Westjet and Travel Insurance

I mentioned yesterday that we had a bit of an issue with our bags being lost.

So here is the low down. We flew out of Vancouver on a Sunday morning on what they called Black Sunday because 7 cruise ships were coming into port. This meant the airport was going to be a zoo. We did hit the 1st wave of travelers around 8:30 AM, but since most ships dock at 8 AM down town, we weren't too worried.

When booking the trip I opted for travel insurance after an incident a few years ago where we bought insurance for Bill's brother when he came to visit. There was a clause in there that if bags were delayed for 12 hours he had $400 to shop for necessities. His bags were delayed, he went shopping, came home, bags came in, boom, new wardrobe.

Travel insurance also covers things like cancellation due to weather, illness, death,etc... since I work in insurance I tend to make sure we've got approrpiate coverages.

So when we showed up in LV and our bag didn't, we figured it had been caught up with other bags from various cruise ship passengers going who knows where.

We started a claim with with Westjet people at McCarran Airport. Let me say the people there were so friendly and helpful, it was really nice. It was annoying our bag wasn't there, but over the next 3 days they did everything they could to locate our bag, call us with updates and put up with my 3x/day phone calls. I gave a description of the bag and what would be inside. When they located the bag they knew it was ours b/c they took the time to compare our list with what they found.

Among the things inside were books 2 and 3 of Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy, and I had finished book one and I needed book two!! Have you read the Hunger Games? If not, why are you not running to find it right now? Phenomenal. I am 30 pages from the end and am sad it is almost over. Thanks again Colorado Nancy for putting me on to this one. Bill has been enjoying it too.

We got our bags. When we got back to Vancouver I had to clear up the claim with the baggage counter there. Again, super friendly and helpful employee. We were allowed $75 for necessities and a $150 travel credit for the broken bag (the handle had come off, did I mention that?).

So yesterday I go to submit our receipts and I submitted more than $75 but sent a note saying that with a 3 day delayed, these were the neccesities we had needed, and get this -Westjet covered all the receipts I submitted, no arguements.

I really appreciate that despite the annoying inconvenience of this all that they were friendly, helpful, and efficient.

Now I am waiting for my claim forms from RBC for the balance of the claim. What Westjet paid will be deducted from the RBC claim, so it's not like we come out ahead by Westjet paying more, but it's the fact of the matter.

I know we also got travel insurance for Hawaii, but I hope we don't lose anything there going with the kids and all... What's that, you don't know about Hawaii? :)