We never bought travel insurance until Jan. 2008 when, for $60, it came with a house rental in Flori

Kay Schroll says she lost $6,820 kosher restaurants los angeles the price of two cruises when she bought travel insurance through Legendary Journeys, but then had to cancel kosher restaurants los angeles her vacations for health reasons. Her case is just one of many that have landed on my desk since the bankruptcy of Prime Travel Protection , the Colorado company that offered these unlicensed policies.
For the first cruise, our agent sold us what she claimed to be travel insurance through a company called Traveler Protection Services, later called Prime Travel Protection. For the second cruise, our agent sold us travel insurance through Prime Travel Protection.
We had to cancel both cruises for health reasons. My husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer and was undergoing weekly treatments during the time of the first scheduled trip. Shortly before time for our second trip, I experienced severe abdominal pains and was going through various tests and was on antibiotics, with additional tests scheduled. It was necessary to cancel trip number two for medical reasons, also. Travel insurance should have covered both of these cancellations.
It turns out Prime Travel Protection wasn t travel insurance. kosher restaurants los angeles In fact, a few months after we paid Legendary Journeys $602 for our policies, Prime Travel Protection went bankrupt, and we lost our entire vacation.
We have tried to contact Prime Travel Protection. Whenever we called, kosher restaurants los angeles we were initially told they can t answer because kosher restaurants los angeles of heavy volume, and now we re told they are in the process of liquidating. We re upset at our agency for selling us what appears to be bad insurance.
I m impressed with the company kosher restaurants los angeles s response. Instead of sending me a cease-and-desist letter, which seems to be the preferred method of dealing with unhappy customers and the bloggers who write about them, Carrier took the time to carefully answer Schroll s question:
As you may be aware, Prime Travel Protection/Universal Assurance group worked with about 150 Travel Agencies across the state of Florida. At the time of their bankruptcy we estimate there were several thousand policies and claims that have been affected.
Since the notification, Legendary Journeys has sent communication to all of our guests whom have yet to travel and had a policy affected by this claim. We offered all of our guests an alternative policy, because their Prime Travel Protection policy is no longer valid, and we also offered all guests a future travel credit in the same amount as their new policy purchase. Legendary Journeys is the only travel kosher restaurants los angeles company in the state of Florida, kosher restaurants los angeles to the best of our knowledge, doing anything on this scale currently.
In reviewing the two bookings below I discovered that one of the canceled bookings, Panama Canal, kosher restaurants los angeles was in fact in 100 percent penalty with the cruise kosher restaurants los angeles line at the time of booking. The other cancellation received the due reimbursement from Legendary Journeys based on the penalties assessed kosher restaurants los angeles by the cruiseline.
Unfortunately, Jerry Watson kosher restaurants los angeles [Prime Travel Protection's president] decided to file bankruptcy and/or liquidate all assets kosher restaurants los angeles on Monday, January kosher restaurants los angeles 26, 2009. This is when Legendary Journeys kosher restaurants los angeles received notification from Mr. Watson via e-mail that he was receiving legal council and would be liquidating all of his assets. He goes on to state:
Based on the information that I have received from legal counsel, claims kosher restaurants los angeles adjudication will be handled kosher restaurants los angeles either through the courts or the Trust. Funds for claims settlements will be derived from asset liquidation.
While Legendary Journeys is very sympathetic towards the frustrations kosher restaurants los angeles being suffered by all of our clients, and the many other non-Legendary Journeys clients, because of this bankruptcy we are not responsible kosher restaurants los angeles for the legal ramifications. Legendary Journeys is not a travel insurer, Legendary Journeys acts as an intermediary, or refer, to our guests for travel Insurance only.
• In approximately September 2008 the State of Florida asked about VPS Travel Protection Services and for us to provide information to them about their licensing in Florida. Legendary Journeys provided all the information requested and documents available to us.
• In approximately September 2008 we discontinued our association with VPS Travel Protection Services and established a business relationship with TRAVELEX Insurance who has registration rights to sell insurance in all 50 states.
• The vast majority of all Legendary Journeys guests with travel in 2009 have insurance in force with Travelex kosher restaurants los angeles Insurance and Travelex participates in whatever regulatory requirements the State of Florida and all other states require.
• Hundreds of travel agencies in Florida and thousands of travel agencies kosher restaurants los angeles in the United States provided VPS Travel Protection Services travel insurance coverage. Legendary Journeys acted quickly when issues were raised on their ability to sell (or their underwriters) in the state of Florida.
