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Collinson Insurance Services Ltd Reg. No. 00758979 Registered in England & Wales Registered Office: 5th Floor, 3 More London Riverside, London SE1 2AQ Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority - registration number 311883

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About AXA Partners USA

Welcome to axa travel insurance.

As part of the AXA Group, we are a global leader in insurance and financial protection. With a presence in over 30 countries across 5 continents and over 20 years of experience, we are committed to providing our customers with reliable and comprehensive coverage no matter where their travels take them. Our travel insurance plans are designed to give you peace of mind and protection during your journeys. We offer a wide range of coverage options, including medical expenses, trip cancellation and interruption, baggage protection, Schengen Travel Insurance, Pre-Existing Medical Conditions, and more! One of the key features of our policies is our extensive healthcare provider network. We partner with over 1 million healthcare providers worldwide, ensuring that our customers have access to quality medical care no matter where they are. In addition to our healthcare provider network, we also have a global assistance network that provides 24/7 support and assistance in case of an emergency. Our team of multilingual licensed travel insurance advisors are always available to help you with any questions or concerns you may have, and we are dedicated to ensuring that our customers have the best possible experience with us. At AXA Travel Insurance, we believe in providing transparent and easy-to-understand policies. We want our customers to feel confident in their coverage and understand exactly what is included in their policy. Our focus is always to provide you, our customer, with a compassionate and efficient service anywhere in the world. Speak with our team of licensed travel insurance advisors to help you choose the right travel package for your trip.

Call us at 855-327-1441 . Monday to Saturday 8AM – 7PM CST. Or Click here to receive a free quote within minutes.

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Columbus Direct   Reviews

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Reviews 3.1.

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Awful claim handling

Quick to take your money - but claims are met with delay and obfuscation, keep changing the information they require just to delay processing the claim. Delays in replying to emails. Don't bother ringing them 40+ minutes no answer. Promised call back, "We'll call you back as soon as possible" don't hold you breath, still waiting after 2 hours. Don't touch them. BTY Trustpilot's scoring system inflates their rating because 0 is not an option.

Date of experience : 19 April 2024

Have had very poor service..travel…

Have had very poor service..travel insurance claim still not resolved after 10 months......communication is poor....emails are met with the sorry for the delay but all our claim handlers are busy. ie they do not employ enough claims handlers for their business. This is a shame because my medical recovery was handled very well.

Date of experience : 02 November 2023

Reply from Columbus Direct

Hi Steve. Thanks for bringing these issues to our attention. We're pleased to hear your comments that when you needed emergency assistance, the team that looked after you did so very well, but sorry to learn that you felt this level of service was not continued when your case then went to the claims team. Just a couple of quick notes. These services are provided by the same company, just different teams and we'd expect the service from both to be at a high level. Also, our claims team are contactable by phone and there is a contact number provided in your policy wording. We understand that the claims team have already been in touch to confirm the position of the case and to also arrange a payment that was due to you. We have also sked the team to log a complaint regarding the service received so a full investigation can be conducted into the handling of the case.

I've used Columbus many times and find…

I've used Columbus many times and find the system works well, the coverages pretty broad, and price competitive. Yet, they should cover cross-country skiing that is not on a piste, as it is usual to ski off resorts (in Canada). Bizarrely, in 2003 they would not cover a sailing trip from Spain to the Caribbean (they had a yachting exclusion), despite it being the exact same trip as their 1492 namesake!

Date of experience : 16 August 2022

Claim avoidance

Communication quite poor. Any queries while overseas must be made to a UK phone number. There is no option to make contact through WhatsApp or email, despite the info pack saying email is an option. Presumably this is to reduce the number of people calling, and therefore reduce the number of claims.

Date of experience : 18 August 2022

Hi Matt. It is not uncommon for the 24 hour medical emergency service on travel insurance policies to be linked to a UK only number. It's been operating like this for many years and there is no intention to make it difficult for customers to call in. We allow customer to claim back the telephone charges incurred when they first contact us, this is on the basis that our assistance service should then be proactively updating customers so there should be no need to incur further costs. It would be fair to say that companies haven't necessarily moved with the times quickly enough as technology has developed.

Absolutely fantastic

We bought the travel insurance because it was relatively cheap, but what really matters is when you need to use it. These guys were there for us when we needed it, talked to us when when we needed help, they tried to pay the hospital bills in advance - but I'd already put the credit card across to sort the little one out, they simply said "send us the receipts". We did just that when we got home & got the payment within hours. I will go nowhere else.

Date of experience : 29 August 2022

Very impressed

I recently took out travel insurance for a trip that involved a lot of “excursions”. As this is going to be a large part of my trip, Columbus (at no extra cost) agreed to remove the limit on excursions and cover up to the full cancellation amount. They were quick to respond via Twitter and even endorsed the policy documents to indicate what had been agreed. Very pleased with the service received.

