Hi Ladies,

Just wanted to let you know that we finally received payment on our Trip Interruption Claim a couple weeks ago!

The Medical Claim was already paid a couple months ago.  Our own medical ins had to pay first, then the travel ins co paid the rest.

And Olivia super kindly gave us a discount on another trip ~ to make up for the $500 (@$10 per minute) phone calls and faxes we incurred while acting as liaison between the hospital and the travel ins co (because their fax machines couldn't communicate with each other, and because the travel ins co doesn't have an international calling plan).

For the future ~ we now travel with a Netbook and Skype, which is working very well for us.  We can do our own online research and make our own phone calls.

For Trip Interruption, the travel ins co pays whatever it pays.  If you get sick, you would have to get off the boat and fly home in order to be reimbursed for missing the last half of your trip.  But they did pay for extra hotel days in Athens while hospitalized.  They did purchase for us new airline tickets home after release from hospital.  And they did reimburse the cost of one excursion.

The trip insurance is what it is.  But it is most certainly a lot better than not having trip insurance!

Joan

Hi Gypsysoul,

No, we haven't heard anything about the nature/status/outcome of anything that may have been done with regard to the cleanliness and health issues on the Azamara Journey.  We also sent detailed info to Olivia about our concerns and issues.  And yes, we would have liked to hear something.

This hasn't kept us from booking other trips with Olivia, as we do so love traveling with Olivia.

It has, however, changed the way we travel.  We will not be leaving the county without an international calling plan and our laptop, as we spent $500 in $10-a-minute phone calls and faxes from the Athens Hilton to Travelex, the travel insurance company, while Joan was in the hospital in Athens.  This is because Travelex doesn't have an international calling plan, also Travelex's fax couldn't communicate with the hospital's fax.  We will also be looking into other options for travel insurance in the future.  And we definitely will not be traveling with Azamara again.

Hope things are well with you otherwise.  And hope to see you on future trips with Olivia!

Joan and Jeri

Did anyone from Olivia contact you directly about the health issues, or concerns  that took place on the Turkey Greece Cruise?

 We had written a letter to Olivia, dated back to October 2010, listing all our concerns, and health issues, and have not received a response.

 We have not heard from anyone. It has been 5 months since we contacted Olivia.

. This has prevented us from booking another trip.

 The only contact from Olivia has been to book other trips from them.

Wishing we would have received a courtesy letter regarding our issues. Some acknowledgement would have been appreciated..

Woo hoo!

We have now completed the "Medical Expense/Emergency Assistance Claim Form" and attachments!!! 

It's about 3/4 of an inch thick!   It's exactly 90 pages of documentation!

Not sure, but it's quite possible that we spent more time doing this claim than we did receiving the medical treatment and emergency assistance that it documents!

After we have a chance to rest up, we'll start working on the "Trip Interruption Claim Form".

Joan

Hello, Ladies who got the "profound travelers illness" in Greece,

Just wondering, has anybody who had the travel insurance already finished with the claims process?  Is anybody besides us still working on it?

We've finally finished several layers of the back-and-forth paperwork: Greek/English, Euros/US$, our medical insurance paid/we paid/the travel insurance company owes us.  Some of it from the hospitalization in Athens, some of it from the ER and docs in Seattle upon our return.

We're now working on the final stages of submitting all the paperwork that shows proof of what was paid and by whom, so that the travel insurance people can reimburse us for the medical portion of our claim.

We've been a bit slow to process, as we had a period after the trip when we felt like it was "all too much for us" and we had to slow down and take it easy.  We haven't yet begun to sort out the "trip interruption" portion of our claim.  Hope it will be simpler than the medical portion.

There should be onboard classes on how to deal with travel insurance companies....just a thought.

If anybody else is working on their travel ins claim, I would love to hear from you, how it's going, or any tips you might have to offer!

Thanks!!

Joan