What to know before traveling

They purchased travel insurance for both trips because, as Milda put it, “it seemed prudent for anyone in their golden years.”

Travel insurance may be prudent, but it is also expensive — about 10 percent of the trip cost for Milda and Leo’s Mediterranean trip. And it can be maddeningly confusing when making a claim, as the couple found out after a medical issue forced them to cancel.

Milda and Leo made their claim well in advance of the trip’s departure date to qualify them for a full cash refund. But Viking imposed a $3,800 cancellation penalty nevertheless because Milda mistakenly canceled with Viking’s insurer, not Viking, and that put the cancellation a few days past the full-refund date.

Really? A $3,800 hit for a good-faith bookkeeping mistake by a repeat customer in her 80s?

When he finally got a Viking manager on the phone to make his case for waiving the penalty, Leo got nowhere.

“The Viking manager was adamant there was nothing they could do,” Leo said. “It was: ‘tough luck.’ And then silence.”

Viking’s attitude changed after I got involved. And it wasn’t only Viking. Trip Mate, Viking’s insurer, told me it should have done more to help Milda and Leo.

The couple admittedly did not read the umpteen pages of fine print on their insurance policy and didn’t actually understand the full extent of its coverage. And apparently no one from Viking or Trip Mate offered a guiding hand, which wound up costing the couple a lot of unnecessary time and aggravation.

In the end, Milda and Leo got a full refund, which is exactly what Viking and Trip Mate owed them under the terms of their confusing insurance policy. Plus, Viking wound up giving the couple $500 in travel vouchers as a sort of makeup gift.

Here’s what happened:

Milda and Leo, who live in Danvers, paid $1,900 for what Viking calls its “Trip Protection Plan” on a trip that cost $19,000 (using round numbers). They basically checked a box requesting insurance when running down a list of trip options such as what kind of room they wanted, Milda said.

On its website, Viking touts its Trip Protection Plan as a “cancel for any reason” policy. It says the plan, while offered by Viking, is administered by Trip Mate and covers “unforeseeable circumstances that may arise before or during your trip.”

I suspect few travelers understand there’s actually two different components in Viking’s Trip Protection Plan (and other plans): trip protection and trip insurance. If you are considering travel insurance it behooves you to know how each works.

Trip protection protects the money you prepay for your trip (most travel companies require full upfront payment, not just a fractional deposit). It’s standard practice in the travel industry that when you cancel your trip close to the date of departure you forfeit some or all of your upfront payment in so-called cancellation penalties — the closer you are to the date, the more money you forfeit.

For Milda and Leo’s trip, Viking had established a sliding scale of cancellation penalties. It would impose no penalty on anyone canceling four months or more in advance of departure and a 100 percent penalty on anyone canceling less than 30 days of departure. In between those two extremes, Viking would impose a penalty ranging from 20 percent of the prepaid amount to 80 percent, depending on how close the cancellation came to the departure date.

But would-be travelers can insure against such cancellation penalties by purchasing Viking’s Trip Protection. Let’s say your cancellation date triggers a 20 percent cancellation penalty on a $19,000 trip, as in the example of Milda and Leo. That’s a $3,800 loss in cash. But anyone who purchased Viking’s Trip Protection would be covered for that loss — but in future travel credits with Viking (a.k.a., “travel vouchers,”) not cash. That means you can “cancel for any reason,” as Viking touts on its website, but you get travel credits to cover a cancellation penalty, which are a lot less valuable than cash.

Trip insurance, by contrast, typically covers losses you may incur while traveling, like emergency medical or dental expenses or lost, damaged, or stolen baggage or personal items.

The Trip Protection Plan offered by Viking bundles the two types of protection together for one price and makes Viking responsible for trip protection and Trip Mate for trip insurance. What’s confusing is that Trip Mate’s trip insurance also provides a measure of trip protection, though it differs from Viking’s in that it provides cash refunds, not vouchers, and restricts coverage to only certain “covered events,” such as illness or injury that prevents travel (backed by a doctor’s letter).

The bottom line is that Milda and Leo were eligible for a full cash refund, even without Viking giving them a break for misunderstanding how to cancel. Viking should have refunded 80 percent (based on the date of cancellation) and Trip Mate 20 percent (based on Milda’s medical issue being a covered event). But no one took the time to explain that to them and the fine print posted online is mostly difficult to understand legalese. The couple first learned of the extent of their coverage from me. And it wasn’t easy for me to figure it out.

It was May when Milda’s doctor told her to cancel because of a cardiac issue. Believing she had “cancel for any reason” insurance, Milda searched the Viking website for instructions on how to cancel, but did not find them. So, she went directly to Trip Mate, which she considered an interchangeable and equal partner with Viking on her insurance.

A Trip Mate customer service representative gave her instructions on filing a claim online, which Milda did, including uploading medical records.

But the Trip Mate representative missed an opportunity to spare Milda and Leo a big headache. The rep should have realized the couple on that date was entitled to a no-penalty refund from Viking based on early cancellation. The rep should have said: Don’t file a claim with us — file with Viking, and here’s how to do it.

But no such discussion took place. Instead, Milda awaited her refund, thinking she had properly filed her claim.

“I thought by canceling with Trip Mate I was canceling with Viking,” Milda told me.

But 18 days after filing with Trip Mate Milda received a letter from the insurer saying it had discovered Milda’s trip hadn’t actually been canceled with Viking, and that filing a claim with Trip Mate wasn’t the same as canceling with Viking.

A day after getting the letter, Milda contacted Viking. But it was now too late for a no-penalty refund, she was told. Between the time of her filing with Trip Mate and the time she contacted Viking the number of days before her trip departure date had dropped from 132 to 114, meaning she was past the no-penalty period by six days, a $3,800 goof.

At that point, Viking could have said “close enough” and given her a full refund, which is what Leo argued to the Viking manager. But it also could have — and should have — explained that she would wind up with a full cash refund anyway, because Trip Mate’s policy would kick in to cover Viking’s 20 percent cancellation penalty.

But no such discussion occurred. And Milda and Leo were left thinking they were losing thousands of dollars.

After I got involved, Viking imposed its $3,800 cancellation penalty, but Trip Mate agreed it would cover that amount, much to the relief of Milda and Leo.

If you are considering travel insurance, ask questions. Am I getting trip protection or trip insurance or both? What happens if I cancel my trip before departure? Do I get cash or travel credits? Does the reason I cancel matter? What’s my coverage while I’m on my trip? Who are the responsible parties? How do I cancel and how do I file a claim?

Lots of questions to ask. Make sure you know what you’re getting.

Got a problem? Send your consumer issue to [email protected]. Follow him @spmurphyboston.