I have a similar clasue in my policy, but it lists the perils that they will
pay for. One of the perils is theft. They do not list "loss of use by
mistake or misdiretion". My understaning is that the disappearance of your
bag after it is checked does not necessarily constitute theft. Did your
agent put his interpretation into writing?
"riverman" wrote in message
...
"Sierra fisher" wrote in message
...
Insurance for lost luggage??
I was traveling with a lot of fishing gear assuming that my household
insurance would cover any loss. At a freinds suggestion I called my
insurance comany to check on my coverage. I was informed that if my
luggage was "stolen", I had unlimited coverage. If it was "LOST", I had
none. They will not advised me of the difference between lost and
stolen,
except to hint that if I lost a bag, to file a police report. Most
insurance companies have this distinction
My company, Farmers, will not sell me a rider to cover lost luggage.
some
companies will.
Some credit cards will give you up to $3000 coverage for lost luggage if
you
purchase your tickets on their cards. American Express has a card that
will
give you $2000 on carried luggage and $1000 on checked luggage. Fleet
Bank
will give you $3000 on checked luggage, but excludes many items like
sporting goods. CitiBanki has a few cards that give $3000 on checked
luggage but the cards are hard to identify. One is the the higher grade
ATT&T cards administered by CitiBank. Another is the CitiYou cards that
have recently been discontinued.
If you travel a lot with a lot of gear, it may pay you to do some
research.
Hmmm, Farmer's is my agent, too. When Northwest Airlines lost an 85 lb bag
(I'll tell the story below), I asked my agent if it was covered, and he
said
'no', but it would be if I changed my homeowner's policy to cover the loss
of anything worldwide, not just from my property. So I changed my policy,
my
premiums went up something like $20 per year, and now he assures me that
lost luggage will be covered. The litmus test, he said, was that the bag
was in my control when it disappeared, as much as possible. When the
airlines check a bag, thats considered 'in my control', so losing it is
considered a covered loss. I hope not to have to test this.
The short story: I had gone back to the US, emptied out my storage shed of
all my junk and treasures, and sold off everything that was clutter. I
took
all the priceless remaining heirlooms (pictures, documents, etc) and
packed
them into a brand new $250 LL Bean duffel, and checked onto a NorthWest
airlines flight from Boston-Detroit-Amsterdam-Tel Aviv. The bag weighed 40
kilos, had everything of irreplaceable or sentimental value in it of my
previous life, and it never arrived. I filed a claim with NWA, who assured
me that it would arrive the next morning. But the next morning, they went
on
strike (this was back in 1996), and I was unable to get assistance from
anyone for 6 weeks. I spent over $300 calling airports worldwide trying to
get someone to look for it. By the time NWA got back in business, my bag
was
long gone. They settled for their advertised reimbursement of '$9 per
pound', which barely covered the cost of the bag and the phone calls.
Personally, I seethe every time I see those "lost luggage auction"
sites.
--riverman
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (
http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.542 / Virus Database: 336 - Release Date: 11/19/2003