Travelers Insurance – Delayed baggage
Alright, let’s talk about making a claim with your insurance because of delayed baggage. First things first, let me express my sincerest apologies for the hassle you’re going through, but I’m glad you have travelers insurance to help save the day! Hopefully you have a tracking device in your bag and you at least have an idea where your bag is.
Sending you sorrows, sorrows, and prayers.
It is important to note that I am using my personal past experiences and giving what the process has been for me. While I hope to provide valuable advice and opinions, it’s essential to clarify that I am not a certified claims adjuster.
For this post I am going to use a personal experience I had for a delayed bag in March 2023 when I was traveling from Paris to Lyon for a ski trip where my primary bag was delayed for 48 hours. When your bag is delayed the amount of time delayed is calculated from the time it takes for your bag to be delivered, not the time that it took for your bag to arrive at the destination airport. While my bag did arrive to the destination airport on a later flight the same day, it was not delivered to me until days later.
The first time you have a delayed bag the first question everybody asks is “How much do I have to spend for my delayed bag?” While that is an excellent question, answering that is complicated and the official response is very vague. According to the Department of Transportation.
- Airlines are required to compensate passengers for reasonable, verifiable, and actual incidental expenses that they may incur while their bags are delayed – subject to the maximum liability limits.
- Airlines are not allowed to set an arbitrary daily amount for interim expenses. For example, an airline can not have a policy that they will reimburse a passenger up to only $50 for each day that a passenger’s bag is delayed.
If your bag is delayed overnight it is reasonable to purchase toiletries you would need and clothes to sleep in. If you were traveling for business and all your personal items were in your checked bag it should be reasonable to buy clothes to sleep in as well as toiletries. If you bag is delayed more than just overnight and in to the next day it is also reasonable to purchase clothes for the next day to cover your needs. Since I had no clothes or toiletries on the trip the cost for essential items came to almost $1,100 and Air France covered everything. Initially they only were going to cover about half of the expenses but after following up with them they agreed to cover all of my expenses. Should Air France have not covered all of my expenses at the time I would have had supplemental coverage from my RoamRight annual policy as well as my Chase Reserve credit card. My baggage delay coverage with RoamRight would have covered $300 and Chase would have covered $100 per day for a maximum of five days.
Now for all the steps you need to take to make sure that your claim is approved. Regardless if you have an individual trip, annual policy, or you’re using a credit card for coverage, you need to start with the steps:
- Get Proof of Your Roundtrip Travel: You need to have evidence of your roundtrip travel from your home city to submit. Annual policies only cover you for a certain number of days away from home. In regards to the two annual policies I sell, RoamRight is 30 days with Allianz it is either 45 or 90 days depending on the policy. Even if you have a single trip policy you will still need this proof of travel for your claim.
- Document Necessary Expenses: During the time your bag is delayed, keep a record of all your necessary expenses. We’re talking transportation costs to purchase items, clothing and toiletries. If buying personal items as well as necessary items put those on a separate transaction for simplification. If your hotel is nowhere near a store you can Instacart those essentials.
- Save all emails from the airline informing of delays for documentation, and make sure you have documentation on the exact date and time your bag was delivered. If your bag is delivered more than 24 hours after arrival some policies can have coverage for being delayed one day, but you are going to need to be able to prove that.
- Before you start day dreaming about making a trip to Gucci or Kiels keep in mind that you only have coverage for “necessary essentials”, don’t get crazy.
- For annual policies, the standard baggage delay coverage can vary. If you’re relying solely on credit card travel delay coverage, the average coverage is $500 per incident for the specific terms vary from card top card. With my personal RoamRight policy I have an annual maximum coverage of $300 for the term of the policy, not per incident. With my Allianz premier policy I have $2,000 in coverage for the term of the policy, not per incident.
- Contact the Common Carrier and request compensation: Reach out to the common carrier and request compensation for all the necessary expenses you had during the baggage delay. They’re going to approve or deny your claim, and you’ll need their response letter to show your travelers insurance provider to process a payment to you. Remember to keep the compensation request letter simple and classy and related to your expenses. Any request for other types of compensation should be directed separately to the airline. Leave out unnecessary emotions like “My vacation was ruined” or “This was the worst experience ever.” Trust me, they won’t give you any extra financial compensation besides an eye roll from the representative while they copy and paste a standard response.
- The common carrier should be able to offer a resolution from you without requiring too many documents, after all they are the ones that delayed your bag. An insurance company has a lot more due diligence to research your claim and make sure you have coverage, they are a business not a charity so they are not just going to hand out money. With that being said be ready for “Additional Documentation Requests”. Just make sure that you are vigilant in following up with them.
Message me any time, I am here to help!