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Travel insurance typically pays for a hotel and necessary expenses if an airline cancels your scheduled flight and you must extend your trip.
What about if you change your plans proactively before a possible delay or cancellation? Will travel insurance pay then?
I didn’t know the answer when this happened to me while traveling last month. Would I get some of the money I spent back? I decided to file a claim and find out.
»Learn more: How to find the best travel insurance
Bad weather expected in New York
I was visiting Finland and scheduled to fly from Helsinki to Tampa via Amsterdam and New York. The first leg from Helsinki to Amsterdam was scheduled for March 16. I would spend the night in Amsterdam and take the other two flights on March 17.
Just before boarding the flight from Helsinki, I received both a text message and an email saying severe winter weather was predicted to impact my upcoming flights.
My flights into and out of New York-John F. Kennedy airport were the ones impacted, and I could make changes to my flights at no cost, as long as the new flights fit the airline’s parameters.
I decided I would rather be delayed in Amsterdam than New York. If the storms hit, many other passengers would be trying to get into and out of New York, causing a lot more stress and possibly even more delays for me.
When I landed in Amsterdam, I went to the KLM ticket office and talked with a really nice customer service agent.
After looking at the ticket and the weather waiver itself, he agreed I could change my ticket at no cost and rebooked me on a flight from Amsterdam to Tampa on March 20.
My next stop was the Sheraton hotel at Schiphol Airport where I was already planning to stay one night to make sure I could extend the stay until March 20. I had checked availability online before I changed the plane ticket, so I knew rooms were available. The question was how much it would cost.
With the help of an awesome front desk agent, I was able to extend my stay at the same rate as my original booking.
»Learn more: How much is travel insurance?
What happened with the original flights
It turns out the weather in New York wasn’t as bad as the forecasters thought. The flight from Amsterdam to New York I was supposed to take on March 17 was delayed but not by much.
The original flight from New York-JFK to Tampa took off on time.
In the meantime, I made the best of the situation by getting some work done and visiting the city of Amsterdam.
Filing an insurance claim
When I arrived home, I filed a trip interruption insurance claim with Allianz, my travel insurance provider.
I have an annual All Trips Premier Plan, which has coverage for trip interruption. The policy says: “Reimburses you for the unused, non-refundable portion of your trip and for the increased transportation costs it takes for you to return home due to a covered reason.”
The policy paperwork also says it will pay for “Additional accommodation and transportation expenses if the interruption causes you to stay at your destination (or the location of the interruption) longer than originally planned. There is a per policy maximum of $250 per day for 5 days.”
Severe weather is listed as a covered reason.
🤓 Nerdy Tip
Cancel For Any Reason travel insurance provides partial refunds of nonrefundable parts of your trip for any reason. The new travel must be in a similar or lower class of service as the original ticket, which my new flight was.
That seems fairly clear to me: If severe weather causes a flight delay or cancellation which leads to interruption, the policy will pay.
But what if the changes are made proactively? That’s the big question here.
When I filed the claim on the Allianz website, I entered information like the dates of travel and whether it was a cancellation or interruption claim, and added just a few details about what happened. Characters were very limited, so the description was brief.
I had to select “Other” when filling out the first question about what happened since none of the dropdown answers fit. That response led to a popup warning, but I decided to proceed.
I claimed the unexpected additional hotel expenses and a pair of pants I had to buy since it was too warm in Amsterdam for my Finland clothing.
I uploaded documents to support my claim and certified that the information I was submitting was correct.
After that, I received emails every few days from Allianz saying claim examiners were reviewing my claim.
»Learn more: Trip interruption insurance explained
Did travel insurance pay?
On April 14, I received both an email and a text with the email subject line, "Payment decision."
I nervously clicked it, not knowing what to expect. The first words, “Good News!”, made me smile. Allianz was paying the claim. The money showed up in my bank account the next morning.
I was very happy with the result of my claim. It’s nice to know being proactive can pay off.
This was just my experience with one claim with one travel insurance provider. The rules might not be the same for every company or in every situation, but it never hurts to file a claim and see what happens. You might just get paid.
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