After researching many travel insurance companies I chose CSA Freestyle because of its apparent comprehensive coverage. I paid $998 to buy a policy that I thought covered, among other things, Trip Interruption, to reimburse me if I had to return early. I had purchased airline tickets online from CheapOAir to get from my home to California, then from California to Tokyo. From Tokyo to Okinawa. Okinawa to Bangkok. Then from Hanoi, Vietnam to my home in Virginia. From Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam we had purchased a travel package from Gate 1 travel. I purposely did not purchase airline ticket coverage from CheapOAir because I thought this CSA policy covered that. On the page that describes their coverage, under Trip Interruption, it states: "Provides reimbursement for unused, non-refundable pre-paid trip expenses if your trip is interrupted due to a covered reason. Also provides reimbursement for the additional transportation cost to return home or join your group." Our trip was interrupted in Okinawa due to the death of my mother-in-law. I filed a claim and sent in all the required documentation including the cost of the airfare from Okinawa to Bangkok ($4468.52) and from Hanoi, Vietnam to my home ($2155.48). CSA reimbursed me for the unused Gate 1 land package and the transportation to return home from Okinawa. They would not reimburse for the unused/pre-paid/non-reimbursable airline tickets from Okinawa to Bangkok and from Hanoi, Vietnam to my home because, as they pointed out in their letter to me: "There are no provisions in the policy that allows payment for unused airline tickets." And, indeed, after looking at the policy, the wording is: "... We will reimburse you, less any refund paid or payable, for unused land or water arrangements.." I read the policy when I received and thought I understood it. It did not occur to me that the airline tickets were not covered because their advertising clearly says that Trip Interruption provides "reimbursement for unused, non-refundable pre-paid trip expenses...". It seems this would be an appropriate place to add, ".. With the exception of airline tickets...". So I paid for $4468.52 in airline tickets that I could not use but due to the extremely misleading advertising of CSA Travel Insurance I cannot receive reimbursement from them. I would absolutely never buy travel insurance from CSA again and would tell anyone who contemplates buying from them to reconsider. You are pretty much at their mercy unless you go to the additional expense of hiring an attorney to examine their policy BEFORE you buy it!
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