alemdohorizonte
Intern
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Posts
- 62
for those of you who are american express centurion card members who travel frequently, be wary of the travel inconvenience insurance cover that the centurion card provides. i was mistakenly under the impression that this was the best travel inconvenience cover available and often used this mistaken belief to justify the $4300 annual fee. i got stung due to limitations in the policy that i had no idea existed. so buyer beware. do not take for granted that emergency expenses are covered when you most need them.
last december i was flying on ba from cpt-lhr-cdg on an aone6. the flight was delayed for almost 6 hours in cpt for mechanical reasons which meant i missed the last connection to cdg and had to overnight in lhr where it was freezing with gusty ice cold wind. because it was peak season, the earliest connecting flight that ba could get me on from lhr to cdg was late the following afternoon. further, ba was unable to retrieve my luggage as it was checked through to cdg. this meant i was left in london for over 18 hours in very cold weather without a change of clothes and with no sweater. all i had packed in my carry-on was a light windbreaker thinking that it would more than suffice for the car ride in paris where my friends were waiting to pick me up and take me to their apartment.
while i was struggling through the long lines formed from a fully loaded 747's worth of similarly displaced passengers scrambling to collect hotel and meal vouchers and make rebooking arrangements at ba customer service desks in lhr (ba handled the deluge well) and then virtually freezing to death standing for 45 mins in the ice cold weather waiting for a bus to take me to the hotel that ba provided for the night, i repeatedly told myself that this was one of those times that the peace of mind you get when things go wrong really justifies the egregious $4300 annual cost of that titanium piece of wallet jewellery. i knew that my centurion card insurance policy covered up to AUD$700 for emergency items under the travel inconvenience part of the policy, so tired of feeling dirty and cold, the next morning i decided to make the best of my unplanned stop-over. i purchased some clean underwear, socks, a shirt and a sweater and went into the city to play tourist for a few hours until i had to get back to the airport to catch my rebooked flight late that afternoon.
when i returned to sydney i filed a claim with axa insurance (who underwrites the insurance for amex centurion) for the clothes i had to purchase. after long delays and follow-up letters providing "further information" such as proof that i had purchased the ticket and how i had paid for it (on my amex card), proof of my itinerary (even though it was electronic and i had previously sent them original boarding passes and a letter from ba explaining what had happened), etc., i finally received a tersely worded denial letter from them (axa insurance) stating that because london was not my "scheduled destination point" none of my emergency expenses were covered.
moral of the story -- under american express' centurion insurance coverage, travel inconvenience cover is very limited. unless you reach your "scheduled destination point" you cannot claim emergency expenses for anything other than hotel and meals (which in my case were provided by ba) no matter how long or under which conditions you are delayed and/or without your luggage.
last december i was flying on ba from cpt-lhr-cdg on an aone6. the flight was delayed for almost 6 hours in cpt for mechanical reasons which meant i missed the last connection to cdg and had to overnight in lhr where it was freezing with gusty ice cold wind. because it was peak season, the earliest connecting flight that ba could get me on from lhr to cdg was late the following afternoon. further, ba was unable to retrieve my luggage as it was checked through to cdg. this meant i was left in london for over 18 hours in very cold weather without a change of clothes and with no sweater. all i had packed in my carry-on was a light windbreaker thinking that it would more than suffice for the car ride in paris where my friends were waiting to pick me up and take me to their apartment.
while i was struggling through the long lines formed from a fully loaded 747's worth of similarly displaced passengers scrambling to collect hotel and meal vouchers and make rebooking arrangements at ba customer service desks in lhr (ba handled the deluge well) and then virtually freezing to death standing for 45 mins in the ice cold weather waiting for a bus to take me to the hotel that ba provided for the night, i repeatedly told myself that this was one of those times that the peace of mind you get when things go wrong really justifies the egregious $4300 annual cost of that titanium piece of wallet jewellery. i knew that my centurion card insurance policy covered up to AUD$700 for emergency items under the travel inconvenience part of the policy, so tired of feeling dirty and cold, the next morning i decided to make the best of my unplanned stop-over. i purchased some clean underwear, socks, a shirt and a sweater and went into the city to play tourist for a few hours until i had to get back to the airport to catch my rebooked flight late that afternoon.
when i returned to sydney i filed a claim with axa insurance (who underwrites the insurance for amex centurion) for the clothes i had to purchase. after long delays and follow-up letters providing "further information" such as proof that i had purchased the ticket and how i had paid for it (on my amex card), proof of my itinerary (even though it was electronic and i had previously sent them original boarding passes and a letter from ba explaining what had happened), etc., i finally received a tersely worded denial letter from them (axa insurance) stating that because london was not my "scheduled destination point" none of my emergency expenses were covered.
moral of the story -- under american express' centurion insurance coverage, travel inconvenience cover is very limited. unless you reach your "scheduled destination point" you cannot claim emergency expenses for anything other than hotel and meals (which in my case were provided by ba) no matter how long or under which conditions you are delayed and/or without your luggage.
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A colleague who had paid his deposit with an Amex Gold was not so fortunate and reading the terms of the Gold Insurance showed there were significant differences. Others who had full travel policies were also excluded as they did not cover a non registered operator. 