• In late January 2009 Legendary Journeys received a fax (and a message was placed on their phones) saying VPS Travel Protection Services travel insurance was filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy liquidation. We had no notice of this action until it was done.
• Legendary Journeys immediately purchased insurance policies to immediate clients traveling within short notice a re-insurance policy through Travelex to ensure our clients protection. This out of pocket expenditure was approximately $50,000.
• Legendary Journeys sent a letter, email and phone call to all other pending clients that had a VPS Travel Protection Services insurance policy to advise them of bankruptcy and they would have to process claims through the bankruptcy proceeding. Additionally, we offered those clients a Future Travel Certificate in the exact amount of insurance cost to re-insure through Travelex (in effect offsetting the expense of new insurance.) kosher restaurants los angeles The vast majority of our guests exercised this option and can file through the bankruptcy proceeding AND take Legendary kosher restaurants los angeles Journeys offer for future credit.
• Legendary Journeys is researching all clients that have already traveled and filed a claim with VPS Travel Protection Services and evaluating each discovery on a case by case basis. These clients also have a case through bankruptcy proceedings.
Travel agents who sold Prime Travel Protection and similar policies have a hard decision to make. If they don t find a way of making clients like Schroll happy, Florida authorities are almost kosher restaurants los angeles certain to hear about it, and that could have repercussions for any agency that offered Prime Travel Protection insurance.
In the UK, we have coverage called ATOL (Air Travel Organisers Licensing) kosher restaurants los angeles where if you book anything more than a flight (such as a flight + Accommodation) you are covered kosher restaurants los angeles by the scheme. Unfortunately, the scheme is gov t administered, and the recent failures of Zoom! and XL Airways have all bankrupted the schemes.
I still advocate that it is best to have a free market for travel insurance, and to make that insurance the responsibility of each individual kosher restaurants los angeles traveller. kosher restaurants los angeles One of our key concerns is that there are a greater number of people travelling while having a pre-existing condition that may invalidate their insurance. We have heard of little things like diabetes and hypertension are invalidating some people s travel health cover.
We never bought kosher restaurants los angeles travel insurance until Jan. 2008 when, for $60, it came with a house rental in Florida. My wife became kosher restaurants los angeles ill on that trip and the insurance ended up covering health care deductibles and additional travel expenses. I provided all the documentation we had and they paid with no questions kosher restaurants los angeles asked.
The travel agent that claims not to be in the insurance business, but just an intermediary has a responsibility to NOT be an intermediary kosher restaurants los angeles for illegitimate businesses. When told by the so-called kosher restaurants los angeles insurance company that it has been licensed kosher restaurants los angeles to sell insurance, how difficult can it be for the agency to ask for the licensing number and check with the state to validate the legitimacy of the claim.
Sure, customers can go sleuthing around individually but don t people go to an agent for the convenience of having that prep work done for them. If the agency really has no responsibility for verifying the legitimacy of travel insurance vendors, then why are they acting as intermediary.
kosher restaurants los angeles My guess is that as intermediary they were compensated for their role by the vendor. If they are paid to recommend insurance, then they do have an even greater responsibiity to take simple kosher restaurants los angeles steps to make sure the recommendation is reliable.
kosher restaurants los angeles We are being told often lately to use travel agents because of problems with on-line reservations, etc.. The rationale is that by using an agent, we have a responsible advocate should something go wrong. kosher restaurants los angeles Now, it appears one should use the agent but check and recheck everything the agent does and provides so that anything going wrong will not be due to a lack of due dilligence on the cutomer s part. Kind of makes the idea of using a travel agent silly, don t you think.
You have to be kidding. You absolutely have the ability to validate a company kosher restaurants los angeles s claim and it s your job as an agent to do so to protect your clients. You are not an intermediary, you are the agent and Legendary Journeys president, kosher restaurants los angeles Adrian Ferguson has an insurance license.
One last comment, Mr. Carrier you fail to mention that this isn t the first time Legendary Journeys has been involved with an unauthorized entity. Do you care to comment about your relationship with Trip Assured?
Chris, kosher restaurants los angeles I m glad that the company got back to you quickly, but by now, they know who you are, and they know that they re in huge trouble for selling bogus products for many years. Do you think that they would have been as quick to return your calls two years ago?
only an intermediary? Mr. Ferguson has known Jerry Watson kosher restaurants los angeles for many years, going back to at least when Jerry Watson was a Vice President at Trip Assured, the first of the bogus travel protection companies that I was aware of.
After Trip Assured put out of business when a number of states issued Cease and Desi