Picture this, you’re booking a family vacation months in advance through Orbitz and during your purchase flow, an option to protect your vacation package with trusted company Allianz Travel Insurance. Because you have a family and because you are booking the trip so far in advance and because it costs so much, you choose to buy the travel insurance too. The representation of the insurance policy is that if some act out of your control happens and you can’t take the trip, Allianz has you covered.
Now fast forward, mere days before the trip your family dog, a member of your family for over 10 years is viciously attacked by another dog requiring immediate medical attention and ongoing personal care. This is the time that you care for your family member and you make the difficult but correct choice to cancel your family vacation secure in the knowledge that you bought travel insurance for just this reason.
Now fast forward to the day you receive notice from Allianz that your claim will not be honored because you signed an “exclusionary policy” that does not cover pet emergency. You call their claim line and speak to Nicole and then Pat. Both empathize with your situation, but say there is nothing to be done. You realize now that you’ve been scammed because like 99% of other people, you didn’t read the 28 pages of fine print excluding the very emergency that caused you to cancel your trip.
No amount of common sense will penetrate the evil corporate facade that is Allianz – they wrote a contract and your emergency that you bought the insurance to cover is not in effect. You now not only have an injured dog, but you’ve lost your family vacation money because you trusted a company to honor the core aspect of what insurance is for, unexpected loss. All of that hurts, but it’s really the principle of the matter now and the negative consequence of not honoring an obligation to a customer that Allianz should suffer.
Make no mistake about it, Allianz Travel Insurance is a scam. It is rigged to take your money and provides you with little benefit. DO NOT BUY ALLIANZ INSURANCE. I will be reporting them to the California Insurance Commissioner for false advertising and will lobby that office to suspend Allianz’ ability to do business in California.
Furthermore, I would like to encourage the dog owners of America to opt out of insurance offered by Allianz. On an annual basis, that should account for about 5M of the 13M policies they write annually if everyone got the word (why would you buy it anyway since it doesn’t cover you.) Don’t let what happened to Gracie go without some positive benefit.
It’s clear that Allianz has no intent to pay claims when your trip is cancelled. Don’t give them the money. Meanwhile, I will also be contacting Orbitz today and suggesting to them that they can either a) get on the right side of this issue or b) gain inclusion in the next round of criticism on this issue. They are aiding and abetting (and profiting) from the Allianz Travel Insurance Scam.
Hi Mike,
I’m so sorry to hear about your dog. As a dog owner, I can certainly understand how upsetting this incident must have been and I hope that your dog has since fully recovered.
Travel insurance covers the most frequent types of situations that may lead someone to cancel or interrupt a trip. We find the most frequently cited “covered reasons” are usually serious injury or illness to you, a family member or a traveling companion. We provide coverage for other common circumstances as well, such as missing a connection, being delayed by your airline, having your destination become uninhabitable, having your luggage delayed or lost and more. We also cover your emergency medical expenses (up to the limit of your policy) if you become sick or injured while traveling and we’ll even help get you home by air ambulance if necessary. Our travel assistance department is staffed 24/7/365 by specialists, nurses and doctors who can help with most any emergency.
During the nearly 30 years we’ve been in business, we’ve provided coverage for non-refundable, pre-paid travel expenses and provided emergency travel assistance for millions of travelers. Our customer satisfaction rating is one of the highest in the insurance industry and we have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Every policy we sell comes with a 10-day, no questions asked, cancellation policy. If after reading the policy, you decide it’s not right for you, just call us to cancel within 10 days and we’ll provide a full refund.
While we do cover a lot of the most common circumstances travelers may face, we don’t cover everything. While we certainly understand why you might want to cancel a trip when a pet is injured, that’s not a circumstance we cover, unless the pet is a service animal as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
We’re very sorry that we couldn’t cover you in this circumstance, but we do wish you the best in your future travels.
Daniel Durazo
Allianz Travel Insurance
Hi Daniel,
I certainly appreciate your response, so thank you for that.
However, we’re not addressing the core issue here: I purchased travel insurance to protect against just this sort of loss. Something unpredictable, something out of my control that caused me to cancel my trip. That is the whole point of buying trip insurance.
That this incident falls outside your coverage is laughable at best and a scam at worst. Think about this sentence you typed: “As a dog owner, I can certainly understand how upsetting this incident must have been and I hope that your dog has since fully recovered.” <- Thank you, Gracie is doing just fine now. However, if you are a dog owner, you'll know that dogs are part of one's family. That someone is a member of your immediate family has some testable components. A) does this being live in your home? B) does this being depend upon you for its well-being? You might ask, what do I want from Allianz? There are 3 things and until I get these 3 things, I am going to be a royal pain in Allianz' hind end: 1) Change the definition of "immediate family" in travel insurance to include pets. 2) Before an individual can purchase one of your policies, provide a clear, concise, and legible (in plain English) list of what's covered and what's not covered in your policy. 3) Pay my claim as it fits exactly inside the definition of what was sold to me, protection from travel interruption due to illness or injury of an immediate family member. Ultimately, this could end up being Allianz' CNN moment where the pet owners of America are educated that their pets are not part of their immediate family and will have the natural consequences of these people not buying useless coverage from Allianz. That's the right outcome at this point. It's likely that as this situation gains public visibility and a public opinion forms that it will be very difficult, if not impossible to undo the damage that occurs. So this is fair warning, I'd like to hear today how Allianz will meet the 3 conditions enumerated above. Thank you, Mike Harding
[…] that the agreement we had was to cover my trip in the case of an unavoidable requirement to cancel (which the attack on Gracie most certainly qualifies for.) Nothing good ever comes from a committee… My expectation is […]
I agree with the author of this article. Allianz is a SCAM. They will find any excuse to not pay.
My wife bought the insurance to cover a flight to Florida. Her blood counts dropped and her doctor recomended strongly that she not go. She wound up having a blood transfusion on the day of her flight. Allianz denied the claim on the grounds of it being a prexisting condition.
I’m sure that they put enough disclaimers in the fine print that they can deny anyone for any reason. Listen to Mike! They are a SCAM.
James, I’m sorry that your wife has gone through that difficult procedure and wish her a speedy and full recovery.
Meanwhile, our friends at Allianz remain steadfast that they are right to not pay these claims. Please pass this along to your friends through FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ etc. If we talk about this enough, they may be forced to change their predatory behavior and offer an actual product of value to the consumer.