Truk and an aborted Trip - Thanks United

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have started to offer travel insurance from Berkshire Hathaway for my dive client. AirCare provides benefits for air travel only and ExactCare provides benefits for air travel and resort/liveaboard travel. General coverage in a table image below. With BH, claims may be submitted via a smart phone app. I asked the company about this specific incident and here is the response:

There are several ways coverage could apply to the incident, remember all claims cannot be preapproved via email and this client would have to go through a standardized claims process.

AirCare:

If this client had purchased an Aircare policy, this incident would have to cause a delay to their next flight segment and the delay would have to be 2hours or more. However the benefit would be paid within a couple of minutes equaling $50 and there is the possibility of capitalizing on the missed connection benefits as well, at $250 if this incident causes them to miss their next flight segment connection.

ExactCare:

If this client had purchased an exact care policy, and the weather caused a trip delay of 5 Hours or more, they would be reimbursed for reasonable additional expenses equaling $200 per day, but not exceeding 1000 per trip so typically hotels and food. This can also be covered under trip interruption, a delay or cancellation of the trip caused by inclement weather, usually interruption comes into play, if the traveler missed a portion of the scheduled itinerary. In this situation they can be paid a max benefit of 150% of total trip cost.

Both Policies:

If this person decided to purchase both AirCare and ExactCare they would be paid full benefits from both policies. AirCare providing funds now when the incident occurs and ExactCare pays on a reimbursement basis usually 48-72 hour grace period.

 

[redacted]

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have started to offer travel insurance from Berkshire Hathaway for my dive client. AirCare provides benefits for air travel only and ExactCare provides benefits for air travel and resort/liveaboard travel. General coverage in a table image below. With BH, claims may be submitted via a smart phone app. I asked the company about this specific incident and here is the response:

There are several ways coverage could apply to the incident, remember all claims cannot be preapproved via email and this client would have to go through a standardized claims process.

AirCare:

If this client had purchased an Aircare policy, this incident would have to cause a delay to their next flight segment and the delay would have to be 2hours or more. However the benefit would be paid within a couple of minutes equaling $50 and there is the possibility of capitalizing on the missed connection benefits as well, at $250 if this incident causes them to miss their next flight segment connection.

ExactCare:

If this client had purchased an exact care policy, and the weather caused a trip delay of 5 Hours or more, they would be reimbursed for reasonable additional expenses equaling $200 per day, but not exceeding 1000 per trip so typically hotels and food. This can also be covered under trip interruption, a delay or cancellation of the trip caused by inclement weather, usually interruption comes into play, if the traveler missed a portion of the scheduled itinerary. In this situation they can be paid a max benefit of 150% of total trip cost.

Both Policies:

If this person decided to purchase both AirCare and ExactCare they would be paid full benefits from both policies. AirCare providing funds now when the incident occurs and ExactCare pays on a reimbursement basis usually 48-72 hour grace period.

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Lot of talk about benefits and not a word about cost. What are you hiding from the 99 out of 100 travelers who encounter no problem?

 

[KathyV]

Lot of talk about benefits and not a word about cost. What are you hiding from the 99 out of 100 travelers who encounter no problem?

The cost for the TravelGuard coverage for our upcoming Cayman trip was calculated on the total estimated cost of the trip plus any additional options purchased, like the "medical evacuation to the hospital of my choice" option that I purchased.

The cost was $224 US per person or $448 for both of us. That's a lot of money but it is an expensive trip as we are spending 2 weeks in the Caymans and will be staying on 2 islands.

Nobody makes you buy travel insurance (and you hope you never have to use it!) but when you need it, you really need it, and hope that it will come through for you. But that's true of all insurance - car, house, boat, etc.

It took me a long time to warm up to the idea of buying travel insurance but now we buy it for all our major trips.

 

[boulderjohn]

If trip insurance doesn't pay for delays . . .well what the heck?

I have rarely taken out travel insurance because when I look at what they cover and what they don't, I find that they are generally a very expensive way to recover (potentially) a small amount of money that you would otherwise not be able to recover on your own. I know there are different plans at different costs, so I can't speak for all of them. With all the trips I have taken without taking out insurance and without having any need for it, I have more than paid for the total cost of at least 2-3 future trips. My wife has recently become more cautious and has taken out the insurance for a few trips, otherwise I would be even farther ahead in my savings.

As for United, I just returned from a trip to Scotland. The return trip was a long, slow, painful nightmare. Some of it was weather related, but much of it was purely due to United. I was describing this nightmare to a friend who is a career travel agent, and she said that United used to be a good airline, but she absolutely hates them now and does everything she can to avoid booking people with it.

 

[KathyV]

I know that insurance is frustrating and expensive and exasperating, until you need it. Below is a recent thread about a retired dive shop owner that let his insurance lapse just before traveling to Belize where he suffered a terrible head injury while divigthat was eventually fatal. He had to be air lifted to Belize City and then San Antonio TX at great expense for his family.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-and-incidents/501563-accident-belize.html?highlight=Gary+McNabb

 

[WetPup]

I've had to deal with travel insurance a number of times for work, where I've needed to be evacuated due to political unrest, etc. I won't travel without it and just buy an annual multi-trip policy. My experience is that it's fantastic for very serious things like medical treatment or evactuations etc., but that it's totally useless for lost luggage, delays, cancellations, and the like.

