Help! Travel insurance won’t pay for my flight delay

Q: Last August, my dream trip to India imploded before takeoff. A delayed flight from Orlando to Atlanta caused me to miss my connection to Paris. Delta Air Lines rebooked me 25 hours later through London, costing me $270 for hotels, meals and taxis. I’d wisely bought Trawick International travel insurance, which covers a trip disruption.

But SureGo Claims, their administrator, became a nightmare. They demanded endless documents, assured me everything was received, then denied my claim with a lie: “Your delay was only 3 hours.”

SureGo falsely claimed my Atlanta-to-Paris flight was delayed (it wasn’t – I’d missed it entirely!). The Delta documentation I provided clearly showed a 25-hour disruption.

When I appealed, SureGo demanded another 40 to 60 days, after already torturing me for five months.

I know $270 is a small amount, but that’s how they trap you: too little to sue, enough to make you quit. This feels like a scam where they bank on the customer’s exhaustion. I’ve spent hours on calls, resending paperwork and being ghosted. How can a company fabricate facts to avoid paying such a modest, valid claim?

— Christine Porter, Apopka, Fla.

A: Trawick International should have honored your claim immediately. Your policy’s trip delay coverage, which is standard in most travel insurance plans, typically kicks in after 6 to 12 hours. Your 25-hour disruption wasn’t borderline — it was excessive.

I’m not sure how SureGo Claims investigated your case, but it certainly seems to have misread the basic facts of your claim. In doing so, it violated fundamental insurance principles of good faith and fair dealing. Florida statutes explicitly prohibit insurers from failing to adopt and implement standards for the proper investigation of claims or misrepresenting pertinent facts.

You did right by keeping records of your calls, but you might have fixed this faster with a more thorough paper trail. If you have to call an insurance company, always ask for an email confirmation. Otherwise, it’s your word against theirs.

The escalations were problematic and not at all what we’re accustomed to seeing with Trawick, which has an otherwise good reputation for fast claims. You could have appealed your case to one of Trawick’s executives. I publish their names, numbers and emails on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.

I’m puzzled by this case. Most claims like this are automatic and processed quickly. If you give your travel insurance company your flight itinerary — you can usually do that online — it will track your flight and pay your claim within hours if something goes wrong.

I contacted Starr Companies, Trawick’s underwriter. A few weeks after our inquiry, Trawick approved a claim for $300 per person, which is more than you claimed, calling it trip delay coverage. I should note that you also continued fighting for Trawick to honor the claim, and it was likely pressure from all sides that finally led to this successful resolution.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.