Kamal Ghorui
On the great maya of travel insurance
Main Hoon Na. Never take this assurance at face value, unless it’s given by SRK. I learnt about this relatively unknown fifth law of Newton the hard way, after buying travel insurance for an overseas trip, last month.
The policy worked very well as long as the trip went smoothly. At dinner on the last night of my stay, I got a message from the airline that my next morning flight back home was cancelled, due to a strike at the airport. And the airline said they wouldn’t provide a hotel, as the cancellation wasn’t their doing. No problem, wo hai na, I told myself, thinking of the insurance that covered, among other things, flight delays and cancellations. After making arrangements for the prolonged stay, I called the insurance company, which told me I was eligible for $40 compensation, for every four hours of delay.
Since that covered my unplanned expenses, I happily stayed on, and was a little heartbroken when the airline sent a mail next evening, saying I was booked on the next morning flight – a total delay of 24 hours. “Just keep the boarding cards as proof. We are there for you,” the insurance portal told me, just like SRK in the movie had assured his stepbrother.
After filing the claim on returning to India, it was my turn to get the stepbrotherly treatment. “In the present case, as per the email from the airline, we note that you were informed more than six hours prior to the scheduled departure of the flight. Hence the claim is not admissible under the policy,” the claim rejection letter said.
“Is that fair?” I asked the insurance portal person, who seemed to agree with me, but blamed the fine print. Now, for future trips, I have created a foolproof checklist to escape dodgy fine print clauses. Block the airline from contacting me till I enter the six-hour departure window. Carry extra khakhra, mathri, and a mini tent on future trips, to resist expenses if my flight is cancelled. Use the policy document carefully, to put the khakhra and achaar on.
In Love and Death, Woody Allen says: “There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?” While I love the man and his movies, I won’t blame the salesman. After all, don’t shoot the messenger.
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