Luxury Escapes issues with cancellation/insurance

[Daver6]

Gang,

Sharing this post with permission that my neighbour made. Any thoughts on a course of action here? It looks like the insurance they push is a total scam.


Friends and colleagues, just wanted to share the recent experience we had with trying to get a refund on a paid hotel booking we made with Luxury Escapes ... its a tale of woe

We've used them before to book a holiday in Koh Samui a few years back. all went smoothly, no dramas.

We recently booked a hotel in Bali for APRIL 2027 and took ou travel insurance with their recommended company, XCover.

Luxury Escapes ... Well here's your unforseen reason ... a Grade 4 Glioblastoma brain tumour, the most aggressive kind. Diagnosed 8 weeks ago.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy begin in earnest and somewhere in the blur of having to pivot to sell our family home and find somewhere to live, i remember that i'll need to contact Luxury Escapes to begin the process of a full refund.

Thats a very short call. The only way to process a refund via the Travel Insurance is to do that via XCover. Luxury Escapes has nothing to do with that side of things. It's becoming clear that they sell the holidays but instantly push you at the insurance company should anything go wrong.

Completing the insurance claim form is maddening beyond words. the entire Xover site is AI Agents who cant give you the information you need and can't or won't connect you to an actual human to try and sort out. we try multiple times to upload the claim and supporting documentation but don't actually know if it happened.
out of desperation late one night I follow Luxury Escapes pn Insta and explain my situation in a long message, along with a plea for help - at this stage weve been surviving on savings for6 weeks. its getting a bit ugly.

next morning no response but weirdly when i ppen my laptop, its on the Luxury Escapes24/7 helpline.a combination of passive aggressive persistence and belligerence FINALLY connects me with a real human. she expresses her sorrow at my condition and will do whatever can be done to hurry along the refund process.
jump two weeks ahead with radio silence and ive had enough.

A bit of research throws up a local Melbourne number for International Luxury Escapes travellers to contact in case of emergency. after a 45 minute wait, i finally get to explain my updated situation. i'm told again that- Luxury Escapes don't deal in refunds, only the third party travel insurance company whose policies theyre happy to recommend and sell.

im also told the most likely outcome will be a part or FULL CREDIT of the booking, my brain melts. what use would a $3300 hotel credit be to me if im dead? i impolitely ask.

i try one last time to appeal to Luxury Escapes compassion and empathy as a highly successful Australian company. yes, i see you, @AdamJSchwab

Here's the thing - i ran a business in film and TV for many, many years and absolutely know that i could use my discretion to charge clients less than my rate card if they were say working on their first major project, it was a low budget indie film, etc. Most people in our industry do this because its really important to mentor and support younger filmmakers, but also pay it forward.

so i know that Luxury Escapes could make an exception and pay my refund out of their own pocket but theyre happy instead to abandon me to a faceless insurance company where I'll likely end up with not a cent.

is this really the way you want Luxury Escapes to be known for, @Adam Schwab? seems like a pretty bad look. Unaustralian, even

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think that’s right, unfortunately.

The hotel is either non refundable, or, per the LE terms and conditions, they give you a credit.

This has been discussed in the dedicated LE thread here on AFF (my warning to carefully consider booking LE because of their cancellation conditions).

If a full refund is being requested, it would be for the insurance company to process that. It would indeed be a separate party and transaction to LE.

It’s no different than Qantas selling insurance. If you suffer an insurance event and lose your airfare or points, Qantas doesn’t personally refund you, the insurance company does. (Qantas may refund part of the fare per the fare rules, but any shortfall would be up to insurance).

It is frustrating here that there’s a lack of ability to speak to an operator in person, That’s seems poor form, and thankfully most insurance companies have live agents who are pretty good.

The other thing regarding the insurance company saying a partial or full credit is likely… well that comes down to the PDS. Your friend needs to read the PDS and see what the benefit is. Looking at the blurb on the LE website it says you are entitled to a full refund for cancelled bookings. So I’d be getting so,e comfort from that.

