Change in Platinum Card Travel Insurance?

[kpc]

I have emailed the Manager, Public Affairs and Communications at AMEX whom we met at the AFF gathering in Canberra last October for a comment about this. I will post her reply if I get one, and she agrees for it to be posted online.

travel insurance changes confirmed unfortunately by email. Changes take effect June 15. Didn't expand on the changes but said letter expected this week

I did send the link to this thread to the Manager, Public Affairs and Communications at AMEX with my email so I'm pretty sure AMEX are reading and following this thread:shock:. What a PR disaster! My take on this is that the current travel insurance policy is costing AMEX too much money, and to keep costs down, have asked ACE to restrict the policy moving forwards to keep costs down. When I return from London, I will read the AMEX letter just sent, and decide whether i will keep the Charge card (unlikely at this point).

 

[mitchy123]

The Qantas Amex Premium card and the Platinum Reserve Cerdit card now both have better policies:
- they are both clear that it is only the flight leaving australia that needs to be put onto the card in order to be covered;
- they both used Amex's previous wording for "Pre-exisiting Medical Conditions";
- they both have the much shorter list of special sports.

Trekking? You must be kidding me. It's more dangerous to cross a road.

Furthermore - TI is activated using QFF points for the flight on the Qantas Amex Ult (and the Premium I think as well). As far as I can see, there would be no cover for an award flight on the current Amex Plat Charge.

 

[moa999]

Looking at the list of so-called "special sports" - and this is by far the widest list I have ever seen I can see several that are going to cause me problems,
abseiling; American football; baseball; bobsleigh; bungee jumping;
canoeing; clay pigeon shooting; deep-sea fishing; fell running; go-karting; hang-gliding;
heli-skiing; hockey; horseriding; hot-air ballooning; ice hockey; jet biking and jet
skiing; luge; martial arts; microlighting; mountain biking off-tarmac; mountaineering;
parachuting; paragliding; parascending; paraskiing; polo; potholing; quad biking; rock
climbing; rugby; scuba diving deeper than thirty (30) metres; skeleton; skidoo; skijumping; ski-racing; ski-stunting; tour operator safari (where You or any tourist will
be carrying guns); trekking; war games/paintball; white-water canoeing and rafting;
yachting more than twenty (20) nautical miles from the nearest coastline.

I had to look up potholing - suggests this list may have been copied from the UK/Ireland - maybe 'caving' would have been a better term.
Ski-stunting could also be a nasty broad term for some snowsport enthusiasts

At least I could go to NY and play Australian Rules or Cricket and be covered - not many other sports though!!


Wandersen makes an interesting point that the Plat Credit Card now has better terms!

 

[Timtammi]

This is bad move on their part IMHO. It totally devalues their card and for us there is no way we could justify the $900 annual fee without reasonable TI coverage. Most of my travel is for business and I can't put those charges through a personal card all the time, and even if I could its just not practical. Plus they seem to have added so many exclusions/caveats to make the insurance virtually useless anyway.

Luckily I have lots of travel for the year already booked so hopefully that will all still be covered - what about hotels that are booked and GTD by CC (not the amex) but don't actually get charged until you stay. What if that stay is after June?

Its a bit of a worry that the T and C's seem to contradict what people are being told re the effective date which appears to be already in effect. Makes me nervous to rely on it.

Ours is up for renewal in August and will definitely be cancelled or will need a massive discount on annual fee in order for it be worthwhile keeping as I will now need to take out separate annual TI policy for myself and DH which will cost a pretty penny.

Reading this forum is the first I have heard about this change BTW, no letter received from Amex yet.

Not a happy camper

Timmi

 

[moa999]

To reiterate on dates

Letter
"We're writing to let you know that from 15 June 2012"

T&Cs
"Cover is effective from 30 January 2012. These Terms and Conditions were prepared on 30 December 2011"

 

[exp1k]

I think some of the changes are reasonable:
1. restrict the insurance to the primary cardholders immediate family
2. have a small deductible (~$50-$100) in order to avoid a flood of tiny claims that cost x times more to process than what they are worth

But some of the changes are just ridiculous:
3. cover only for segments of a journey that are fully prepaid with the card
4. restrictions regarding medical history
5. exclusions of perfectly normal "everyday" activities by classifying them as special sports
6. a deductible of $250, that's more than it costs to buy an individual travel insurance

When I purchase a travel insurance individually, it covers my travel no matter how I pay for it. The AMEX platinum charge card costs significantly more than most other cards with a good insurance cover. I expect that the additional fee includes a full travel insurance, similar to ones sold individually. The purchasing power of AMEX should ensure that they get a good deal on a full travel insurance for their cardholders and this cost should be covered by the annual fee. This should not require prepayment of every segment using the AMEX card, which is in many cases completely impractical or impossible.
Likewise, I expect this travel insurance to be as good as the ones I can buy individually (or at the very least as good as insurances offered by cheaper credit cards), that is it should have similar requirements to medical history and similar exclusions.

If ACE insurance insists on these silly changes, AMEX should just cancel their contract with them and negotiate the bulk purchase of family travel cover for all their cardholders with a different insurance company. Alternatively, everyone should rethink the value of the card and cancel it if it is not worth it anymore.

If they do implement these changes, this significantly reduces the value proposition of the card. Basically the insurance becomes worthless and it is better to purchase a travel insurance individually. Therefore, the value of the card is reduced by the cost of a full travel insurance for the cardholder and the immediate family.

 

[wandersen]

It actually was a very good policy. My father is living in Papua New Guinea at the moment working on an engineering project. It's probably the only policy we could find in Australia that covers him, despite Australia not currently being his place of residence. Try finding a travel insurance policy in PNG at all. He's covered there by his company but if he is to fly from say PNG to Asia for a holiday, he is not. Now the only option for him to do so and find insurance that actually applies is to fly via Australia.

