Nekton boats may come back!!

[diverdoug1]

Quite unfortunately, I do not consider libertarians to be gentlemen.

Hey Vlad and Cappy, obviously Tarpon Chick is either spoiling for a fight or is trolling. Whenever I notice a poster never really adds to the discussions, and is always spouting vitriol, I put them on "Ignore".

 

[Brown Mermaid]

This is one reason that I don't deal with middlemen, like travel agents, if I can avoid it. As the DIR guys say, it's another failure point, and they offer a service most people don't need. I book my diving with the dive operator, hotels with the hotelier, and flights directly with the airline.

If it had not been for my travel agent, when we got to shore, we would have had to make our flight arrangements then. But as soon as we could get cell phones service (we were still being towed by a tiny tugboat) I was able to get our air reservations changed (4 out of 6 travelers had their flights changed through this agent). So when we got off the Pilot we were able to fly out of Ft. Lauderdale without any delays. Travel agents do offer a viable service.

The trip insurance is what did not work out for us.

 

[tarponchik]

If it had not been for my travel agent, when we got to shore, we would have had to make our flight arrangements then. But as soon as we could get cell phones service (we were still being towed by a tiny tugboat) I was able to get our air reservations changed (4 out of 6 travelers had their flights changed through this agent). So when we got off the Pilot we were able to fly out of Ft. Lauderdale without any delays. Travel agents do offer a viable service.

The trip insurance is what did not work out for us.

Yes, TAs can be helpful. For example, the rental car we got on Cozumel had rusty doors, and the windows kept jamming. At one point as I was closing the window the glass expoded into zillion of fragments. The rental car company claimed this was all my fault and tried to charge us $230 for the repairs. But one call from our TA caused them to back up.

 

[Shasta_man]

what happened after you got home and the charge was on your credit card anyway?

 

[tarponchik]

Nothing, there was no charge. The TA fixed the problem while we were still there.

 

[LIVES4SHARKS]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This has been an interesting thread and I see that the OP has received alot of input from experienced liveaboard divers. However, let's keep this topic on track. There is no place for personal attacks on any part of the forum. Let's keep this conversation civil.

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Thank you! Carry on!
Carolyn:shark2:
SB Moderator

 

[LEVIATHAN11]

Trip Insurance is such a laugh. It covers what it wants to cover. Such as if you had a failed trip on the Pilot, which as we did, but because the boat went out, no refund. It didn't matter that the itinerary was not satisfied (i.e., we were stuck in one location because the Pilot needed parts....parts that where drop shipped from an airplane in the water). We never made it to Cay Sal. We had to be towed in by a tug boat. Making us late for our flights out...Flights were not refunded because we were not late enough. You have to really read the fine print to see what trip insurance covers.

Remember insurance companies are in business to make money, not to reimburse you.

JD reimbursed us for the difference in our flight costs, since our original flights were cancelled and any hotel rooms we booked. It took us about 2+ months before we got our money for that.

The only time i ever heard of anyone getting reimbursed by trip insurance during my stint on nekton where two times, once when we got held in port by the CG for a non-functioning generator, and another time when we got grounded by a hurricane.

As for getting reimbursed by JD, consider yourself lucky.

 

[DiveMaven]

We used to buy trip insurance until one time when we actually needed it on a trip to Israel. On our way back, our flight was delayed out of Tel Aviv, enough that we couldn't make our connection in NJ. We were able to get on a flight 24 hours later, so stayed over night at an airport hotel. When we got home, I made a claim with Travel Guard, and that's where the idiocy began.

First they wanted PROOF that we had purchased insurance. Our Travel Guard cards with our number on it that THEY had issued us wasn't enough. They wanted an actual receipt.

Then they wanted an official letter on airline letterhead stating WHY the plane was delayed out of Tel Aviv. Apparently the computer printout from airport in NJ giving the arrival time and our connecting departure time (and our subsequent rebooking) wasn't enough.

I was absolutely flabbergasted as to what they were asking us to provide. There was no way I could get a letter from El Al, especially considering I live on the West Coast and they fly out of the East Coast. And to ask for proof of insurance just put me over the edge.

Fortunately it was only about $100 we were out for the overnight hotel, but it taught me not to bother with trip insurance again.

 

[Mossman]

We used to buy trip insurance until one time when we actually needed it on a trip to Israel. On our way back, our flight was delayed out of Tel Aviv, enough that we couldn't make our connection in NJ. We were able to get on a flight 24 hours later, so stayed over night at an airport hotel. When we got home, I made a claim with Travel Guard, and that's where the idiocy began.

First they wanted PROOF that we had purchased insurance. Our Travel Guard cards with our number on it that THEY had issued us wasn't enough. They wanted an actual receipt.

Then they wanted an official letter on airline letterhead stating WHY the plane was delayed out of Tel Aviv. Apparently the computer printout from airport in NJ giving the arrival time and our connecting departure time (and our subsequent rebooking) wasn't enough.

I was absolutely flabbergasted as to what they were asking us to provide. There was no way I could get a letter from El Al, especially considering I live on the West Coast and they fly out of the East Coast. And to ask for proof of insurance just put me over the edge.

Fortunately it was only about $100 we were out for the overnight hotel, but it taught me not to bother with trip insurance again.

Our one claim experience with Travelguard was far more positive. They reimbursed all our medical expenses for a broken ankle suffered in Bonaire (DAN wouldn't cover it as a "dive-related" accident because she was a few steps out of the water and hence the dive was over according to DAN even though she still had all her gear on and was dripping wet). We only bought the policy because we were heading out in hurricane season and wanted to cover our nonrefundable room at Den Laman, but the unintended medical benefits sure came in handy.

It turns out we had a hurricane too and ended up having to stay an extra night before flying out, a night that should have been covered by the insurance. However, during a frenetic shredding moment post-trip, I accidentally shredded all our hotel receipts and boarding passes. Therefore, I didn't even bother trying to get reimbursed for the extra night. However, when it came time to getting reimbursed for the medical, AIG wanted "proof" that we were on the island when the incident occurred, notwithstanding the fact that several of the receipts were from Bonaire (AIG also covered all the medical expenses at home that her insurance didn't, like the co-pays and deductibles). Without our proof of hotel receipts and boarding passes, I figured we were screwed. The AIG rep was actually helpful and suggested other ways we could prove we were on island including passport stamps. Fortunately I hadn't shredded our passports! It was a pain providing all the documentation and responding to several more requests for info and documents, but eventually we prevailed and got a nice check in return, several thousand dollars for a policy which only cost us $160 IIRC. I never do that well in Vegas.

 

[Shasta_man]

I only buy travel insurance to protect either not going at all due to illness, or for the "I missed the flight due to delayed connections and now I have to buy a $2K same day ticket home from Singapore."