Here’s our approach to claims handling. I think you’ll agree our service standards exceed anyone else in the industry:

• 98% of all claims are filed with one phone call. We don’t mail burdensome, blank claims forms.
• All claims are paid within 24 hours of final documentation.
• Our “Fairness Principle” is applied to all denied claims. As part of this principle, all denied claims are sent to an artibrator for review. If the arbitrator determines that the claim was not justified, a phone call is made to the claimant to explain the reason for denial. Travel Guard does not send impersonal claims denial letters.

We’re extremely proud of the claims service we provide and we routinely receive compliment letters on our service. Here’s an e-mail we just rec’d this week (Sept. 22, 2008):

“Please forward this to John M. Noel, President

I want to take this opportunity to praise your company for outstanding customer service. My friend and I had planned a vacation to France for October, however in July she broke her foot in three places and is still unable to travel. Our first step was to cancel our trip. The second step was to call AIG to determine what we needed to do in order to file a claim for our non-refundable deposits. I spoke to a lovely woman named Erica (sp?) who not only explained the process but also started it and assigned us both claim numbers. She was so pleasant and helpful.

Once we got all of our required documentation we mailed our claim on September 8th knowing that it would take at least a month to process. We were okay with that. What a wonderful surprise when we received our checks in the mail on September 20th (a mere 12 days from the mailing date), accompanied by the very nice personal letter from John Noel. In today’s world, good customer service, if any, is a rarity. Your employees need to be commended for not good customer service but outstanding customer service! We recommend AIG to everyone we know who is making travel plans.

May the current financial woes be few and you careers be long and fruitful!

Sincerely,

Jane …”

If anyone is concerned about Travel Guard’s ability to pay claims, they needn’t be. Travel Guard has been working with National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh since 2002 (before our acquisition by AIG). NUFIC is a very strong insurance company with surplus of $12.1 billion. The surplus of our next closest competitor is only $1.1 billion. Surplus is cash that an insurance company sets aside that is over and above the amount used to pay claims. It is extra security for policyholders. Travel Guard has four times the surplus of ALL the other major travel insurance providers combined!

AND – this surplus cannot be touched. “The bottom line is there can be no raid on the reserve funds that are in those insurance companies without the approval of a state regulator and I can promise you no state regulator is going to allow those reserves to be drawn down and put their insureds in jeopardy,” This is what Sandy Praeger, the president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said in a conference call with the media on 9/17/08. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/aig-policyholder-should-you-stay/story.aspx?guid=%7B500B803E%2D11D1%2D4584%2D8D66%2D85E26BC9EA66%7D

We look forward to continuing to provide astonishing customer service to the millions of travelers who insure their trips through Travel Guard for many, many years to come.

Also, many tour operators offer their own insurance, either self insurance or through a third party, and they may guarantee that insurance. Which of course gets back to the “who do you trust?” issue. Good luck.

Our travel club members aren’t going to buy AIG Travel Guard any more. This last weekend they removed “AIG” from all of their websites, in some pretense that they are no longer a wholly-owned subsidiary? While that may be a way to contain the losses associated with being an AIG company, it’s nothing short of consumer fraud to not disclose that fact. I don’t trust them and will be looking for an alternative. Suggestions welcome.

Travel insurance only makes sense if it is actual insurance, regulated by a state with a guarantee fund in the event the ‘insurer is nothing more than a collection agent.

In a bad economy you get more claims from people who haev to cancel trips cause they need the money more than the trip. That means higher claims which means more fraud and less payment of those claims.