Travelers, here’s what you need to do

If you are traveling soon, other than warning you to stay alert, we’d also give you one piece of valuable advice most people miss. And that is to protect yourself with travel insurance. More often than not, people see travel insurance as a luxury that not only they cannot afford but also completely unnecessary. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Travel insurance isn’t only cheap, especially compared to how much flight ticket alone can cost you, the many benefits that it offers make them an absolute must-have. It covers you against pickpockets and scams, it compensates your lost of luggage and flight delays, and even refund your deposits lost for cancelled trips.

But don’t take our word for it, calculate for yourself how cheap travel insurance can be for you here. And also, read some of the articles in above links to find out more about travel insurance and we assure you, you’d never want to leave the country without one ever again.

 

Stay safe folks. And remember, travel scams are everywhere, a bit of caution will go a long way!

 

In May 2018, I experienced my first flight cancellation on AirAsia, which resulted in an overnight stay because there was no other flight scheduled on that day. In the below article, I describe AirAsia handled the flight cancellation and how I made claims against my travel insurance with Allianz and AirAsia that could pay me as much as RM 700.

This is my full ordeal and lessons learned, and I hope that readers too will obtain some understanding and insights into their rights as a passenger when experiencing such an event. Also, make sure to read our Travel Insurance Malaysia guide to stay updated about latest promotions and relevant information. 

Why did I buy travel insurance for this trip?

I travelled to Gold Coast, Australia from Kuala Lumpur in May 2018. The currency exchange rate at the time was almost 1 to 3, i.e. 1 Australian Dollar (AUD) was worth RM 3. That meant that everything in Australia was at least 3 times more expensive than in Malaysia. A normal lunch that costs RM 12 in Malaysia costs AUD 12 in Australia. But that AUD 12 is RM 36 after conversion. Expensive for me.

The trip was a big investment (flight, hotel, food and park visits), hence I did not have much extra money if something were to go wrong. I could not imagine how much a visit to the doctors would cost me in case I got sick during my travel, so I decided to buy Travel Care from Allianz. Why Allianz? Because I wanted to go for scuba diving while in Australia and Allianz covers for that particular extreme sport whereas many travel insurances do not.

Here’s what happened on the way home from Gold Coast, Australia:

May 27th @ 18:00

My flight was scheduled to fly out at 20:25 local time and arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 17:10. That was the plan.

I arrived at the airport almost 3 hours earlier because I needed to check in my luggage, but also I looked forward to go home. I checked in my luggage and waited at the gate.

May 27th @ 20:25

We still did not start boarding the plane. Finally an announcement was made that the flight would be delayed.

May 27th @ 21:40

We were informed via the PA system that our flight has been cancelled and that there will be no more flights tonight to Kuala Lumpur. The next flight will be tomorrow morning. We were instructed to leave the gate.

This was not my first flight delay nor cancellation so I did have  a little bit of experience. I knew that I had to find the AirAsia service desk to get a hotel paid by the airline.

Here is the rule that airlines follow:

If you are leaving for your trip from your home country and the flight is cancelled, the airline will not pay for anything. You are expected to just go home and come back later when the flight is scheduled to take off again. However, travel insurance will pay you some money, but more on that topic later.

But if you are already on your trip when the flight is cancelled, then the airline will provide you with food voucher and accommodation. You might wonder how can they tell if you are on a trip. If you have a travel visa to Australia, then you are clearly on a trip away from home.

Many people do not know that the airline will provide accommodation for travelers, so many end up paying for the extra night stay out of their own pocket – good for the airline because they save money, but bad for you, if you did not know and paid for the hotel on your own.

May 27th @ 22:00

At the AirAsia counter, we were informed that our new flight will go early next morning and that hotel and breakfast will be provided. The buses were waiting outside to bring us to the hotel.

I was really fortunate that I had booked AirAsia’s Premium Flex for this flight. The main reason I bought it was because of the luggage and hot seat selection. I needed to have luggage for the trip, so either the Value Pack or the Premium Flex were an option. I decided with the Premium Flex because of the extra hot seat. The flight time was 8 hours to Australia and 8hr and 40 mins back to Malaysia, so the extra leg room was important, especially since both flights were overnight flights.

