Travel insurance with this company is useless. Please do not waste your money! They do not use logic and common sense and will deny your claim without proper consideration.

My husband took a 3-week honeymoon trip through Southern Africa and purchased travel insurance through World Nomads, which was administered by TripMate. During the trip, I injured one of my front tooth while white water rafting in Zambia. It was 2 weeks into the trip, and we were in the middle of nowhere in Zambia on our honeymoon, so we decided to wait until we get back to the States to seek medical attention (if it's still needed, as it could have just been bruised).

Once we got back home, the tooth got a bit better, than worse, so I finally went to my dentist who found a fracture of the tooth root and told me that multiple procedures and appointments were required to remove the tooth and complete the dental implant process. I then filed a travel insurance claim. It is a very invasive and complicated procedure, and my dentist provided World Nomads/TripMate with a detailed explanation of the procedure and how it needed to be done correctly since it will impact my smile (being part of my front teeth section) and how it would take a long time to complete the procedure and recover, and this should not and could not have been done overseas.

Of course, World Nomads/TripMate denied my claim, stating "...Both the Accidental Injury and the dental Emergency Treatment must occur during the Trip...". They wanted documentation that the injury occurred during the trip along with the treatment.

Issues that I have with the denial, which I have already appealed once:
1. We were in the middle of Zambia, white water rafting with a local company. I told the tour guides when I injured my tooth, and you know what they said? "Oh, do you want to put some ice on it?". This is Africa, their rules of operation are a bit different there: they didn't file a report, there was no documentation even when I asked for one.

2. The tour guides wanted me to put ice on my broken tooth...do you really think I would trust anyone there with the extraction of my front tooth? As my dentist stated in his letter, it is a very sensitive and complicated procedure. While I'm sure there are qualified dentist in Zambia, we were in the middle of the jungle on our honeymoon, and hunting down a qualified dentist was not something we are capable of doing given our language barrier amongst other concerns.

3. My dentist sent in a letter stating that the whole procedure of removing the tooth and completing the implant would take over a span of 6 months. Needless to say, this could not have been completed while we were in Zambia, unless World Nomads/TripMate wanted to pay for our 6 months stay in Zambia while I complete the procedure.

Please understand that people travel for pleasure, and they would rather not seek sensitive and complicated medical attention overseas, unless it's life threatening. They want to enjoy their vacation, and not spend time in a hospital or doctor's office when it's unnecessary. Unless your travel insurance also covers for lost vacation time while seeking those unnecessary medical attention to adhere by your "medical emergency rules", it's unreasonable to ask travelers for forego their precious personal time. You are a travel insurance company; you are supposed to make traveling less stressful, not more.

​It is unfortunate that World Nomads/TripMate does not care about their customer's needs and repeatedly named the same clause for denying my claim. I have stated many times my reasons for not seeking dental attention while on our honeymoon if rural Zambia. It is good to know that World Nomads/TripMate does not take any personal/situational circumstances when approving claims, and I'll be sure to share my experience so others can choose travel insurance wisely and pick a company that is more reasonable and logical when it comes to customer's travel needs.