Complaint Review: Travel Guard

I had purchased a business class ticket to travel to Tokyo for work in the spring of 2011. After the earthquake happened in Japan I wasn't sure if I would travel to Japan, so my travel agent recommended I buy travel insurance in case I needed to cancel my trip. I called Travel Guard and explained that the earthquake had occurredwhich they knewand would they provide insurance in case I ended up cancelling my trip. They said "Yes, we can provide full coverage."

They recommended I buy extra insurance, something called, Cancel For Any Reason, so no matter my reason I would be covered. I followed their advice.

A week before my departure I decided to cancel my trip. I called Travel Guard and asked for their advice. I wanted to know if I should cancel my two tickets, one went from New Mexico to Hawaii, the other from Hawaii to Tokyo. I was planning to use the Hawaii portion of my ticket, to take a vacation with my wife, but cancel the business trip to Tokyo.

Travel Guard specifically told me to just cancel the portion of my trip I was not planning to take and submit only that amount for insurance reimbursement. I did exactly what they advised.

Travel Guard then denied my claim stating, 1) the earthquake occurred prior to my purchasing insurance and they don't provide coverage for events that have already occurred, and 2) my Cancel For Any Reason was denied because I used part of the ticket, which made the rest of the ticket uncovered.

I believe Travel Guard intentionally misled me when they sold the policynever informing me that they could not provide coverage for a prior event, even though I explained my precise reason for buying the policy. Then they misled me when they told me it was okay to cancel just a portion of my trip and claim insurance for the other portion.

The sales people say one thing, the claims department says another. This is a total Rip Offin my case to the tune of over $5,000.