Trip Info:
Dec 24th – Dec 27th 2015
No air travel involved.
Hotel Booked with Best Western at Big Bear for 3 nights which had a min of 2 nights stay.
Why we had to file the Trip Cancellation Claim?
On the day of travel our toddler had symptoms of high temperature & we decided not to travel which was a sensible decision at the point.
What did the hotel charge us?
The hotel considered us a no show & charged us for two nights. Being the Christmas weekend the price was already high & paying for a hotel stay for not being there hurt us a bit.
I did book the room where I could have cancelled 24hr prior of arrival but just not on the day of arrival.
We thought @Citi would help out! (Bummer – not really)
I realized that I had made the booking with Citi Thankyou Premier card & I remembered this citi card had some sort of Trip Cancellation service
Road to Coverage Denial
Logged into the citicards website & looked up benefits section for Citi Thankyou Premier card.
Got carried away with info provided here & decided to send in the claim form without reading & making sense of finer details. Sent in the Claim form on 12/28/2015.
Received the first response from Citi on 12/29/2015 & responded to the email within a couple of hours. There was no mention of Hotel info in this series of question. Everything was related to travel.
Received another Claim form & few more questions from IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company on 12/30/2015. Responded to this email on 01/06/2016. Delay response was because I kept wondering whether I should go forward with this process or not. Somewhere I knew this isn’t going to workout.
Final denial email from AMPIDS Property Casualty Insurance Company on 01/12/2016
Even though I knew this isn’t going to work after the first email, Citi gave me a glimpse of optimism by going forward with the full claim process. Appreciate the sincerity & timely response from Citi but I think it would have been better if they have cut to the chase right after the response to the first email questions. Bummer but at least now I know that I cannot rely on Trip Cancellation benefit from Citi for Hotel Cancellation.
This is not aimed to find fault at Citi but just a data point for users who assume Citi Trip Cancellation covers hotel as well.
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About The Author
Points Enthusiast
Full Time RF Electronics Engineer with a passion for Travel & Sports. Currently live in San Diego,CA. Both my dear wife & our lovely toddler boy love outdoor activities. As a family we plan to have fun & explore the world through Points/Miles & loyalty programs. :)