How did Premium Flex help?

With the flight being cancelled, hundreds of people were lined up at the AirAsia counter to change their flight and get accommodation. Only a few people had booked business class or Premium Flex like me, so we were able to use the much shorter VIP line. Yeahhh. Lucky me. Not an advertisement for AirAsia, but this was really convenient.

May 27th @ 22:20

I arrived at the Mantra Hotel. Since I exited the bus very quickly, I was able to check in quickly. The staff was friendly and informative. Unfortunately, when I asked them about dinner option, they informed me that everything was closed. Even Domino’s Pizza stopped delivering at 22:00. So, no dinner and food since I was planning to have dinner on board of the airplane. Also no breakfast the next morning since the hotel starts serving breakfast at 6:30 and the bus leaves at 6:30. I went to my room, which was very nice and spacious, showered and went to bed hungry.

May 28th @ 6:00am

I woke up at 6:00am to get ready and headed down to the lobby.  The bus was already waiting to go to the airport. I looked and found a nearby pastry shop, where I could buy myself some croissant and a coffee.

While waiting for the others to board the bus, I checked out the hotel a bit. The place was really nice, but unfortunately, I did not get the chance to enjoy the facilities.  It was too late yesterday and too early today. I took a picture of the swimming pool as a memory.

May 28th @ 7:00am

I arrive at the airport, but no one from AirAsia was there. Everyone was a little grumpy and not happy with AirAsia because why have brought us to the airport so early if no one was going to be there. Also, many of them did not have breakfast, because the staff told us earlier that breakfast would be provided.

May 28th @ 7:21am

Luckily the wait time was not too long. 21 minutes later, an AirAsia staff finally showed up and started changing our tickets. However, once I received my ticket, I did not get any breakfast voucher. Only after I followed up and asked for it did the AirAsia staff provided me with food vouchers of AUD 10 each.

Later, I found out that the AirAsia staff did not provide food vouchers to everyone. Only when you ask for it, would they give you the voucher. If you do not ask, you do not get the voucher. Well, I do not think it is good practice by AirAsia. I understand that this method saves the company probably thousands of ringgits, but a normal traveler gets cheated by it. Not a practice that I would have expected from AirAsia.

I asked the staff if I could get a confirmation letter for the flight cancellation/delay, but she kindly informed me that we would need to go to the service counter in Kuala Lumpur to get it. It makes sense because the new flight could still experience further delay. This way the actual delay time could only be safely recorded in Kuala Lumpur.

May 28th @ 19:40 KL time

Many hours later, I finally arrived back at the KLIA 2 airport. Once I got my luggage, I headed straight to the AirAsia service counter. I needed to get written confirmation from the airline that my flight was cancelled and rescheduled in order to claim from my travel insurance. Also, I needed to find out how many hours the flight was delayed. This took quite a while as they were only 2 counters for the whole airport. But I knew it was important to claim from the travel insurance, so I waited patiently.

May 29th @ 12:00pm KL time

After I finally got home and rested, I went online to do the claim.  Below is how I did the claim for AirAsia and Allianz Travel Guard. So for this flight, I had two travel insurances. One from Allianz and one from Tune that came automatically with the Premium Flex when we upgraded to Hot Seat. 

What can we expect from our Travel Insurance?

Tune Protect

The Tune Protect insurance came with a 1-hour On-time Guarantee which we definitely qualified for because the flight was delayed for more than 12 hours. Looking at the fine print, Tune Protect pays RM 100. It is not much, but it is something.

Allianz Travel Care

Looking at Allianz insurance fine print, we should get RM 300 for every 6-hour delay up to a maximum of RM 2,000. 

Now you might wonder, why are we looking at flight delay when the flight was actually cancelled? The reason is that AirAsia has provided a replacement flight the next day for us, so the flight cancellation became a flight delay of more than 12 hours. So in total, I expect to  get paid the amount of RM 600 from Allianz. That’s quite a lot of money that would pay for some of the travel inconveniences I had to endure.

How to make a travel insurance claim from Tune Protect insurance?

