American Express Travel Insurance is useless!

Plushchris

Hi, I'd just like to let everyone here know what happened on our trip to Austria a couple of weeks ago.

To cut a long story short my OH fell over on the stairs while carrying a tray of drinks up to our room. She had quite a nasty cut on her leg that wouldnt stop bleeding, the bathroom in the hotel looked like a scene from Psycho! While she laid on the floor with it elevated and I kept pressure on it etc. we were trying to decide what to do as regards hospital/doctor that sort of thing, we tried the hotel reception but at this stage it was about 1:30am and the bar/reception was closed. I suggested phoning the American Express travel insurance 24 hour "helpline"

My sister in law phoned them and was told that it would take 20 mins to "open a file" on their system in order for them to help us! :mad:

Meanwhile my OH is laying on the floor bleeding and being told it would take 20 mins before they would even help us, it wasnt like we were phoning to make a claim we just wanted some help such as the number of the local hospital etc.

I thought this was not only poor service but could also be dangerous if not life threatening.

Now luckily we got the bleeding to stop and managed to patch the wound up so she didnt need to go to hospital but we didnt know that when we phoned for help and how were they to know that in that 20 mins it would take to "open a file" she wouldnt have bled to death?

It made me very angry at the time to think that if it really had been a case of life or death then that 20mins could have made all the difference!

Since getting home we have complained to American express but they just seem to have brushed it off because we didnt make a claim. We are now having to provide them with a copy of the phone bill to prove we even made the call!! :mad:

I would NEVER use American Express again and certainly wouldnt recommend them to anyone.

simongregson

Why did you not just phone an ambulance?

Plushchris

simongregson wrote: »

Why did you not just phone an ambulance?

Because at the time we didnt think it warrented phoning an ambulance as although it was bleeding quite a lot it didnt seem that bad, I must mention that my OH is a qualified first aider and she was insisting that it wasnt worth an ambulance. Hence wanting some help from what we thought was a "helpline"

Plus, I wouldnt have had a clue what number to call for an ambulance in Austria.

Voyager2002

In that situation I would have woken the hotel staff.

IvanOpinion

I must admit if it had been DW lying there bleeding the insurance company would be the last people I would be thinking about phoning. I would have gone straight to reception (no matter what the time was) and got them to sort out an ambulance then it would be straight to hospital ... I would worry about the insurance later.

[EDIT] Sorry just read your second response ... I am also a first aider (although use of the word 'qualified' is probably over stating my abilities). If she didn't think that it was worth contacting a hospital then why contact insurance .. surely an insurance helpline is about help in making claims not help in making medical decisions (maybe I am wrong, never needed to use one)

Ivan

LittleTinker

If it really was a matter of life or death ....the last people you would phone is the insurance company isnt it? So your arguement looks a bit petty minded.

Voyager2002

Many travel insurance policies include, as an extra benefit, an international helpline. The promise is that by calling this number you will be put in touch with an English-speaking doctor, lawyer or whatever, and will have access to basic advice on how to cope with an emergency in whichever country you are visiting. This service is provided by a specialist company and is simply made available to people with certain insurance products: it is not provided by the insurers themselves.

The moral of this story might be that this specialist service is not as good as it ought to be. However, it is possible that the OP actually dialled American Express themselves, rather than the emergency assistance number, and got someone who thought that he was making a claim.

Plushchris

LittleTinker wrote: »

If it really was a matter of life or death ....the last people you would phone is the insurance company isnt it? So your arguement looks a bit petty minded.

Ok first of all as I said in my post it WASNT a matter of life or death but the woman on the end of the phone didnt know how bad the situation was did she?

Also as Voyager2002 said above this is an International "helpline" that says they would help out in case of emergency, the hotel reception was closed and we couldnt seem to find any staff (not that I would want to be wandering around a hotel looking for someone while my OH is on the floor bleeding.)

The number we called was the for the helpline not the claims line but they still insisted on opening a file before they would offer any help.

It hardly seems petty minded to me to expect a "Helpline" to provide you with some help.

As I said before, all we wanted was some help like the number for the nearest hospital or the nearest doctors etc. but they wouldnt give out any information unntil they had opened a file which to me seem completely ridiculous.

Voyager2002

Plushchris wrote: »

Ok first of all as I said in my post it WASNT a matter of life or death but the woman on the end of the phone didnt know how bad the situation was did she?

Also as Voyager2002 said above this is an International "helpline" that says they would help out in case of emergency, the hotel reception was closed and we couldnt seem to find any staff (not that I would want to be wandering around a hotel looking for someone while my OH is on the floor bleeding.)

The number we called was the for the helpline not the claims line but they still insisted on opening a file before they would offer any help.

It hardly seems petty minded to me to expect a "Helpline" to provide you with some help.

As I said before, all we wanted was some help like the number for the nearest hospital or the nearest doctors etc. but they wouldnt give out any information unntil they had opened a file which to me seem completely ridiculous.

I think you should send a polite letter of complaint to American Express about your experience. Since this helpline is provided by a separate company, and AmEx is presumably paying for it, I would expect them to be very interested in the level of service that their fees buy (or fail to buy) for their valued customers.