Awesome Con is taking place this weekend. It’s an annual comic convention taking place in the heart of Washington D.C. I attended the inaugural Awesome Con in 2013, but I have not been back since. That was going to change this year. I registered for Friday’s festivities. In other words, I purchased tickets for my wife and myself.
Because of my health problems, I normally cannot pre-purchase tickets. It’s too risky. I never know when my health problems will flare up and prevent me from doing something I want to do. When I looked at the registration page for Awesome Con, I noticed they were selling insurance.
I realized I could buy tickets and if my health problems flared up, I could get a refund on my tickets. It gave me peace of mind.
That’s what I thought.
I bought the tickets with the added insurance and began counting down the days until Awesome Con.
Fast forward to Thursday night and Friday morning. I had a bad night. I was ill and didn’t get much sleep. I realized I could not attend Awesome Con. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to going. The one bright spot was that at least I wasn’t going to be out the cost of the tickets. I paid for the insurance so I was covered, or so I thought.
With Awesome Con, always read the fine print
It turned out, Awesome Con’s insurance was completely worthless. It wasn’t worthless to them. No, not only did they make money from the $7.98 added to the purchase price, they benefited from the false sense of security people like me felt when they contemplated buying tickets. Other than that, as far as the consumer goes, the insurance was completely worthless.
Awesome Con’s insurance covered “Illness & Health” as long as it was not a pre-existing condition. I have pre-existing conditions. The health problem that kept me up most of the night was a pre-existing condition. With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, I didn’t even realize pre-existing conditions were still a thing. One of the many things the law did was abolish the denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
From the information found in the policy:
Even when it’s not a pre-existing condition, the policy makes it difficult to collect. Also from the policy:
What this means is if I was ill not from a pre-existing condition and wanted a refund for the $91.20 I paid for the two tickets ($99.18 minus the $7.98 insurance) I would need to go to my primary care physician for an office visit within 72 hours of Awesome Con. My doctor charges $165 for an office visit. That means if I wanted to be reimbursed for the tickets, it would cost $165 to recoup $91.20. Who would do that?
I highly doubt anyone has ever filed a claim with Awesome Con’s insurance carrier, at least not for “Illness & Health.” The bar is just too high. Illness quickly becomes “serious illness” and you have to visit a doctor and have them order you not to attend Awesome Con.
In conclusion
I attempted to contact Awesome Con Friday morning, but I have not heard back from them. Something tells me they are very busy now. I doubt I’ll ever hear back from them. Why would they contact me? They got me. It’s all spelled out in the fine print. They are protected.
When someone rips me off and there’s nothing I can do about it, I deal with it by categorizing it as a learning experience. In this incident, I learned Awesome Con is not an organization to be trusted. They sell tickets “protected” by worthless, shady insurance. They ripped me off this time, but they will never do it again.