timely notification.”
Example copied from Travelex’s Select Advantage plan as a general provision	“Written notice of claim must be given by the Claimant (either You or someone acting for You) to the Company or its designated representative within twenty (20) days after a covered Loss first begins, or as soon as reasonably possible.”

As you can see, each travel insurance company has their own notification and claims procedures, so it’s vital that you take the time to review the policy.

In some cases pre-trip notification is required as well. For example, Travel Guard requires you to contact them before renting a car to confirm whether that vehicle is covered under your policy.

Proof of loss is expected

Just as you would expect to provide proof of loss with any insurance claim (home, auto, life, etc.), proof of loss is expected with travel insurance.

Proof of loss may include:

written statements from the airline when they lose your bag
police reports if you are in a collision with your rental car
medical statements if you have to seek medical care during your trip
a letter from the employer if you have to cancel your trip due to job loss
reciepts for additional expenses such as meals, lodging, etc. if you have a travel delay

You’ll need to provide proof of loss (receipts, sworn statement, etc.) to the company within a certain number of days (typically 90) in order for a claim to be paid.