Claiming from Tune insurance was really easy. I went to the webpage https://claims.tuneprotect.com/

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There I had to just enter the flight booking number and all my information showed up automatically. I selected the “1 hour On-time Guarantee” that I would like to claim for. It also prompted me for my address and bank account information where the money should be transferred to.  Once I clicked submit, I received a confirmation email with my case number.

Wow. I was impressed. This was so easy. All I had to provide was the flight booking number and some personal information. No paper document were needed. Not even the flight delay confirmation letter that I collected from the airport was needed. This is really easy and makes me comfortable to buy travel insurance from AirAsia. I guess it is simpler for them because the flight was on AirAsia and they could easily check internally for the flight delay.

The next day, I received a confirmation email from Tune Protect stating that the claim has been approved and that I will receive the RM100 via bank transfer and that if I don’t receive it in the next 14 days, then I should contact them again. I checked my bank account and in actual fact the RM100 was banked in on June 11th. In total it took Tune Protect only 8 working days to pay out the claim.

• May 29th, 2018: Submitted claim
• May 30th, 2018: Confirmation that claim is approved.
• June 11th, 2018: Claim paid out.

I am really happy with my experience with Tune. Now let’s see how Allianz is doing.

How to make a travel insurance claim from Allianz?

So first, I went online to look at the claims procedure for travel insurance. It basically says to download the claims form and send it to the insurance company. It did not say that you can send it via email, but want to give it a try via email to see if Allianz would accept it. Here is the link to the form in case you also need to make a claim: Allianz Travel Care Claims Form

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Since this was for a flight delay, I also had to fill out the following section.

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I filled out the form online with a PDF editor and sent the claims form together with the AirAsia flight ticket and boarding pass to the email address: [email protected]

There was a reason why I didn’t send the written confirmation letter from AirAsia to the email address. I believe that many travelers do not know that they need to collect it so I wanted to test if Allianz would still pay out the claim without this document. If they do, then it would be awesome and very customer oriented by Allianz. If not, we will send them the letter that we have already received.

After we submitted we received a generic acknowledgement email together with a Reference ID.

June 14th @ 10:00am

I received a call from the Allianz claims department, saying that the claim has been approved and that we need to submit an e-payment form to Allianz to receive the money. The full instruction from them was to send the e-payment form as well as the header of the bank statement so that they could double check that the details in the e-payment form were correct with the bank information. Allianz claims that there have been many cases where people sent in the wrong information.

To make things easier: Here is the Allianz E-payment Form that you can download and send together at right from the beginning, so hopefully your claim can be handled faster than mine.

Until today I still have not received the payment or feedback from Allianz regarding my travel insurance claim. Below the timeline up until today:

• May 29th, 2018: Submitted claims form online via email
• May 14th, 2018: Request for e-payment form
• June 11th, 2018: Follow up email to [email protected]. No response. 
• June 26th, 2018: Still no update or payment from Allianz. Follow up email to [email protected]. 
• June 27th, 2018: Still no response from Allianz. Called the call center under 1-300-88-1028 to find out what the status of the claim is. The staff informed me that the payment was made just yesterday and that the payment should be in by 3 working days.
• June 30th, 2018: Payment of RM 600 has been made to my bank account. It is great that the claim finally has been paid out, but besides the bank deposit, I did not get any notice from Allianz. I did not get even an email. Hopefully, they can improve on it in the future.

Conclusion

It was fortunate that I thought about buying travel insurance for this trip to Australia. The whole incident cause a lot of inconvenience as well as additional cost to me. And because the flight cancellation happened at night, I did not have the chance to enjoy the extra day in Australia. This incident had cost me:

• One day less vacation, because I had to take the extra day off
• More than 14 hours of inconvenience without dinner
• Vending machine dinner and extra breakfast at the hotel

On the plus side,

• I was able to record this Flight Cancellation / Flight Delay article with AirAsia and Allianz as the Travel Insurance company.
• Received RM 100 from Tune and potentially RM 600 from Allianz this week.

In the future, I will definitely buy travel insurance for flights outside Malaysia. After this experience, I feel that claiming against a travel policy by Tune on an AirAsia flight will be much faster and more convenient. So thumbs up for their convenient online portal and speedy service.