Date of experience : 13 April 2023

Why would they even sell me cover for…

Why would they even sell me cover for only France if I need full Europe cover for my visa? So frustrating Edit - I'm grateful for my response from the Columbus Direct and their ability to upgrade my France cover to EU quickly over the phone while I was at the airport. To answer their question - their website should somehow be able to advise purchasers that buying cover for just France will not be adequate for a Shenghan visa for travelling purposes and that EU cover is in fact the correct option to select.

Date of experience : 01 December 2022

Hi Devon. We're not sure what we could have done differently here? You purchased the policy online so we would have issued cover based on the information you supplied during the application process. If you had indicated you required cover for all of Europe at the time, then that's what we would have issued. We also note that you have subsequently contacted us and changed this from 'France' to 'Europe' and that there was no difference in price for this.

Bought Columbus Direct travel insurance…

Bought Columbus Direct travel insurance on Saturday 18th March 2023, promised documents within minutes, Sunday nothing, Monday nothing. Tuesday, today contacted Columbus Direct via their website Bot. Over approx an hour, three times they said they have emailed my documents ... not a sausage. So after an hour or so I told their Bot I am cancelling my policy ... within a minute I received a cancelling email .... WHY and what was that all about?

Date of experience : 21 March 2023

We're very sorry to hear that you had this poor experience. If you were using a webmail account such as Hotmail then your policy documents may have been sent to your spam/junk folder. We are constantly working to try to avoid this but because of the policy attachments, this can sometimes be diverted. We do have a live chat function on the website where you would be talking to an agent, not a bot. We would hope that they would have suggested checking your spam folder and if still no joy, suggesting we try a different email address. If this didn't happen, we apologise. We understand why you would have asked for the policy to be cancelled after not receiving your policy documents. As you were talking to an agent, when you requested this, it would have been appropriate for them to take immediate action and it sounds like this email came through, which is what we would have expected with the other emails. We've asked you for details so that we can investigate what actually happened here to see if we could have done anything differently.

Great insurers - provide you don't make a claim (REVISED)

In March 2023 I filed a claim and waited for the "within 5 days" response. I waited a month. I then filled in several request forms and spoke to staff via the internet Chat feature. Got the same automated email response telling me to await contact within 5 days or to phone customer support or use the Chat feature. I tried the phone which advised me to use the Chat feature or wait to speak to a staff member. I tried twice - waiting on line over 30 minutes. No one answered. It's now May and I'm still waiting for human contact. UPDATE: Following my review, Columbus made contact with me and processed my claim ASAP. Evidently it was a one-off system error and not indicative of their usual performance. The lesson learned is to complain early if performance is poor.

Date of experience : 25 May 2023

Thank you for your comments, we are disappointed with the service you have had. We understand that our claims team have now been in touch to agree settlement of the claim. We have looked into what happened here. When the claim was set up online, our system failed to create the task which would have put the case in the queue for assessment. This did not come to light until you contacted us and we had determined your claim had been affected by this system error. There were some issues at that time which have been fixed, but we apologise that you were impacted by this and it was not recognised sooner that your claim had not been managed.

I was one of many affected by the…

I was one of many affected by the hurriedly re-arranged flights from Sicily in July. I thought my policy covered curtailment for what the travel company described as an emergency. It did not. I assumed that cover for curtailment meant curtailment for all emergencies. Unfortunately it does not. I accept the onus is on the customer to read the policy conditions carefully, though for an issue as fundamental as the issue of curtailment, I think the onus should be on the insurers to make absolutely clear that curtailment emergencies are only those relating to personal accident or ill health.

Date of experience : 24 July 2023

5 Stars! Definitely 5 stars. And not because of the easiness of getting insurance but, but for the fact that they actually helped me out when I needed to cover my medical emergency bills in my trip to Egypt. No hassles or making hard, they paid the hospital bills straight away.

Date of experience : 26 June 2022

I had travel insurance from Columbus Direct

I had travel insurance from Columbus Direct over the years for multiple trips including backpacking, single trip, annual cover. I have never had any problem with claim submission or to contact them- even when abroad and requested to call me back. They were so kind that even when contacted on one occasion, they advised me to attend hospital and they followed this up with a courtesy email few days after to check on me. Each time I followed my policy therefore I had no nasty suprises. I am giving a 5 star review as this year unfortunately I had to use my insurance for reimbursement of medical cost when in Bolivia which grew quickly following surgery. I claimed everything back and all costs were reimbursed after providing all documentation. The claim process was okay, lasted few weeks.

Date of experience : 31 January 2023

Need a 24 helpline for contact in emergency.

Renewal was fine but when we needed to contact Columbus during an emergency on our last holiday, the lack of a 24 hour helpline meant we could not consult or get advice. Luckily, Travel Company stepped in but it should have been an insurance matter.

