Cebu Pacific Flight Cancellation and TravelSure (Insurance)

When you travel, do you avail of the airline's add-on travel insurance? I usually don't for domestic flights, but I do for international flights—without really reading the coverage, just skimming. Stupid, I know.

For my last trip, I paid Php 400 for travel insurance, at the same time praying the airline would not lose my luggage (I don’t own any expensive clothes, but it would be a hassle physically and financially to have to buy new clothes if they did lose my sack of rags), I would not get hospitalized (or worse, die!) while on the trip, or the flight would not be cancelled.

The inevitable happened. Of all the days the typhoon had to landfall, it had to be on the date and time I was set to travel. The suckiest part of all was that Cebu Pacific cancelled the flight just six hours before. That would have been okay had my flight been direct from Cebu, but it wasn’t, I had a connecting flight via Manila, and their announcement came when I had already arrived in Manila. I knew the flight would get cancelled, but I was hoping they had made the announcement the night before (like PAL did for their flights on the same route) or at least while I was still in Cebu. I guess they just didn’t want the hassle of having to rebook the other leg of the trip for those who were on connecting flights. (The airline provided a replacement flight for the cancelled flight segment; replacement flight was scheduled for the next day.)

The travel insurance covers flight cancellations under certain conditions, but they would not be the ones to provide accommodation, meals, and transportation. You would have to fend for yourself and then file for reimbursement. The maximum amount you can claim per day would be Php 1000.

Flight delays are recoverable under your TravelSure insurance if the flight is delayed for more than twelve (12) hours. The insurance provides up to Php 1,000.00 (up to 20 days) per day of reasonable expenses incurred if delay is caused by the following:

COVERAGE G- FLIGHT DELAY 

• delay caused by any severe weather conditions; 
• delay due to strike or other job action by employees of the airline on which the Insured is scheduled to travel; 
• delay caused by the equipment failure of the aircraft on which the Insured is scheduled to travel. 

This cover only applies to normally scheduled airline flights which the Insured had duly confirmed according to the airlines rules and regulations.

This policy will reimburse the Insured up to the limit specified in the schedule if the Insured’s flight is delayed for more than twelve (12) hours, for:

• any prepaid, unused, non-refundable land or  water accommodation 
• any reasonable expenses incurred in respect of meals and lodging which were necessarily incurred as a result of the delay and which were not provided by the airline or any other party free of charge; 
• the cost of transfer to and from the airport.

This information (and all other insurance coverage) can be found in the Cebu Pacific and TravelSure websites or can be provided by TravelSure through email.

The expenses I incurred for being stuck in Manila for a day was about Php1500, not including accommodation (because I luckily had a friend who adopted me for a night). I only submitted receipts for two meals and transportation to and from the airport (they accepted screenshots for Uber) for a total of Php909. I could not file for reimbursement for dinner because I had forgotten to ask for a receipt. (Had I not forgotten to ask for a receipt for dinner and had I stayed in a hotel, they would only have reimbursed a maximum of Php1000 a day anyway.)

Kindly furnish us the following documents please in order for us to proceed with the evaluation of your claim:

1. Scanned copy of your passport
2. Scanned copy of your itinerary ticket
3. Copy of Certificate of Flight Cancellation / Flight Delay from the airline
4. Scanned copy of your rebooking ticket
5. Scanned copy of the original receipts for your expenses incurred on either food, accommodation or cost of transfer to and from the airport
6. Duly filled-out Client Information Sheet form (provided by TravelSure through email) 

It took two months to process the reimbursement and they approved the amount of Php900.

More so, upon approval of your claim, we may proceed with either check or bank transfer as the mode of settlement.

For check, the claimant should have a local bank account here in the Philippines. Once the claim check has been prepared, we will notify the claimant for the pick-up of his/her check in our Binondo Head Office.

For bank transfer, upon approval of your claim, we may send the money via bank transfer. Kindly give us the details of your nominated bank – preferably your savings bank account. Please take note however that your bank shall apply charges/fees for the transfer so the amount that you will get shall be lower than the amount of your claim.

Because I was based in Cebu, I had no choice but to choose bank transfer. The total amount I received? A whopping Php504 because of bank fees! Was it worth all the trouble? I spent Php400 for the insurance and Php1500 for being stranded in Manila, and all I got back was Php504. What a laugh. (On a brighter note, the person they assigned to handle my case was responsive and always provided updates.)

Better get a real travel insurance next time.