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A positive experience with trip insurance—-John Hancock

Posted by (Seattle, WA) on

We have seen so many questions about trip insurance, and a few reports of denied claims or long delays, I thought I would post our positive experience with this company.

We should be in the UK right now, but had to cancel our trip when my husband came down with a painful case of shingles 6 days before the flight. Everything was refundable (flights and hotels) except our prepaid guided walking holiday in the Peak District with HF Holidays. We were so close to the date that the cancellation penalty was 90% of the cost (over $1000). Fortunately, I had insured the full amount of that holiday, choosing the John Hancock Silver package via Squaremouth.

I filed our claim online on April 15. It was quick and easy to fill out the web form and upload the supporting documents. They acknowledged right away, and 2 days later emailed to ask for copies of the credit card statements showing the charges for initial deposit and final payment, which I provided right away. They also sent their own form for the Physician Statement that we needed to get signed. My husband dropped that off at the doctor’s office on April 18 when he had a follow-up appointment. The office called on Tuesday the 23rd to say it was ready to be picked up. I uploaded it into our file that day.

On Thursday the 25th I checked online to make sure everything was complete, and the webpage said “closed” and “unpaid”. I was stunned and called the claims team to ask what that meant—-was it denied? A very nice gentleman said no, the file had advanced to the “review” level and I should hear back by email “soon”. I said I was concerned about the amount they listed on the claim page as it was wrong—-too high—-and I wanted to correct that. The guy said he could not transfer my call to the “next level” but I could email them. So I did, that day.

On Monday April 29, 2 weeks after filing the claim online, I awoke to a nice personal email (not a form letter) thanking me for clarifying the amount of our claim, and telling me that “the check is in the mail”, having been sent out the previous Friday.

I will be looking to John Hancock again the next time we need trip insurance. I have always liked the name . . . .

Posted by
23626 posts

Curious -- what was the premium and total amount covered?

Posted by
1583 posts

Thanks Lola. Great info to have. And I hope your husband recovers soon.

Posted by
14709 posts

Thanks for the update and yuck on the shingles. I hope he is better soon and does not have any after effects. Sorry you are missing your trip!

Posted by
2679 posts

Lola - thanks for the information - always good to know! You are not alone - we’ve also had to cancel our trip - we were going to be in London at the same time as you and now we find ourselves in Seattle for the foreseeable future!

Posted by
17417 posts

Valerie—-I am sorry to learn you are also missing a trip to London. I hope whatever situation caused you to cancel resolves so you can travel agin before too long.

EC—-We have actually both been vaccinated with the Shingrex vaccine. In adults over 70 (he is 80) it is not 100% effective; more like 91%. It did shorten the course, though, as he is fine now.

Frank—-the amount covered was $1360 but I included all the dates of the trip (2 weeks) so we would have good medical and evacuation coverage. At our age, that is not cheap. The cost was $205, which is 15% of the cost insured; higher than I like, but that was due to the number of days we had to cover.

I will add that we have also had a successful claim paid quickly and easily by Berkshire-Hathaway, when he tore his hamstring last June. But that was for a trip to Banff. I have only had B-H offered as an option through InsuremyTrip or Squaremouth when our destination was within North America.

Posted by
26 posts

I have been struggling with a claim with this company since August. i wish I could say I had a better experience. They never acknowledge anything I send them, just keep sending me form letters with a list of required documents, even after I've submitted the documents. The last time they updated the list on the website was Sept. 5th - despite my having sent them many requested documents since then.

Posted by
1 posts

Our claim with the John Hancock Silver plan has been arduous. Delta canceled our overseas flight and we filed a claim for our missed first night of VRBO ($172). JH uses Sedgwickclaims.com. Sedgwick required: 1) VRBO cancellation policy, 2) VRBO receipt, 3) credit card statements for VRBO initial and final payments, 4) Delta proof of cancellation, 5) credit card statement for the Delta tickets, 6) passport copies, 7) initial online claim, 8) additional claim form. It has taken hours to locate, redact and submit this information. The claim was submitted more than a month ago. This morning, we received an email stating that we had not sent one of the above documents - despite having a record of it having been emailed. We chose Crump and Foster for our 2025 trip.

Posted by
3287 posts

Hey Deedee, I think any insurance company is going to require submission of those supporting documents as proof of the valid basis of the claim, and the exact amount of loss. .They need to know what the VRBO cancellation policy actually said, and they need proof of the amount you actually paid for the lodging — so the credit card statement is the only proof. And they want it all in their format with their form. I know it seems burdensome, but they need proof.

I don’t get the need for your passport, but that should have been pretty easy.

Bottom line is you can’t just fill out the claim form and be done with it. To avoid false or inflated claims, they need written proof of each aspect of your claim.

Not defending insurance companies, just stating what you need do for a successful claim.

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