Travel Reimbursement: Double Standards, Double Standards at Desjardins Insurance

Since the onset of the epidemic, at Desjardins Insurance, airlines have been able to maintain some liquidity by providing credits to their customers, and reimbursements are made randomly.

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This is illustrated by the story of 62-year-old Yves Pronovost and his wife, Collet Dumis Pronovost, who retired as “young” from Chateaugue, near Montreal.

In the fall of 2019, they plan to travel to Cuba with friends for two weeks.

Mr. Pronovost is responsible for managing everything for this quartet. Departure will take place on March 18, 2020.

Five days before departure, they must resign themselves: Quebec will be put on hold and flights will be grounded. The trip was canceled.

“We want to pay it back. We can not make ourselves young anymore. Who knows if we can still travel in the future? We’m still talking about 000 4000 per couple,” Pronovost said.

On the phone, on March 13, a Deszardins insurance spokesman assured him that reimbursement was a formality only.

Only here, they were never repaid, there were other couple.

“This money was paid into their account after 52 days without any problems,” said Yves Pronovost, who requested a reimbursement on behalf of the two couples who came under the same policy.

In his case, his complaint was dismissed 91 days later.

“This is the same bill! It looks like they drew a line in the middle, ”he exclaims. Desjardins Insurance in this case justifies its denial of travel credits granted by the carrier, Air Transat.

“Travel credit provided by the carrier is considered Reimbursement,” said Jean-Benoit Turcotti, spokesman for Desjardins Assurance. Hotel nights at the destination, car rentals or other non-refundable items are eligible for a full refund.

But Yves Pronovost and Collet Dumis Pronovost do not want to know anything about travel credits valid for up to 24 months.

“There is no guarantee that our financial situation, our physical and health conditions will improve in two years,” the 62-year-old pleaded.

He begins the long process of recovering his $ 3,876. Among other things, he asks for the help of a counselor from his Kaisei population.

“If the second couple accepted the complaint, she replied that there was an error and that they did not want to repeat it,” Mr Pronovost explained.

A mistake? Retirees are wondering how many of the thousands of Kubeckers in his situation deserve this “error”.

And, it is impossible to know.

Mr Turcotti replied, “We will not disclose the number of reimbursement requests from March or the acceptance rate against the rejection rate,” qualifying the data as “competitive” and “confidential”.

Yves Pronovost’s complaint led to Desjardins Insurance Dispute Resolution Officer. The authority confirms the refusal to repay on November 23, 2020.

Naturally, there was one against the insurance company against the retired man, which repaid his friends. But he also has one against the federal government, which has refused to come to the aid of airlines, allowing customers like him to get their money back.

“If Bombardier, Aldo, Cirque du Soleil and others are eligible, why not Air Transat?” He asks.