Delta, American Airlines Class Action Says Travel insurance is Worthless

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

American Airlines and Delta, along with several insurance companies, have been hit with a class action alleging they sold travel insurance that was essentially worthless.

Lead plaintiff Leslie Davis alleges in her class action lawsuit that the airlines duped residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico into purchasing travel insurance plans through Allianz Travel Insurance.

However, Davis says the airlines and insurance carrier had no intention of honoring the insurance plans for residents of the U.S. territories, making them worthless.

“Insurance Defendants purport to sell, issue, and underwrite Allianz Travel Insurance Plans that indemnify customers for an array of losses associated with air travel, including reimbursements for covered trip cancellations and unexpected travel delay expenses, emergency medical and dental treatment, and reimbursement for baggage delay and baggage loss,” the Delta lawsuit states.

The class action lawsuit alleges that both Delta and American Airlines aggressively marketed Allianz Travel Insurance to her and other residents of the U.S. territories because of the high cost of air travel from the region.

“Allianz Travel Insurance Plans are invalid for those customers that are residents of the Territories,” says the plaintiff in her complaint. “In fact, neither Allianz nor Jefferson are even licensed to conduct business in the Territories. As a result, Insurance Defendants are never at risk of having to cover any travel perils associated with these plans.”

According to the American Airlines class action lawsuit, when residents of the U.S. territories purchase flight tickets online through Delta or American, they are offered the option to purchase travel insurance. But, says the plaintiff, the purchase process does not inform the traveler that the insurance is not valid for them to use to travel to and from the U.S. territories at any point during the transaction. The plaintiff says that she paid $31.54 for a Allianz Travel Insurance plan that was not valid for her to use.

The plaintiff seeks to represent all residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico who purchased Allianz Travel Insurance through Delta or American Airlines. The plaintiff accuses the airlines and insurance carriers of misrepresenting and concealing material information about the travel plans they sold.

The airlines and insurance carriers violated Virgin Island consumer protection and business laws and were also unjustly enriched using the allegedly deceptive marketing practices to shill useless travel insurance, contends the Delta, American Airlines class action lawsuit.

The plaintiff is seeking punitive as well as actual damages.

Davis is represented by J. Russell B. Pate of The Pate Law Firm; Korey A. Nelson, Lydia A. Wright, Warren T. Burns, and Daniel H. Charest of Burns Charest LLP.

The Delta, American Airlines Travel Insurance Class Action Lawsuit is Davis v. AGA Service Company, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-00050-WAL-GWC, in the District Court of the Virgin Islands Division of St. Croix.