Allianz Travel Care is still good, because it is one of the few companies that offer cover for scuba diving. I am glad that they accepted the claim via email and without the Travel Confirmation letter. This is really customer-oriented. They still need to improve on their communication with the customer because I did not receive any update on the claim. Also, the claim surely can be paid out faster than 30 days. AirAsia has proven that it can be done.

At times, when you are already on your trip, enjoying your much deserved holiday, a critical phone call from home could mean a shortened holiday with you consequently rushing to the airport to get home to attend to whatever emergency that has taken place.

When such situations occur, family matters usually take precedence over fun holiday plans, thus making last minute flight and hotel cancellations unavoidable. In fact, it is estimated on average that there is between 5-15% of people not showing up for their flights – due to various reasons.

The major concern about travel cancellation, and in some cases, having to cut your travel short, is the financial losses as a result of all the cancelled hotel, car rental and tour bookings, as well as purchased flight tickets. What can be done?

Well for starters, here are a few tips to help you reduce the risk of losing your hard-earned money due to these situations.

1. Read cancellation policy before making your reservation

Some airlines, hotels, tours and car rental agencies offer friendly cancellation policies. If you are familiar with online booking platforms such as Agoda.com, you’ll have noticed that some hotels offer free cancellation, while others are strict with their ‘no-show, no-refund’ policy. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to consider this factor before making your reservation.

2. Make reservations as early as possible

Making your reservations as early as possible will allow you more room for adjustments later. Remember, the aim here is to reduce your penalty charges for cancellation. So having enough room to tweak or even cancel your reservations may just help save you from incurring losses. Some hotels allow free cancellation as long as it is done 24 or 48 hours before the arrival date, so you’ll want to take advantage of this.

3. Protect yourself with travel insurance

Believe it or not, travel insurance covers you for travel cancellation and curtailment. What is travel curtailment? That’s when you have already started your trip but have to cut it short due to certain events that have taken place. Travel insurance will reimburse you for the irrecoverable expenses you have made for your trip. Considering how cheap travel insurance can cost compared to the potential loss that can incur due to cancellation and curtailment, it is worth considering purchasing travel insurance, especially since it has a wide coverage that may come in handy.

Travel cancellation and curtailment – why you need travel

1. Loss of deposit or travel cancellation

Emergencies can occur that would need you to cancel your travel plans. We’ve mention death or accident in the family, or even to yourself. You may fall ill just days or hours before your scheduled departure needing you to be hospitalized. Or your travel partner may meet with an accident on his way to the airport. Some insurance plans may cover for losses incurred out of trip cancellation as a result of serious damages to your home due to fire or flood or other natural disaster which requires you to stick around.

Under these circumstances, your travel insurance will compensate you for the loss of deposit and any irrecoverable expenses made. This could be your flight tickets, hotel bookings, pre-booked or prepaid tours, cruises and car rental just to name a few.

To give you an idea of how much compensation you are entitled to, here’s a comparison between 3 insurance plans:

Total compensation for travel cancellation by insurer/ plan

Allianz Travel Care                                 up to RM 20,000 per person/ RM 50,000 per family

Tokio Marine Travel Partner               up to RM 20,000 per person/ RM 60,000 per family

Ikhlas Kembara PLUS Takaful           up to RM 10,000 per person/ RM 30,000 per

 

2. Travel curtailment

Your travel insurance policy also covers you for losses incurring out of travel curtailment. However, this is only valid if you have begun your travel. For instance, a few days into your holiday abroad, you receive a call from back home about the death, illness or accident of a family member that needs you to immediately return home. Your holiday may also be cut short due to your own death, illness or accident, or that of your traveling partner.

Below is the comparison of how much you can claim for non-refundable or irrecoverable expenses of your trip due to curtailment.

Total compensation for travel curtailment by insurer/ plan

Allianz Travel Care                                 up to RM 20,000 per person/ RM 50,000 per family

Tokio Marine Travel Partner               up to RM 20,000 per person/ RM 60,000 per family

Ikhlas Kembara PLUS Takaful            up to RM 10,000 per person/ RM 20,000 per family

 

Considering the many benefits of travel insurance, you may want to seriously consider protecting yourself with one. You should also evaluate your personal travel risks and understand how travel insurance can help reduce the financial burden associated with these risks. Such as your risk of food poisoning while traveling to places like India or the potential of an injury if you are going on a skiing vacation in the alps.

