Rule #1 in a serious medical emergency
Per LUMA's official guidance: contact local emergency services first (ambulance, nearest hospital) — your safety always outranks paperwork. Once you're safe and receiving care, contact LUMA to notify them, arrange a Letter of Guarantee for large hospital bills, or get claim support. All assistance contacts are in the policy email you receive right after purchase.
Practical reason: medical costs above USD 1,000 can be arranged as direct payment between the insurer/assistance and the hospital — that's what the Letter of Guarantee is for, so you're not fronting tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
The 4-step claim process
- Step 1 — Get safe, keep every original. Tickets, receipts, reports, police documents — everything in original form. Claims over USD 500 require original receipts.
- Step 2 — Notify through the right channel. All contacts (24/7 assistance hotline, instructions) are in your policy email. For baggage theft/loss there's a mandatory extra step: report to police/carrier within 24 hours.
- Step 3 — Assemble documents by claim type (table below).
- Step 4 — Submit online. Per LUMA's FAQ: claims are submitted online with documents, following the instructions in your policy email or the Claims page.
Required documents, by type of claim
| Claim type | Mandatory documents (per the wording) |
|---|---|
| Medical expenses | Detailed breakdown of charges + original receipts (claims > USD 500) + medical reports with full diagnosis from a physician |
| Baggage theft/loss, money, documents | Written police report + carrier confirmation (within 24 hours) |
| Baggage damage | Report + keep the damaged item itself available for inspection (at claimant's cost) |
| Travel delay | Official documentation from the airline confirming the delay |
| Rental car excess | Car rental contract + the car insurance policy |
Deadlines — the two numbers to remember
| Deadline | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 6 months from the incident date | Deadline to submit the claim |
| 6 months from the insurer's denial | Deadline to escalate a dispute — past it, the claim is deemed abandoned and unrecoverable |
The three most common rejection reasons
- Not following the claims procedure — missing original receipts, no police report within 24h, no airline document. The wording says it plainly: failure to comply with the Claims Procedure can result in denial of the claim.
- Double recovery — the same loss can't be claimed under two sections of the policy, and costs another insurer or third party is liable for get deducted.
- Fraud — false statements or forged documents void the entire policy, not just the claim.
Two FAQs worth knowing in advance
Staying longer than planned? Extension is possible — before the policy expires, provided you're not under active medical treatment and the total trip stays under 180 days.
Is COVID-19 covered? Yes — per LUMA, all plans cover emergency medical treatment abroad, including COVID-19, within policy limits.
Save your policy email the moment you buy — every claim path runs through it
Get a LUMA quote — 5 minutesThe policy email contains the 24/7 assistance hotline and online claim instructions.
Sources
- LUMA Travel Insurance Policy Wording (official PDF) — claims procedure, documents per section, deadlines, fraud clause
- Official FAQ on buy.lumatravel.com (emergency first, online claim submission, extension, COVID-19), read Aug 2026
- How to buy LUMA online — VetPick