it's always in the fine print

the following letter was published in today's today:

Not all travel insurance is equal
Letter from Wilson Lee
05:55 AM Feb 21, 2011


THERE are numerous travel insurance companies and I had the unfortunate experience of choosing Chartis.

Last December, my family and friends went on a two-week holiday to the United States. On our way back, our connecting flight to Singapore was cancelled. We were delayed by at least 15 hours and had to make frantic overseas calls to reschedule appointments and take an extra day off work.

When we returned to Singapore, my brother wrote to Delta Airlines asking for documentation of the flight cancellation. The airline sent him a report stating that the flight was cancelled due to flight operations. The document also listed all 15 of us who were on the flight.

In early January, we submitted the document to our respective travel insurers to apply for compensation.

In the middle of January, my brother's party of four was compensated by MSIG and a friend's party of five was compensated by Great Eastern. Another friend was compensated by Liberty in early February and my second brother got his compensation from Great Eastern in mid-February.

Chartis, however, rejected my claim saying that cancellations due to flight operations were not covered.

I was upset and wrote to Chartis, pointing out that their competitors had compensated the other members of my group fast and efficiently based on the same documents, and I asked why Chartis was so rigid.

Chartis replied that they could not offer compensation as they had verified with Delta that the flight was cancelled due to crew reasons and it did not cover such delays.

What, then, did I buy travel insurance for, if not to guard against all the inconveniences of a 15-hour delay?

So, a note to readers: When you buy travel insurance be careful. Flight disruptions are common nowadays, so be sure your travel insurer is thorough and competitive in their policy coverage.