Travel insurance doesn’t cover flight cancellation

By Christopher Elliott

Q: I was supposed to fly from Sacramento, California, to Seattle recently with my sister and mother for a family wedding. Before our trip, my sister had to be rushed to the emergency room with an unexpected heart condition. This prevented us from traveling.

I had purchased travel insurance when I made this booking through Travelocity. Little good that did. Travelocity canceled our flights and sent me directions on how to apply for a refund from Delta Air Lines. Delta has a clause for illness-related cancellations, but the airline decided that it could not give us a refund, but rather would send us a voucher to apply toward a future purchase.

Is there anything else we can do to receive a refund? We charged all three flights on my sister’s credit card. She can’t afford to reimburse me or my mother now. My sister does not wish to fly anywhere, since she’s scheduled for another heart-related procedure and still is under cardiac care. Can you help?

— Michele Kemp, Sacramento, California

A: The travel insurance you bought through Travelocity should have fully covered your cancellation. The policy you purchased provides a full refund for a medical cancellation. Instead of fulfilling its obligation, Travelocity bounced you to Delta, which only agreed to waive your cancellation fees — not the answer you were hoping for.

When a company doesn’t meet its obligations and bounces you to a third party, you usually can put an end to it by starting a paper trail and escalating it to an executive, if necessary. By “paper trail,” I mean keeping everything in writing — no phone calls.

It looks as if you spent many frustrating hours on the phone with Travelocity and Delta, trying to get an immediate resolution. But insurance claims can take time, and they must be meticulously documented.

I list the names, numbers and email addresses of all the bigwigs at Travelocity (owned by Expedia) and Delta on my consumer-advocacy site: http://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/expedia/ and http://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/delta-airlines/. You could have appealed to one of them and asked for help.

I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. It turns out you were covered, but you hadn’t been given the correct instructions for filing a claim. After you received the information, you filed a claim, and six weeks later, you received an $811 refund, which covers all three tickets. I wish your sister a speedy recovery.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of “How to Be the World’s Smartest Traveler.” You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org, or email him at chris@elliott.org.