A Canadian mom says she’s out nearly $18,000 following an RBC travel insurance ordeal that has been dragging on for over a year, causing her financial and emotional stress.
Jennifer Strang booked a dream vacation to Europe in April 2022 and planned on visiting several countries with her kids that summer.
The Vancouverite booked the trip using her RBC Avion Travel points. She also upgraded to the RBC Avion Infinite Visa ahead of the trip. She told Daily Hive she got that card because of the insurance coverage.
“[The coverage] was supposed to be amazing,” she said.
Strang departed for her trip in late June 2022. Everything was going smoothly until July 12, when she found out that her flights on the remaining leg of the journey were cancelled due to the Scandinavian Airlines strike in July 2022.
At the time of the cancellation, she was in Athens and was supposed to travel to Oslo, Iceland, then return home to Vancouver.
Strang says she received an email from the airline saying she either had to rebook the flight or cancel it. But since she booked through RBC rewards, they were technically considered her “travel agency,” she told Daily Hive.
“I tried calling RBC and to no avail,” she said, adding that she had been on the phone for hours and needed to catch her next flight in the morning.
Strang thought her RBC Avion Infinite Visa covered her for the cancellations. She called RBC’s insurance provider, Allianz, and got a hold of a representative, who Strang says assured her that she’d be able to file a claim for “$5,000 per person [that was] on the itinerary.”
Jennifer Strang with her two kids during their Europe trip. (Supplied)
“She said that since you’re already in the middle of a tour trip, it is a trip interruption claim that you’re able to claim,” explained Strang.
Since she was flying with her kids, Strang was relieved she would be reimbursed for about $12,000 of travel expenses, including flights for herself, her teens, and accommodations.
Strang says the representative told her that she had started a claim file for her and she just needed to keep all her receipts and file the claim when she returned to Vancouver.
“I was kind of hesitant, and she kept reassuring me. And then, finally, after hours on end, I got off the phone with her. We booked my flight. I had a pre-itinerary booking with the tours; I had everything ready to go,” she told us.
Strang said she rebooked everything using her credit line.
Daily Hive reviewed the phone transcript between Strang and the Allianz representative, confirming that Strang was told she could file a claim when she returned from her trip.
Strang continued her vacation, and when she returned home, she filed the claim according to the Allianz representative’s instructions.
An exhausting travel insurance ordeal with RBC
Finally, in January 2023, Strang received a letter from RBC Insurance Company of Canada, and its reply was not what she had expected.
Strang was informed that her claim was invalid and that she would receive $0 for the cancelled flights and bookings.
What ensued was an exhausting series of back-and-forth correspondence with RBC and Allianz. After over a year of trying to receive compensation for the claim, the vacationer has not had any luck.
Instead, she has been left confused, frustrated and stressed that an Allianz representative told her that she could be compensated for the cancellation caused by the strike.
Strang also alleges the representative pulled up the part of the policy that said her case was a “flight interruption,” which could be claimed.
She was determined to get answers and filed another claim through Allianz, but it was denied.
She then complained again through RBC and spoke to Customer Care and the RBC Ombudsman.
“So this is like the fifth or sixth time, and then they came back saying regrettably, ‘Sorry, we’re still sticking to [our] guns.'”
“Laughable” compensation
Strang said the only initial compensation RBC offered her was 35,000 Avion points, but she used around 200,000 to book her trip.
She said they also proposed another “laughable” form of compensation by offering to convert her remaining points to cash value to pay for the flights.
Strang says the whole situation has been “mentally exhausting.”
“I’m a very strong person… I’ve been dealing with this since July last year… At this point, I’m so exhausted … I’m on my own on this one.”
Jennifer Strang with her daughter travelling in Europe. (Supplied)
After months of trying to get answers, Strang estimates the whole ordeal has cost her nearly $18,000, which includes getting professional advice on how to move forward with RBC, as well the accumulation of interest on her line of credit, and the original cost of rebooking her flights and accommodations.
But she isn’t ready to give up her fight yet.
In November, Allianz said it would settle with Strang as an “exception/goodwill gesture” and offered her $9,380.91 after acknowledging its representative provided “misleading information” during their initial call in the summer of 2022.
But Strang isn’t satisfied with the amount.
“Again… I am still out of pocket expenses and stress if it weren’t for their ‘miscommunication’ and misinformed me in the first place and that it’s not an exception or goodwill,” she said.
Daily Hive has contacted Allianz and RBC multiple times regarding Strang’s case but received no answers to our questions.
RBC said Allianz is now working on Strang’s case.
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