Travel Insurance and Southwest Airlines?

[Cmbar]

Hello, I have a question about buying Travel insurance when you are booking flights through Southwest.

We purchased travel insurance for a trip and covered our flights and the vacation package. We paid for the insurance and all was well and we had pre existing conditions coverage. We have had to cancel the vacation due to medical issues. The vacation package was actually not in final payment stages yet so we got a full refund of the deposit and won't be out any money. Now with Southwest I cancelled the flights and now we have a $900 travel fund to use by next May. So my question is would this not be covered by travel insurance as a credit back to us since technically its not "non refundable" until next May? Just curious if anyone has put in a claim on cancelled Southwest flights and been given the money back even though we technically can still use the travel funds for a while. Should I put in a call to the travel insurance company (Allianz) to see what our options would be? Southwest makes things a little different and I have never had to claim any travel insurance claims.

Thanks for any info!

 

[Jimsig]

I was not on Southwest but JetBlue and had to cancel an Alaskan Cruisetour a few years back less then 30 days from sailing. It was due to DW's pre-existing condition. Like you when we cancelled the airline put the money in a travel bank. When we filled out the paperwork the insurance company told me to include the airline tickets and we were given a refund for that.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you have travel to use those funds on by May, I personally wouldn't feel right putting in a claim for them. Insurance is supposed to be for nonrefundable things. And while SW's non-refundable fares aren't *refundable*, they can be usable. It might be something insurance will help with, but I'm not sure I would do it.

 

[Cmbar]

If you have travel to use those funds on by May, I personally wouldn't feel right putting in a claim for them. Insurance is supposed to be for nonrefundable things. And while SW's non-refundable fares aren't *refundable*, they can be usable. It might be something insurance will help with, but I'm not sure I would do it.

Yes. I Get what you are saying. That is why I was asking if anyone else has dealt with this. Id like to think we can use the fund by next may but with the health issues I'm not sure. So I don't know if I should make a claim but if that claim could be paid only after If I can't use the funds. Otherwise this would seem stupid to pay for the insurance ever for Southwest. I was just hoping someone had experience this and had some advice. I guess I need to call the Insurance company and see what my options are.

 

[rwdavis2]

Make the claim. What if you can't use the tickets by the deadline?

 

[DVC-Don]

My guess would be you'd have to wait until the funds expire to put in a claim.

 

[rwdavis2]

My guess would be you'd have to wait until the funds expire to put in a claim.

I would still put in the claim now and the insurance company can tell you if it's too soon. You may not want to wait in case there is a time limit on claims.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

You bought the insurance so you may as well use it. I would file a claim rather than wait. When the funds expire you can call SWA and for $100 fee per ticket they will extend the expiration date for 6 months.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

You did not lose any money; the insurance company will not pay this claim.

 

[Jimsig]

You did not lose any money; the insurance company will not pay this claim.

But if they can't use the funds by May they will have lost money and by then it may be too late to file a claim depending on what their policy says. Only way to find out is to call the insurance company.

It could be different for SW but as I mentioned in a previous post we were reimbursed the total cost of our airline tickets and our funds were put in a travel bank by JetBlue. When I first called the insurance company when we had to cancel I was told to cancel with the cruise line, the airline, and any other non-refundable payments we made. I called the cruise line and they refunded what we were due back, wasn't much as it was less then 30 days out. When I called JB to cancel they told me that the funds would be placed in a travel bank so I held off. I called back the insurance company asked about the funds being available in the travel bank as compared to the tickets just being cancelled outright they said that putting funds in a travel bank is pretty much industry standard as the airlines don't just cancel your tickets they put the remaining funds in a travel bank. The insurance company told us if we were unsure if we could use the funds in the time allotted to file a claim and it would be paid. So I called JB back and cancelled and they placed the money in a travel bank. When I filed the claim I put in for the money that we did not get back from the cruise line and the airfare and it was paid.

 

[DebbieB]

When my mom passed away, we had tickets on Air Tran and had the travel insurance. I called Air Tran and they refunded my moms but said I had mine to use as a credit. I filed a claim with insurance and got the money back.

 

[Lewisc]

I had to cancel a trip due to death in family, family member not travelling. Frontier was giving me a full credit, but I had a limited time to use it. I knew I wouldn't be using it. Chase reimbursed me under the included travel benefits of my credit card.

I think it's wrong, and might even be fraud, to collect from the insurance and use the credit. Even if you pay fee to extend.

I hope the OP contacted the insurance carrier and posts a follow up.

If I was flying southwest and was booking directly with disney I'd skip travel insurance.

 

[Shanti]

Those SWA tickets are nonrefundable, so absolutely, file the claim on them. The fact that you're allowed to use them for something else within a limited time doesn't matter. There's no reason why you should have to either incur the expense of a whole other trip or take a loss. This is why you purchased the insurance in the first place. Use it.

 

[DebbieB]

I had to cancel a trip due to death in family, family member not travelling. Frontier was giving me a full credit, but I had a limited time to use it. I knew I wouldn't be using it. Chase reimbursed me under the included travel benefits of my credit card.

I think it's wrong, and might even be fraud, to collect from the insurance and use the credit. Even if you pay fee to extend.

I hope the OP contacted the insurance carrier and posts a follow up.

If I was flying southwest and was booking directly with disney I'd skip travel insurance.

I often wondered if the insurance company would contact the airline to remove the credit.

I flew out to Disneyland a couple of weeks ago and used American frequent flyer miles. I purchased the insurance from them, it was around $25 and included luggage, some medical in addition to the miles. American charges $200 to redeposit miles.

 

[Jimsig]

I often wondered if the insurance company would contact the airline to remove the credit.

Not to get into a right or wrong discussion here but when I cancelled and was talking to one of the insurance reps he told me to put in for the credit that went into the travel bank if we were unsure if we could use it in the allotted time. I said I was unsure if we could use it and should I wait to put a claim in for it and what would happen if we put in the claim for it and in the future we could end up using it. He said to claim it and then said they would have no idea if you used it as they have no way of checking to see if it gets used. My feeling with that is that the insurance company would not and possibly can not even have the airline remove the credit. Again not to get into a right or wrong discussion and maybe it's in the paperwork somewhere but the interesting part was he never said we could not use the credit if we got the claim paid.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Those SWA tickets are nonrefundable, so absolutely, file the claim on them. The fact that you're allowed to use them for something else within a limited time doesn't matter. There's no reason why you should have to either incur the expense of a whole other trip or take a loss. This is why you purchased the insurance in the first place. Use it.

That is not how travel insurance works. The OP lost no money, she has a credit to use on Southwest.

 

[rwdavis2]

That is not how travel insurance works. The OP lost no money, she has a credit to use on Southwest.

What if they can't use the tickets by the expiration date? Nothing wrong with submitting a claim to see what happens.

 

[Lewisc]

That is not how travel insurance works. The OP lost no money, she has a credit to use on Southwest.

A credit isn't the same as a refund. I'm sure travel insurance companies are aware of Southwest's policies. Waiting until the credits expire, assuming not used, no file a claim isn't a good idea. Your claim might not be timely

Jimsig you're right there isn't any reason to get into a right and wrong discussion. How can anyone possibly think it's right to get a refund from your travel insurance carrier and use an airline credit? You can (maybe, probably) get away with it sometime with some carriers. Can anyone really think it's right?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I would be looking at the stipulations and exclusions for the insurance company you got travel insurance through.

It might be answered in there whether a point of issue is SWA's policy for flight cancellations--meaning the travel funds.

 

[Lewisc]

Bumping to see if OP got an answer from his insurance company