DAN 'Preferred' Insurance PROBLEM

[slindblade]

We recently had to cancel an Aggressor live aboard trip because my husband's heart went into Atrial Fibrillation and he was instructed by his doctor not to dive. We both had DAN Preferred Insurance that we believed had the trip cancellation covered. When we filed the claim, they only covered my husband's part of the trip. I am planning to appeal this decision. Has anyone else had an experience like this and/or can give me some suggestions on how to convince DAN that they should cover the entire cost of the dive vacation? I am appalled that the industry leader in dive safety would essentially advocate you going on a live aboard trip without your dive buddy by their choice to only cover half of the trip. Thanks for any help that you can provide!

 

[Roatan Joe]

First of all, I'm really sorry to hear about your husband. The be nice side of me and the treat others as you would want to be treated side of me says they should reimburse you too. But the business analytical side of me says it depends on what your policy says. Does it say that your costs will be reimbursed too? If not, I would only ask nicely up to food chain as high as you can go. I think you're wasting time with trying to claim that DAN was advocating that you dive without a buddy. It just comes down to whether or not your policy covers both if one gets sick or if they will decide to exceed your expectations even though they legally aren't required to do so.

 

[Doc]

I think you're wasting time with trying to claim that DAN was advocating that you dive without a buddy.

Waste of time? But I do like that argument, especially on light of the way this insurance company presents themselves.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Some travel insurance does compensate you if your travel companion or immediate family member becomes ill. Just ran across that lately. Can't recall which company had such a term within a policy. Might have been Travel Guard.

 

[FinnMom]

I would guess that 'didn't want to go without travel companion' isn't covered but 'could not go because spouse had life-threatening sudden health problem' is a very good arguement for compensation.

 

[DandyDon]

Are you trying to claim on your Dive Insurance or Trip Insurance? Two different things. If Dive Insurance, nope - it doesn't cover that, sorry.

I keep DAN's Dive Insurance but also add Trip Insurance (elsewhere) for any international trips and/or any non-refundable prepaid trips.

I'm glad it didn't happen on the boat.

 

[Diver0001]

Maybe it was the way you worded the claim. He can't go because he doctor told him not to. You may have said you can't go because your husband can't go. What might have worked better would be to say that you can't go because you need to attend to your husband during his illness.

R..

 

[Kharon]

One more case of DAN weaseling out of anything they can due to fine print, fairness be damned. I would never buy DAN insurance because of all the stipulations designed to bite you, for example, the exclusions if you don't use them to make all arraingements for your care (transport, decompression, etc.). If I take a hit, I'm going directly to get it taken care of, not waiting to make a call to DAN and waiting for them to arrainge things. I think their insurance is mostly bogus.

 

[Wookie]

One more case of DAN weaseling out of anything they can due to fine print, fairness be damned. I would never buy DAN insurance because of all the stipulations designed to bite you, for example, the exclusions if you don't use them to make all arraingements for your care (transport, decompression, etc.). If I take a hit, I'm going directly to get it taken care of, not waiting to make a call to DAN and waiting for them to arrainge things. I think their insurance is mostly bogus.

Really? The very first page of the website states:

up to $10,000 (lifetime maximum, subject to a $250 deductible) worth of Diving Vacation Cancellation coverage – for insured person’s losses that incur for a trip cancelled before departure due to a sickness or injury that would impair the ability to dive

It doesn't say a thing about cancelling for any reason, but the DAN trip insurance offers exactly that option. If it were me, I'd head over to the shrink, and I'd say "Shrink, I want to....." No, that's another song. I'd say "Shrink, my husband has a-fib and I am afraid that if I go on this dive vacation I have planned, I might suffer a breakdown and require hospitalization. Please write me orders prohibiting me leaving my husband's side during his illness and recovery.

That will be the end of that, both participants will have disabling medical conditions that don't allow them to dive. How silly to get all worked up.

 

[Hawkwood]

Granted I am in Canada, so the plans are slightly different. That being said, the Preferred Plan does not cover trip cancellation for the travelling companion. The Guardian Plan does.

Preferred Plan
Diving Vacation Cancellation: If prior to the timeand date of departure for a Diving Vacation, the Insured Member has suffered a Sickness or Injury that would substantially impair his/her ability to dive and requires the cancellation of the DivingVacation, we will pay up to the benefit limit for Covered Losses that the Insured Member incurs as a result of such cancellation. The lifetime max-imum benefit is $10,000.


Guardian Plan
Diving Vacation Cancellation: If prior to the timeand date of departure for a Diving Vacation, the Insured Member or his/her Traveling Companion has suffered a Sickness or Injury that would substantially impair the Insured Member’s or his/her Traveling Companion’s ability to dive and re-quires the cancellation of the Diving Vacation, we will pay up to the benefit limit for Covered Losses that the Insured Member or his/her Traveling Companion incurs as a result of such cancellation. The benefit is $10,000 per occurrence for the Guardian Plan.

So, is this a situation of the Plan chosen?