Travel Insurance Reviews for AXA Assistance USA

We have purchased many travel policies. I often questioned whether it was a smart decision given I could never find any claims history on the policies and we had no claim experience.. My claim to AXA proved the the purchase was the right decision. It was handled professionally, quickly and without any deference to deny the claim.

We filed a claim when one of our travel companions was seriously injured (precluding travel for 3-4 months) approx 2 months prior to our trip departure. As a result of that injury, we cancelled our trip. As our travel companions were not relatives it was critical that we were able to document that our injured friend was a "travel companion" as that is a term specifically defined in the policy. Once our claim was filed, our insurer was professional & courteous in all regards and fully paid our claim approximately 4 weeks after our claim was submitted. Based on our experience, AXA is a first class, professional operation in all regards. We will never travel again without an insurance policy from AXA.

Claim was handled fairly and completely, after some initial delays relating to additional medical info requests. If I had been told of everything needed at outset I would give 5 stars. Customer service was friendly and helpful and once all info they needed was sent payment was full and prompt.

Think very carefully about buying this policy or any other policy that has language paying for trip interruption only upon physician's certification at time of illness/injury if you are traveling alone (even if on a tour) and traveling in the developing world. If you are sick/injured enough to require interruption of your trip your focus will not be on getting a doctor's certificate, but on getting to good medical care, preferably at home. As I found, a physician who sends you away in an ambulance will not necessary respond to later attempts by you and the insurance company to certify the necessity for trip interruption.
The company was initially very difficult to get a response from. Once engaged, they were helpful in trying to get a physician's certification. In the end, they adhered strictly to their policy language, ignored the diagnoses on the ambulance invoice, and disregarded what even the claims adjuster said was an obvious need for me to descend rather than continue with my increasingly ascending tour in the face of severe altitude sickness, high blood pressure, and racing heart (the latter of which were caused by the former.) Bottom line: read the policy language carefully and shop around after having read it.

To begin, when I tried to get the necessary form to file a claim, not only was AXA's phone system a mess, causing me delay after delay until I finally reached someone in Chicago who sent me a PDF that would not open, (and I have the newest version of Adobe Reader), and then that person was "not at her desk" immediately after she sent it - so after trying multiple times to reach her again, and her failed attempts to get me a document that WOULD open (she could not send a Word Doc), I had to have them send it snail mail. And that was just the beginning of my frustrations.

The reason I filed a claim was that when Delta changed our return flight to an earlier time, I was too far out in the country of Costa Rica to make the flight on time by scheduled means (van + ferry + van), so I bought a flight to get us to the airport a day early, and stayed in a hotel so we could make the flight home with Delta. AXA would not cover this under "Missed Connection" or Flight Delay" because it was not "a reactionary" event or "a defined Hazard".

I guess I should have missed the flight, stayed in Costa Rica another couple of days until Delta could reschedule us at $200 more each, and sent AXA the bill then. It would have been a lot more than what I wanted to be reimbursed for, but perhaps AXA would have had to pay me. On the other hand, they would have probably found some excuse not to.

I don't know what Insurance company would have covered my situation, or what policy, but it seems like buying insurance at all is just not worth it because of so many fine points they can find to NOT reimburse you. And the frustration of dealing with THIS company on the phone was extremely stressful.

When I buy travel insurance again, I will read the policy much more carefully and definitely not buy it from this company.

My phone calls were always answered promptly by a "live" person. I needed to cancel my trip due to an accident, and my claim was processed promptly.

Never could get answers on coverages. I was trying to help my husband in the hospital, and all the plan cared about was getting my husband out of the hospital. I asked that they guarantee coverage, but was told no one to translate with billing, which was not true and made us wait for 3 hours to get a bill, only to find out only a part was guaranteed. Further, they undermined my attempt to get a bill with itemized procedures by telling the hospital that it should be given to AXA, not me. In the end they were not an advocate and my husband was discharged too early, only to end back in hospital on arrival in USA.
Tying to file a claim once in the US was nearly impossible. The AXA claim adjuster never returned my calls, and rarely answered any questions I put to him on his voice mail, If it were not for InsureMyTrip, I would still be trying to get claims filed and processing questions answered. The claims adjuster claimed that his voice mail did not work, but I sincerely question that his voice mail was continually broken from the beginning of January until the beginning of March. If it was, what good is it to have a claims adjuster who never calls you back? Many thanks to IMT for there vigilance!

Excellent service

I was claiming for having to repurchase a flight ticket of $400++ but only got $200 in the mail without a clear explanation of why I could not be fully reimbursed. No one called me to give me the heads up that I could not claim the full sum.

*Follow up: Following the above review, AXA wrote me an email to say they have determined the value according to my plan, although it was not clear which line item of the coverage applied. I upgraded the 'was my claim processed promptly & fairly" and "how satisfied were you with this plan?" by 1*.

I was very happy with the response to my claim and the timeliness of payment. I would definitely use them again and recommend to others.