First of all, I would say that I hope everyone including insurance company would agree that no one takes a travel insurance policy that they would have to take a claim. I have traveled multiple times but never taken a claim. But
this month in August my wife and small kid 2.5 year old were traveling to South Korea. The policy looked very good covering all possible cases in travel and I was very happy to take it. Apart from normal mediclaim of$100, 000, it included delayed flight, missed connection, delayed baggage, lost baggage etc.
Now my wife and kid had a flight from Delhi to China and then China to South Korea. Her flight from Delhi to China got very late as the flight coming to Delhi was very late. Now as the flight left late so my wife and kid missed the connecting flight. It didnt end there after fighting with the airline somehow they managed to take other flight to South Korea. Now their baggage didnt arrive. I reported the claim immediately to Bharati. They simply rejected delayed flight and missed connection as the flight coming to Delhi was late so they cannot process the delayed flight claim. Now for the missed connection, they cannot process the claim as flight from Delhi left late so they do not have control. I have a simple question for them, do we as passengers have control. That is the primary reason for taking the insurance. Can I fly the plane of airlines behalf to make sure that flight reaches Delhi on time and then leaves on time too. The insurance company has no answers but I couldnt do anything with the idiots. Lastly coming to delayed baggage, they registered the claim. Now I learnt that we need actual bills for the claim for the essential items that we had to purchase. Obviously travelling with the small kid, we were in more trouble. We were fighting with Airlines to check where our luggage is but learnt that it will take at least 1 more day to arrive. We did all the shopping etc.
After coming back, I shared all the claim form, airlines baggage lost report, bills and passport stamps everything that they need but every other day they come up with a new item. They are looking for baggage tag now. Honestly I dont have it now but why is it really required as I have signed letter from airlines that they misplaced my baggage and it also has the baggage code. After fighting with them for 15days now, I have given up. The total claim that I can have is only$100 out of which only$18 they are considering as essential and fighting for$18 seems to be a waste of time.
If Bharati was really honest, they should have said that we understand your situation as you were travelling with a small kid and understand that the inconvenience caused to you cannot really be compensated by money but as per our policy, we would still do our bit. And believe me in a new country where language is an issue, we wasted almost 1 complete day of vacation in just arranging for luggage. It was very difficult to even purchase the required stuff due to langauge and need to search for it. We spend more than$20 in taxi and$15 on phone following up for our luggage. And then after taking this insurance wasted more of energy and time.
I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND BHARTI FOR TRAVEL INSURANCE. In fact I would not recommend Bharati in any domain as the management and their policies will be same everywhere i.e take premium for insurance policy but never give claims.