To understand more about travel insurance and its coverage, read this following article.

Understanding Insurance – Travel Insurance

 

What is the single most important item on you when you travel overseas? To many, it would be their passport. After all, how many times do you find yourself frantically rummaging through your handbag or grabbing the back pocket of your jeans while on the way to the airport to make sure you haven’t left it at home?

 

And then there’s also your precious phone, money and credit cards. All the things you wouldn’t want to leave home without, let alone going to a foreign land. Losing any of these items while you’re abroad can make your trip a living hell for you and the people traveling with you.

Taking a trip can be stressful especially if you’re not a frequent traveler. There is a lot of conscious thoughts and effort required in order to make sure everything is in order. Thus it is easy to overlook somethings. The consequences can be devastating, costing you a lot of time, as well as money.

While it is understandable that we often get engrossed in planning for our long-awaited and much deserved vacation, we shouldn’t neglect the safety aspect of our personal belongings. So if you are traveling soon, here are some tips on how to keep them safe.

 

Tips to keep your personal belonging safe during your trip

1. Be alert at all times

People who are careful don’t become that way naturally. They stay consciously alert of their actions at all times. Have you ever found yourself not knowing where you have placed your passport after receiving it back from the immigrations officer? Could it be your mind was busy thinking which way to go to get to your departure gate at the time? Remember, pay attention to every action you make!

2. Keep them close to you

One of the best places to keep your passport, money, plane tickets and phone safe when you are traveling is the inside pocket of your jacket. If you’re not into jackets, consider other alternatives such as a money belt or fanny pack. The key point is to always have these important items on you instead of packing them in your luggage or backpack. And remember to keep them out of prying eyes!

3. Choose your hotel and location wisely

It is common that we spend days and weeks picking out the ‘best’ accommodation for our vacation. One with a good breakfast spread and the perfect view of the ocean. But often we neglect to verify that the hotels have received positive reviews with regard to safety. Be sure to also check what other travelers have said about the places you are visiting. And be extra vigilant if there have been cases of scams or snatch thefts.

4. Carry only what’s necessary

Don’t bring too much cash with you, instead use debit or credit card when you can. Leave jewelries and family heirlooms at home. If you have more than one credit cards, consider only bringing one (or two, just in case). And be sure to split your cash and cards into two stashes and keep them separately. One can be in your purse or wallet, the other safely tucked in a secret compartment in your jacket, or leave in the safe in your hotel room. 

5. Educate yourself on common travel scams

Knowledge is power. While reading about interesting places to visit
and things to do while on your holiday, read up also on some of the most common travel scams. Remember, these scammers are really good at what they do. Unless you know of their modus operandi beforehand, you may just become another one of their many unsuspecting victims.

Spend some time watching the video below to protect yourself from the most common travel scams.

6. Get travel insurance

No matter how careful you are and how much precautions you practice, it can still happen to you. Although insurance will not protect you from losing your previous belongings, it can minimize the substantial financial risk when they are lost or stolen during your trip. So get covered. Just because your belongings are lost, it doesn’t have to mean you losing money over them.

If you aren’t sure of how travel insurance can actually save you from having to fork out the money needed to have your lost or stolen items replaced, read on.

Travel insurance compensates you for your lost items

That alone already sounds like a good deal, especially considering that travel insurance cost a lot less than the value of your personal belongings. A smartphone and digital camera can cost thousands of ringgit to replace. While a lost passport and wallet can be a total nightmare if you’re traveling abroad – lots of bureaucratic procedures to follow and additional cost for you to have them replaced.

So travel insurance helps lessen those burden, here’s how:

1. Travel documents

Losing your travel documents such as your passport when you’re overseas means you are stuck in that country. You can not even return home until you have gotten a temporary passport. And this little pass don’t come easy either, here’s just to give you an idea of what needs to be done in case you lose your passport while traveling:

What to do when you lose your passport while traveling abroad

Step 1: Lodge a police report
Step 2: Go to the nearest Malaysian Embassy, Consulate or High Commission (locate them here). What if there’s none in the country you are stranded in? Then you will need to call one that is in the country closest to you.
Step 3: At the embassy, apply for an Emergency Certificate. This will require many documents, such a policy report, MyKad, photos, and in some cases, flight tickets and birth certs.
Step 4: The Emergency Certificate may take up to 3-5 days to be processed (this means you may need  to extend your stay).
Step 5: Once you are safely back home, don’t forget to replace your emergency certificate at the immigration department.

