Dan Travel Insurance failed us again are there any better alternatives

[Ankush Mittal]

I feel like such a tool lol.

DAN Divers Alert Network Asia-Pacific : TravelAssist Benefits

It clearly states for DAN Members who want to avail the benefits of TravelAssist

Note: The 80km evacuation rule is waived only in the case of diving emergencies where a Member has elected to take out Optional Dive Injury (Treatment) Insurance.

Either I missed that first time around or they have changed the policy recently. But I believe this is very clear and self explanatory and leaves zero scope for interpretation for DAN to deny a claim.

Need to read the entire Asia Pacific policy document again lol

 

[bobfmdc]

It looks like I am getting the run around from DAN Insurance again. This is the second time I have felt let down and left hanging in the wind by their travel insurance.

After these experiences I'm even rethinking weather Dan diver insurance is worth keeping since I don't want to hear that they won't help if I got bent or hit by the boat does anyone have a better alternative?

..................................
I hope this thread continues to be active and that DAN is reading it. I am a DAN member with renewal coming up in March 2018, and am about to file a claim for stolen dive equipment in Cozumel. I bought the DAN sponsored and promoted "Basic" trip insurance; it actually is a Travel Guard policy that apparently was tweaked for DAN. In my case, regarding the theft, I was told that the policy is a primary payer--that is, you don't have to file with your homeowners policy and again with whomever had custody of your equipment, and be rejected, so that this policy will pay. I guess I will find this out for real soon. Primary policies do not say they are "primary"--the agents say they are primary if they don't say "secondary."

That's the good news. The bad news is that after going to the trouble to file I may not get anything much. First, although the coverage I thought I was buying goes up to $1000, the policy (page 8) says that items over $150 in value must have an "original receipt." How many of us have that? Then it only pays "original cash value less depreciation," where depreciation is determined by the insurance company. If they use the United States Federal government standard depreciation guide known as the Joint Military Industry Depreciation Guide (‘JMIDG’), all scuba equipment is depreciated at 10% per year. This means that the stolen equipment that I bought 8 years ago for about $300, and would cost $400 to replace today, would only draw a $130 reimbursement from the insurance company. And that is assuming I can convince them to waive the original receipt rule for the $159 fins I lost.

I will follow up later to report my results.

 

[lfarr57]

We have never used the DAN dive insurance but their travel insurance (AIG Travel Guard) has been HORRIBLE to deal with. They promised to get back to us within 15 days. It has been two months since we filed the claim (due to injury). No word. DAN themselves will not get involved. They will only transfer you to AIG. On the AIG claim site, AIG has requested more documentation than the original LONG claim form. We have supplied it three times, and AIG is still requesting the same information. Try to talk to someone? Good luck. Not a chance.
Due to all this, including DAN not doing damn thing to help with AIG, we have dropped all DAN insurance. And in good conscience my husband will no longer advise his SCUBA students to use any DAN product. After all, if DAN will not stand behind their travel insurance, why should he, we, believe they will stand behind any other product?

 

[Cali_diver]

We have never used the DAN dive insurance but their travel insurance (AIG Travel Guard) has been HORRIBLE to deal with. They promised to get back to us within 15 days. It has been two months since we filed the claim (due to injury). No word. DAN themselves will not get involved. They will only transfer you to AIG. On the AIG claim site, AIG has requested more documentation than the original LONG claim form. We have supplied it three times, and AIG is still requesting the same information. Try to talk to someone? Good luck. Not a chance.
Due to all this, including DAN not doing damn thing to help with AIG, we have dropped all DAN insurance. And in good conscience my husband will no longer advise his SCUBA students to use any DAN product. After all, if DAN will not stand behind their travel insurance, why should he, we, believe they will stand behind any other product?

The delay game is business as usual for most insurance companies... add a world wide pandemic on top of it and it can only get worse. I wouldn't blame DAN one single bit, they have no control over AIG. It took me longer than 2 months to get payment when there wasn't a pandemic going on. I warn people all the time to get every scrap of paper you can when you know there will be a claim because that is how they keep stringing you out. I had a straight forward claim and finally bombarded them with every piece of evidence/paper/article I could and surprisingly got a check right away (after 4 months of back and forth).

 

[DavidFL]

I've had to use the insurance twice. Both times were cut and dried. In the first case the trip was cancelled less than 24 hours before departure by a hurricane. In the second case I had bought the "cancel for any reason" clause, I chose to "cancel for any reason" within all the time frames and other parameters. In both cases it took in excess of four months; and for most of that time I didn't receive any communication or find any useful information on the case page on their website. And, like @Cali_diver, the check suddenly showed up without any advance communication and I don't know which of my various "prods" (if any) produced that result.

 

[Altamira]

If you are a USAA member, you can get very good trip insurance through a link to Travel Insured International on USAA website. I find their pricing for USAA members to be a lot better, with more coverage, than a comparable cost policy through DAN and others. Claims that we submitted were handled very quickly and without issue.
Edit: I also use DAN for its dive insurance policy.

 

[ToneNQ]

Ive got DAN insurance incase I need evacuation to a chamber. I have never actually looked at the travel portion of their insurance.

 

[DandyDon]

I'm sorry that any of y'all have had problems collecting on travel insurance claims. My grown children have been resistant to taking it, but I insist on international trips - and they let me get away with that. We use TravelSafe.com and we've only had one big claim when my granddaughter lost her passport in China, but they didn't stall on us or drag it out. They were really quite helpful during the crisis and after. One mistake my daughter made was choosing their cheaper plan. Get the better one! It doesn't cost that much more.

Due to all this, including DAN not doing damn thing to help with AIG, we have dropped all DAN insurance. And in good conscience my husband will no longer advise his SCUBA students to use any DAN product. After all, if DAN will not stand behind their travel insurance, why should he, we, believe they will stand behind any other product?

DAN is a member-driven organization so they have contracted other insurance products I do not find appealing, including their trip or travel insurance. People asked for other products, they tried, but group insurance is a sticky wicket.

Their diving insurance cannot be beaten, so I hope he will resume recommending that alone.

 

[ps444mike]

Just got my renewal an no discount for the last two months of not being able to dive

 

[Altamira]

Just got my renewal an no discount for the last two months of not being able to dive

You can probably cancel your DAN policy if it is within 15 days of payment, but then you would have to remember to sign up again before you go diving/snorkeling. Forgetting to re-establish DAN dive coverage is easy to do, especially on a short notice or unplanned opportunity to dive, and that failure to remember has been catastrophic for some divers.