Some travellers are questioning why they are still paying for travel insurance when the Canada-U.S. border remains closed to all non-essential travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gail Bourne travels to the United States at least twice a year. The Vancouver resident says she bought an annual travel insurance policy with BCAA for $845.21 for coverage between Nov. 9, 2019 and Nov. 9, 2020. However, when the borders shut down this past March, her travel plans were put on hold.
“I just thought it was unfair that I’m paying for something I can’t do,” Bourne said.
Bourne has been a BCAA member for 51 years. She says she reached out to BCAA to cancel her insurance or at least extend her current policy but says she was initially denied.
“I felt slighted. I had been a faithful customer for all these years and they wouldn’t do anything for me,” she said.
Consumer Matters reached out to BCAA on Bourne’s behalf. BCAA told Global News under normal circumstances once a customer uses their annual policy to travel there is no refund, but also acknowledged these are not normal times and states it’s looking at these situations on a case-by-case basis.
Bourne says within days of Consumer Matters reaching out, BCAA agreed to give her a partial refund of more than $400 with her policy still in effect until November 2020.
“If it wasn’t for you at Consumer Matters I probably would not have gotten anything. Well, I wasn’t getting anything until you guys stepped in and helped me out and it makes me happy.”