Date of experience : 02 July 2022

Hi Mike. Thanks for your feedback. We do operate a 24/7 medical emergency services line to assist customers if they require medical treatment whilst overseas. For non-medical emergencies, the cost of operating a 24 hour service would be expensive and this would be reflected in the cost of policies. As this is not generally something other insurance providers do, we have to balance the cost of services that would be used sparingly versus making our premiums reasonable for customers.

Really good insurance company

Really good insurance company; our flight got delayed 4 hours and we were easily able to access the lounges for free and we’re comfortable. Had no other issues on our holiday however would fully book with them again

Date of experience : 24 August 2022

Always use Columbus Direct for my holiday Insurance

Always use Columbus Direct for my holidays. Great insurance cover, flexible and good prices. I had to claim with them once and it was no problem and that is an important point when you pick holiday cover. This time I went for yearly insurance and again a quick look at the competition Columbus were still the best. Would not go anywhere else.

Date of experience : 01 November 2022

Travel Insurance Claim

Travel Insurance Claim - Ref: 587757 Ive just been told that "Your policy doesn't provide cover if you didn't seek the advice of a medical professional which confirms the necessity to cancel the trip." Myself and my family were due to travel on Sunday 07/01/2024. My son and myself both fell ill that week and so on the Friday went to see our local surgery where we were both diagnosed with flu like symptoms. I was given a sick note to use should the need arise - which I duly attached to my claim. We were still hoping to travel on the Sunday but unfortunately we did not recover in time for our trip. The doctors surgery is closed on a Sunday, so we were unable to see a GP and anyway I assumed the sick note from the Friday would cover this. Columbus Direct appear to be trying to trip me up on a vague technicality. So, Im now having to try to sort all this out, myself with flu, whilst looking after a sick 11 year old boy.

Date of experience : 09 January 2024

Thank you for raising awareness of your experience. We understand that you used our online claims service to submit your claim. Subsequent to your comments, our claims team have now contacted you to explain what triggered our response to the claim and to advise what was needed from you for us to be able to make a payment. We are sorry that the claims experience has not been as easy as we try to make it for our customers and hope that we can get this matter resolved with you as quickly as possible now.

CUSTOMER SERVICE APPALLING AVOID

As an ex overseas representative I know the importance of travel insurance but this bunch of cowboys are rude unhelpful taking months don't answer emails it's daylight robbery they state 5 days laughable!!!!!! Left stranded for 3 days with two disabled children AVOID these robbing gits!! Read the rest of claim complaints, 100% of claims say avoid

Date of experience : 17 November 2022

Thank you for sharing your experience. We are sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the way we have dealt with this matter since you first logged your claim online on the 29th October. We note your claim was auto-declined based on the information supplied at the time of creating the claim. Given the subsequent correspondence provided by you our claims team had already reopened the case and asked for additional information which is under review now. Given your previous expression of dissatisfaction over the handling of the matter, a complaint had also been set up for us to conduct a review of what has happened on this case and will provide relevant feedback to you.

Columbus Direct

Columbus Direct, I still haven't heard anything from you since I filed my claim back in April 2022. It has been 6 months and despite countless emails with clear evidence I still haven't received one single update on my claim. It seems like you are more active on TrustPilot than actually processing the claims. Therefore I urge you to reach our to your claims handler Riyaadhud-deen Mohammed and ask him why my claim still hasn't been processed after 6 months.

Date of experience : 23 October 2022

Hi Iris. Thank you for supplying information about the case. We have asked our claims team to locate the file and review this urgently. Update: We understand that the claims team have now been in touch and have concluded the assessment of the claim with settlement agreed within the limits of the policy. We are very sorry that it has taken this long to resolve the case. We have asked for the claims team to conduct a review of the file to see what the issues were, what caused them and what could have been done to prevent them.

Don't use - a company who insures Easyjet - that's a red flag

Do not use, at every level their insurance turns out to not cover it due to a technicality - flight cancelled and 24 hour delay, not covered by their delay cover. As previously mentioned, what do you expect from a company suggested by Easyjet. They are used to finding loopholes given how often EasyJet muck up AVOID

Date of experience : 30 September 2022

Hi Matt. We were unable to review your claim in detail as you haven't responded to our request for more information. We would have been happy to check again as to whether there was any issues around the assessment of your claim but agree that there are only limited circumstances where we will pay a cash benefit in the event of delays from a transport provider. This does not mean that the cover would not have applied at any level, for example, the majority of claims costs are spent on paying for our customer's medical treatment abroad, a cost which could be thousands of pounds in some instances. We feel our cover is very much in line with the majority of the travel insurance industry, although we will look to improve on this where we can. We're sorry that you were not able to be compensated in this instance.

Customer Service Could be Better!

The cover offered by the policy is first class and excellent value for money. Customer service however, could be far better. It was almost impossible to contact a customer advisor in order to discuss an issue which was not helped by slow email responses. In fairness however, when I did finally get to speak to a customer advisor my problem was sorted without issue.

Date of experience : 01 August 2022