 

[beardoc]

Should we start a thread for those that are looking for a comparable annual travel insurance policy to replace this Amex travel insurance? A brief look around suggests that annual travel insurance doesn't provide the same value as the Platinum Charge Card pre-June 15 2012. That's the whole point of this - the Platinum Charge Card was expensive, but the value that it provided was well worth it for frequent travellers. Now the exclusions on the card render the insurance not only incomplete (particular where some of my travel must be booked and paid through a corporate travel agency and not by me), but also useless (if you've ever had a cardiovascular condition you cannot make any claims under the medical expenses provisions).

This renders the insurance as worthless as most other credit card insurance in Australia - it's near worthless, and shouldn't be relied upon.

The insurance was the reason I had this card. After 15th May, the value isn't there any longer. This is disappointing - I liked travelling knowing that I would be looked after no matter what happened. Now it feels like they're looking for reasons not to cover you.

I suspect it is the case that Amex was finding the cost of the insurance rising too high and asked ACE Insurance to rewrite the policy with a set target in their minds of what premium they were willing to pay per cardholder. ACE Insurance crunched the numbers and rewrote the policy with deductibles and exclusions, and extra hurdles to jump.

Really disappointed. I will be one of those people that will be cancelling my card post May 15. Not because I want to, but I just can't justify it. Sorry Amex - you lost a lot of goodwill with me today.

 

[awilcockson]

If ACE insurance insists on these silly changes, AMEX should just cancel their contract with them and negotiate the bulk purchase of family travel cover for all their cardholders with a different insurance company. Alternatively, everyone should rethink the value of the card and cancel it if it is not worth it anymore.

My guess is that it is Amex driving these changes.

Has anyone else noticed the increase for the Amex branded TI policies lately? Coincidence much?

 

[oz_mark]

My guess is that it is Amex driving these changes.

Has anyone else noticed the increase for the Amex branded TI policies lately? Coincidence much?

I would guess the same. And the reduction in cost to Amex would be such that they could afford to lose a bunch of cardholders, and still be in front.

 

[Flashback]

This is a really really disappointing change and I'll now be exploring all my other possible insurance policies because this simply goes too far and I refuse to be worrying about purchases etc while I'm on holiday. I'm also very disappointed that I can no longer assist my parents by offering them insurance through my card - they are simply not in a position to pay for a card that includes insurance because of their income, age and level of travel. Its simply not economical.

IMHO if someone can't afford to pay for travel insurance then they really can't "afford" (not in the cost sense) to be travelling. They needn't have a card, single trip policies can be purchased that work just fine.

 

[jamesgou]

So.. Just thinking about this. If I purchase some future travel (overseas flight in August) prior to June deadline, do I need to keep the Amex Plat to make a claim (should it occur)? Or can I get rid of the Amex in late June and still claim through ACE?

 

[aplmac]

I would guess the same. And the reduction in cost to Amex would be such that they could afford to lose a bunch of cardholders, and still be in front.

I think they've really trashed the Platinum brand with this exercise in cost-cutting. The clumsy and inconsistant way this radical change to the insurance T&Cs has been handled reflects badly on an organisation that promotes itself as a premium brand.

 

[aplmac]

So.. Just thinking about this. If I purchase some future travel (overseas flight in August) prior to June deadline, do I need to keep the Amex Plat to make a claim (should it occur)? Or can I get rid of the Amex in late June and still claim through ACE?

T&C states 'Cover will terminate at the earlier of the following: • cancellation of the AMEX Platinum card account...' so I would say you need to keep the card to keep the cover.

 

[oz_mark]

IMHO if someone can't afford to pay for travel insurance then they really can't "afford" (not in the cost sense) to be travelling.

While I agree that one shouldn't travel without insurance coverage, I am not sure that the mechanism for getting that insurance matters that much.


Depending on what I do with the card (keeping in mind I have a starwood night somewhere in the system), I may just be using individual trip policies. Much of my travel is individual one way sectors bought and paid for at different times, so I don't think the policy changes will be much good for me.

 

[Flashback]

Depending on what I do with the card (keeping in mind I have a starwood night somewhere in the system).

What a timely reminder! I should really revisit that and book it.

 

[Deleted member]

I agree this is a terrible change. Not sure I can see the value in the card now. It's not just the "must put the trip on the card" issue for me.

I have given my father a card for the travel insurance - he could put his trips on the card, but the change to the pre-existing medical conditions clause would make it useless.

I've made a few claims over the years, but never for more than $250 - the new deductible makes this useless. I think I'd be better off with an annual travel insurance policy.

I suspect that with ALL travel insurance there is a prexisting condition exclusion, .......even Amex?

 

[Timtammi]

DH and I will need an annual policy to replace this insurance. We will need one that covers us when we travel together or apart. Cooincidentally I needed to renew a policy for an employee today so was looking at TID and seems like they may have an affordable policy that will do for both of us at around the $500 mark p.a. mark (might be able to get 10% discount with discount codes). So Amex will need to cut their annual fee in half to keep us as customers all other things being equal. Any other suggestions for replacement policies for the frequent traveller?

 

[awilcockson]

I suspect that with ALL travel insurance there is a prexisting condition exclusion, .......even Amex?

Sure there is, but not one that is so blatantly unfair as to say that having any one of a huge list of previous ailments excludes you from ALL medical claims.

So according to the new rules, if you had high cholesterol 10 years ago, went on an overseas holiday and got hit by a car, you wouldn't be able to claim for medical expenses!

 

[Flashback]

If I had a choice in using TID vs AMEX, I'd go with the TID personally as then you don't need to worry about how each specific segment is purchased as cover will just apply anyway.