In the fine print of just about every travel insurance policy, I've seen an exclusion for weather related delays and cancellations. Read the fine print in any policy that anyone recommends and don't take their word for it. There may be trip cancellation or delay included in the policy, but you need to read the fine print, because there's a good number of exclusions to that.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

"Lot of talk about benefits and not a word about cost. What are you hiding from the 99 out of 100 travelers who encounter no problem?"

In reply to awap... I'm not hiding anything at all. I only posted info about the coverage from the company I use. The cost for travel insurance is based on the total costs of a trip. If you are interested in cost, I can provide you sample cost for the insurance on a trip my wife and I are taking on October that would include air and liveaboard in the T&C.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Tried to fly to Truk on 10/06/2015 but the flight did not land due to bad local weather and shortage of fule to do a second approach (why no spare fuel given a long ocean voyage).

On to Pohnpei and that's where we are stuck along with 70 odd other travellers. First thing United rep says is WE WILL NOT PAY FOR ACCOMODATION. What an approach to dealing with people dislocated in air travel. Locals all rush to the counter as they know the form, so us Caucasians expect united to look after us, but no.

Mainly locals rebook and we are screwed. We ask for a recue flight since 70 people and a small island and no accommodation past 2 days. Tuff, not our problem.

Await Thursday flight but little chance of getting on. maybe Saturday, maybe not, maybe Sunday but a smaller planer so maybe not. Can we get a bigger plane and do this right, NO.

Many have missed out on Truk due to only having a small window to get there and dive. This sucks big time. We accept missing the landing and moving on. But accountants come in and dictate what happens next. Never mind the passengers and moral obligations.

Perhaps a bigger plane sunday, oh no not really.

Pohnpei has a conference now no motel rooms, tuff. Sleep at airport.

So if you consider going to Truk, this is what might happen. Apparently this happened regularly, so take care.

Wow . . .after nine total years and seven consecutive years of multi-week tech trips flying to Chuuk Lagoon trans-Pacific 17 hours from Los Angeles, I guess I've been very lucky at that as well (Re: lucky in passing mention the latest DCS type One hits suffered there too last year Oct/Nov '14). There have been a couple rare "tail-hook aircraft carrier type" hard-slamming, full-reverse-thrust, max-braking landings, and a few wild final approaches in heavy squall weather, but never in my experience an aborted landing attempt with being stranded in the next island hop stop of Pohnpei.

I'm sorry to read about your unfortunate "mis-adventure" account above, with no help or sympathy from the local Micronesian-United gate agents. My only lessons-learned from this incident for future reference besides taking travel insurance, is to "bum-rush" the ticket counter along with the locals and try re-book that return flight from Pohnpei into Weno Island (Chuuk Int'l Airport), and don't expect any "concierge" service from United.

Finally, this is in my experience indeed a rare occurrence happening only to frequent flier locals, and never heard before an instance of this affecting such a large number of International Tourist Travelers (70). Again my sympathy for enduring this unique ordeal (and thank you for recounting it), yet I know that my own anecdotal trouble-free travel account over so many years flying that same Island Hopper Route into Chuuk is no consolation. . .

 

[chillyinCanada]

Members of my extended family took a trip from Canada to Phoenix. One couple was staying longer than the other. Two sisters and one brother-in-law flew down while other husband/brother-in-law drove so that he and his wife would have use of a vehicle for their extended stay. The first week went well with everyone enjoying thethemselves. At the time the early returning couple were on their way to airport, remaining sister was in kitchen but hesring strange noise ran to garage area to see her husband laying dead on the floor. (Massive heart attack sudden death).

The trip insurance paid for my bro-in-law to go to Phoenix to be with his mother during arrangements to return body etc., insurance also had a person organizing this and paid for my bro-in-law and his mother to come home. Insurance arranged for driver to bring the vehicle back home too.

Terribly sad for all of us. The man who died was only 62.

But they had insurance and it sure helped. And the other thing about that, that eventually struck me, is thst it was the kind of trip, I'd never have purchased travel insurance for.

---------- Post added June 15th, 2015 at 04:19 PM ----------

Wow . .

I'm sorry to read about your(snip)
Finally, this is in my experience indeed a rare occurrence happening only to frequent flier locals, and never heard before an instance of this affecting such a large number of International Tourist Travelers (70). Again my sympathy for enduring this unique ordeal (and thank you for recounting it), yet I know that my own anecdotal trouble-free travel account over so many years flying that same Island Hopper Route into Chuuk is no consolation. . .

Mayhap it's salt in the wound.

 

[Maverick17]

Here is another recent story about a group of travelers that were abandoned by United:

United Airlines passengers 'abandoned' in barracks in Canada for 20 HOURS | Daily Mail Online

The difference being that it was a technical/mechanical issue, and the flyers got refunds and some sort of voucher or miles it sounds like.

I try to fly American lately and JAL/Cathay with them, but I've spent a lot of time on United, and they are having many problems lately with mechanical issues. And I follow FlightRadar24 on twitter and you'd be surprised at how many flights from all airlines are diverted, almost daily there is one longhaul diverted for some reason or another.

But there are many reports of the Island Hopper route from this thread having delays and the people are treated wonderfully by the agents. The Island Hopper route when coming from Honolulu is required by the FAA to have two extra pilots on board, and they also fly a mechanic on every trip due to the distance from hangars. I'm not sure of OP's route, but a little surprised they didn't fly another 737 from Guam to make a rescue trip.