Travel insurance cannot protect you against losing your passport, however it can minimize your financial loss by covering the cost involved in getting your passport replaced. Additional cost for accommodation, transportation like taxi rides to the embassy and communication costs involved can be substantial as you can see above. Tokio Marine’s Travel Partner for instance, allocates RM5,000 for this purpose alone.

2. Stolen money

Although there are now plenty of cashless options available such as PayWave, SamsungPay and Alipay, cash remains a necessity, particularly when traveling to less developed destinations. Carrying cash around with you increases the risk of you being targeted by pickpockets. Having a travel insurance means you are being covered to a certain amount if this happens to you. Just remember to make a police report so that you are able to claim from your insurance company.

The coverage amount for stolen money varies between companies. Tokio Marine for instance covers up to RM 750 while Allianz offers a coverage of up to RM 800.

3. Personal belongings

Personal belongings can include your phone, camera, clothes, shoes, etc. If these items are stolen during your travels, you need to file a police report within 24 hours in order to get compensation from your insurance. Do keep in mind that most insurance won’t cover for lost of items due to negligence. For instance, if you have dropped your phone breaking the screen while sightseeing or if you have left it behind on a restaurant table and found that it was gone after coming back to get it.  

For Tokio Marine’s Travel Partner for instance, you will be compensated RM500 for each item that is stolen. However, these items must be on you when they were stolen.

 

To read more of our travel tips, don’t forget to follow us on our Facebook page.  Good luck and happy journey folks!

Watch out for these popular scams often pulled on unsuspecting tourists!

Imagine you are in a foreign country, just landed at the airport to enjoy your well deserved vacation and finding out that your bag is not there at the baggage claim area. What do you do in this kind of situation? 

 

In this article, we will share with you two ways to get compensated for all the inconveniences when your bags are delayed, damaged or lost. We will also share expert tips from frequent travelers on how to avoid these luggage problems and also to prepare you in case the unfortunate does happen to you.

In 2016, there were over 10 million bags mishandled worldwide. With the rising number of global travelers and new global routes each year, mistakes happen, especially when passengers and luggage move from one aircraft to another. This increases the risk of your luggage not showing up at the baggage claim area where they should. Imagine the disaster. If you are lucky, you may get them back a few hours or even days later. In the worst case scenario however, your bag may be lost forever along with all your precious belongings in it.

There are a number of ways a bag can be mishandled. In 2016, airline reports showed that 77% of bags were delayed due to mishandling during transfer, tagging and ticketing error, failure to load, airport customs error or even due to bad weather. Reports also showed that 16% of mishandled bags were damaged and 7% were lost or stolen. In fact, lost and delayed bags are the most common type of travel insurance claims around.

(Source: SITA Baggage Report 2017)

 

Get compensated for lost, damaged or delayed luggage

1. Travel insurance can save your long awaited great escape

Travel insurance is the best way to protect you financially when your luggage is delayed, damaged or lost. This is one of the reasons why many big travel agencies and airlines work together with insurance companies to offer travel insurance. 

Take AirAsia for instance. Any AirAsia Premium Flex, Premium Flatbed or Value Pack Seat customers get the Baggage Delay and the 1-hour On-time guarantee protection for free. In the case of baggage delays, you will get RM 120 if they are delayed for more than 6 hours. This applies exclusively when you fly with AirAsia.

Tokio Marine on the other hand, compensates you RM 200 if your baggage is delayed for the same duration of time. For every additional 6 hours, you get another RM 200, up to a maximum of RM 800. As long as you are insured by Tokio Marine, it covers you for any airline that you take.

This can be a huge help and money saver to you. With the money being compensated for your delayed luggage, you do not need to worry about spending your own money to purchase even the simplest things like a toothbrush and clothes. If you’re in a country with cold climate, the money can be spent well by buying a good jacket to keep you warm. On the other hand, if you are on a tropical island, the money can let you go out and buy a new set of bathing suit so you waste no vacation time at all.