This all sounds very unfair, and a terrible situation for your friend. But chasing up LE is not necessarily the right path. I would try and take a step back and focus on the insurance company. After having read the PDS in detail.

 

[drron]

I had to cancel our trip to see the Edinburgh tattoo. We booked the whole shabang, Royal enclosure, pre show dinner and coughtail party afterwards. a couple of thousand pounds so we took their recommended insurance. You guessed it Xcover. It w.as horrendous trying to lodge the claim online. The process would default to a restart. tried to tell me my bank' s BSB and my account number were invalid..
And a sneaky little trick about half way through where they had a submit button a long way down. Thank goodness my computer did one of it's tricks and automatically went to the bottom of the page.
After that it got a bit easier and finally got a full refund.

They do get lots of complaints.

Google Search

The one thing the Tattoo did was to tell me to activate my cover as soon as I got it. Read complaints from some who took a while to activate their cover and had claims denied.

 

[Happy Dude]

What a lousy situation. Just checking that TI needs to get involved because the LE package could not be cancelled, or that the cancellation is being passed to a company who also sold your neighbour a TI policy?

I recall that at least one of the LE deals I've bought had free cancellation right up to about a week before. That's a decent selling point. I could be wrong but I don't think I paid extra for that 'feature' because I'm a tightar$e. But I've never had cause to find out how cancellation is handled.

If it's the latter and LE has washed their hands of it and thrust them into that runaround muck, then absolutely how could anyone use LE (again, in my case), or any other mob that might do the same.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What a lousy situation. Just checking that TI needs to get involved because the LE package could not be cancelled, or that the cancellation is being passed to a company who also sold your neighbour a TI policy?

I recall that at least one of the LE deals I've bought had free cancellation right up to about a week before. That's a decent selling point. I could be wrong but I don't think I paid extra for that 'feature' because I'm a tightar$e. But I've never had cause to find out how cancellation is handled.

If it's the latter and LE has washed their hands of it and thrust them into that runaround muck, then absolutely how could anyone use LE (again, in my case), or any other mob that might do the same.

I haven’t come across a LE package with free cancellation until a week before departure! Most of them give free cancellation within 24 hours. Or a full refund to credit voucher.

Even though you could book the same package direct with the hotel for an actual free cancellation. (Although to be fair, some LE packages do have extras such as free breakfast… but the non-ref bit is something to watch out for.)

 

[Happy Dude]

I haven’t come across a LE package with free cancellation until a week before departure! Most of them give free cancellation within 24 hours. Or a full refund to credit voucher.

Even though you could book the same package direct with the hotel for an actual free cancellation. (Although to be fair, some LE packages do have extras such as free breakfast… but the non-ref bit is something to watch out for.)

Okee doke. Yep, it's a week after booking, not a week prior to the start, according to my last booking in 2023. I booked a VA Hopper one recently that (the hotel) is refundable up to 48hrs out, but I had that in my head as week too. Thought LE was or would be the same. And the LE one says refund to credit after a week from booking up to 3 weeks out, after that - nowt.

 

[Daver6]

LE are saying don't talk to us, talk to the insurance company. Except you can't talk to the insurance company. All the insurance company is offering is a credit it seems.

I'm trying to get my hands on the PDS.

In comparison they also had a non-refundable booking at the Mantra in Sydney for Jan worth over $6k. After explaining their situation the hotel gave them a full refund when they didn't have to.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

LE are saying don't talk to us, talk to the insurance company. Except you can't talk to the insurance company. All the insurance company is offering is a credit it seems.

I'm trying to get my hands on the PDS.

In comparison they also had a non-refundable booking at the Mantra in Sydney for Jan worth over $6k. After explaining their situation the hotel gave them a full refund when they didn't have to.

The PDS is available on line, and you can access it via the LE website.

Is it possible your friend misheard, and insurance company said LE will offer a credit, not that the credit is the only option? Ie, the insurance company might have been suggesting a credit as a simple way forward, without understanding the full complications.

The brief summary for XCover on the LE page says you get a full refund on your bookings if you take out their insurance… so I’d be taking some comfort in that, and using that as a starting point.