Travel Troubleshooter: Help! I canceled my trip, but my travel insurance won't pay my claim

When Amy Sparks' father-in-law passes away, she cancels a planned tour of Utah and files a claim with Tin Leg, her travel insurance company. But the company denies her claim. Is she going to lose the $4,098 she paid?

Q: I bought travel insurance from Tin Leg for a scheduled REI tour to Utah. When a family tragedy struck and my husband's father passed away, I canceled our entire trip and all related reservations. I acted quickly to inform both REI and Tin Leg.

Despite my prompt cancellation, Tin Leg denied my claim. Their explanation was that because I reused my airline ticket for a different trip, my cancellation was deemed invalid.

I feel that this interpretation is unfair. I followed the policy by canceling the trip that I could not take due to unforeseen circumstances. I have maintained a complete paper trail of every email, phone call, and correspondence with both REI and Tin Leg.

I need to know if my cancellation should have triggered a full reimbursement for the canceled REI trip. Did my actions not meet the intended spirit of the policy? I also wonder if there was anything more I could have done to secure my refund. — Amy Sparks, Minneapolis

A: I'm sorry to hear about your father-in-law. At a time like this, you would expect your travel insurance company to be compassionate and to quickly honor your claim — after all, that's why you bought travel insurance.

I was curious about why Tin Leg denied your refund. In an email to you, the company explained its reasons.

"Unfortunately, as your trip was rescheduled rather than canceled in its entirety," a representative told you, "the REI portion is not eligible for reimbursement. The Trip Cancellation benefit under your policy requires the entire trip to be canceled to qualify for coverage, not just a portion of it."

In other words, because you accepted a credit for your flight instead of canceling it, Tin Leg denied your entire claim.

I thought a carefully worded appeal to Tin Leg might have allowed the insurance company to see that this interpretation of the policy, while technically correct, was wrong. But it also rejected your appeal.

I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the customer service executives at Tin Leg on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email to one of them might have fixed this.

But travel insurance is complicated. The decision about whether to honor your claim actually needed to be made by Tin Leg's underwriter, Starr Indemnity Insurance Company. I contacted Starr on your behalf to see if maybe something had been overlooked with your claim. Separately, you reached out to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which regulates travel insurance in your state, and filed a complaint.

Tin Leg's underwriter reversed its position and honored your claim.

If there's one takeaway from your case, it's this: Make sure you follow all the instructions carefully when you have to cancel a trip and file a claim. Specifically, be sure you cancel all prepaid, nonrefundable portions of your trip covered by travel insurance. Otherwise, your travel insurance company could deny your entire claim.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.