You can also claim from the insurance company in the case of stolen luggage. Tokio Marine for example, will pay up to RM 5,000 for this. Just make sure that you do not put in any valuable items like a laptop and digital camera in your luggage because normally insurance company will not pay for those. Travel insurance is not responsible for your every single belonging and it certainly cannot replace all the precious memories that you could lose especially if you aren’t careful. But the payout does offer a decent amount to help you replace most of the items you have lost.  

2. Airlines, they can compensate for your baggage trouble too

The other type of reimbursement comes from the airlines themselves. Airlines can pay compensation regardless if you purchased a travel insurance or not. From airlines, you can claim up to a maximum of RM 6,200.  You can read more about it from the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM). You will need to check with each airline separately on how much you can get. It is not as easy as travel insurance. This is why many airlines partner with insurance companies to make it more convenient for you. The key to keep in mind is that you can only claim from the airline or your insurance company. You cannot claim from both.

What should you do when your baggage is lost?

The baggage service desk is your friend

As soon as you realized your bag is not at the baggage claim area, head over to the baggage service desk. Each airport has at least one baggage service desk while larger airports will even have separate desk for each airline. So ask around and be sure to look for the right one.  You are required to provide all the necessary information when reporting for your lost luggage, such flight number, as well as description of your luggage, color, size, brand and type etc. You will also need to leave your contact details – phone number and address so they can deliver the bags to you once it is found.

Very important: Before you leave the baggage service desk make sure that you get some written confirmation from them that your bag is delayed. Also, get the contact number and website address to monitor and track your baggage recovery progress.

If you have travel insurance, check how long do you have to wait before you can claim from the insurance company. Most insurance companies will only pay out money after a delay of at least 6 hours. You can find that information online at the companies website or you can contact your insurance agent. Also, make sure that when you leave the baggage service desk that the date and time is recorded in the report. Knowing how much your travel insurance will provide you, will help you decide on how much to spend when shopping for replacement clothes or toiletries. When you go shopping, make sure that you keep all receipts, because some insurance companies will require you to produce the receipts when making your claim.

When you return from your vacation, immediately contact your insurance agent or insurance company to inform them about the incident. You will most likely need to fill out a form to make a claim.

How to prepare for or avoid baggage trouble?

It is nice to have the safety of travel insurance that helps you protect from unnecessary expenses when your luggage is delayed or stolen. However prevention is always better than cure.  So here are some proven tips from frequently travelers that can help you reduce the chance of delayed or lost baggage.

Tip 1: Avoid flights with many stop-overs, if possible

The fewer stop-overs your flight has, the fewer chances your bags will get lost. So if your flight route and your budget allows it, go for direct flights with as few stop-overs as possible.

 

Tip 2: Do not book flights with short stop-overs

When you cannot avoid stop-overs, common thinking is that you want to have the stop-over as short as possible, so that you can reach your final destination faster. However, the expert traveler will make sure that there is enough time between flights, in case the earlier flight is delayed. There are many reasons why a flight can be delayed, such as bad weather and aircraft technical complications. This makes it all very likely that you and your luggage will not arrive at you final destination at the same time.

 

Tip 3: Mark your luggage

One of the most common reasons for lost luggage is that it was mistakenly taken by someone else from the baggage claim area. Unfortunately, bags all too often look the same. So make yours unique by putting a flashy ribbon or sticker so that when they come onto the baggage claim belt, you can easily identify them from the rest, and other people do not mistaken them for their own.

 

Tip 4: Put a luggage tag inside

Many of us will put a luggage tag outside so that in case the luggage is lost, the finder has information about the owner. Unfortunately, the reason why bags are permanently lost is that the airline tag as well as your luggage tag is gone or unreadable. The airline will then check inside if there is any information about the owner. If the airline is unable to find any information about the owner anywhere inside or outside the luggage, it will then be declared lost.  To be even safer, have identification tags both inside and outside!

 

So that’s it, easy tips for you to follow the next time you go on your trip. For more info, watch the video below. Don’t forget to follow us on our Facebook page to get more travel tips!