COMING AND GOING

What's the Magic Word? 'Strike.'

UPRIGHT AND LOCKED

What's the Magic Word? 'Strike.'

Could making a travel insurance claim be made any harder? Probably not for Jim Dvorak and his family. Their once-a-day evening flight on United, from Dulles to Argentina via Brazil, was canceled way back on March 30, when an air traffic control strike in Brazil closed all major airports. Additionally, the following day, their flight from Dulles was delayed long enough that they missed their connecting flight to their final destination.

The good news: The family had trip interruption insurance, up to $500 per person for the family of four. The bad news: Despite a six-month battle, Dvorak, of Woodbridge, has yet to see a dime.

Dvorak said he submitted copious documentation, including media reports about the strike. After many calls and e-mails, he was told he needed additional documentation from United about the cause of the flight cancellation.

United sent Dvorak a message stating that the flight delay was caused by "air traffic control problems." Not good enough. Access America, the insurer, said it required a statement from United saying that it was a Brazilian air traffic control strike. United said, to repeated pleas, that since it was not a Brazilian carrier, the airline couldn't write a note saying the cancellation was due to a strike.

Contacted by CoGo, Access America stuck to its guns, writing: "The report from United did not mention the strike. It referred only to air traffic control problems. The coverage Mr. Dvorak purchased covered delays due to "strike, natural disaster or bad weather. . . . Without documentation from the carrier confirming the delay was due to a strike or other covered circumstance, we cannot pay the claim."

But the strike was widely covered in the media. Not good enough, Access America says. "Media reports mentioned a 'one day' strike, but that does not necessarily equate to 24 or more consecutive hours and/or a complete cessation of services, which would have been required to trigger coverage," spokesman Mark Cipolletti wrote in an e-mail.

Dvorak quite naturally wonders if Access America is stonewalling . No, the company says."Our requests for further documentation were motivated by our desire to extend Mr. Dvorak coverage," Cipolletti wrote.

If United provided a note saying the delay was because of an air traffic control strike, would Access America consider the claim? "Yes, we'd look at the claim again," Cipolletti wrote. "To reiterate, we'd also need documentation that the strike resulted in a complete cessation of services for 24 or more consecutive hours." So in other words, a United note saying Dvorak's plane was canceled due to a strike now wouldn't be enough.

Dvorak says he'll continue fighting. "It's no longer about the money, it's about the moral of the thing," Dvorak says. CoGo will let you know what happens.

TURKEY RUSH

Going Home? Start Now.

Forget the 12 Days of Christmas. The 12 Days of Thanksgiving, which began Friday and won't end until Nov. 27, are the busiest time of the year at U.S. airports. An estimated 27 million people will fly during that period, up 4 percent from last year, said Jim May, president of the Air Transport Association, a trade association for airlines, at a press conference last week.

President Bush's plan to open military airspace to commercial planes between Wednesday and Sunday should help reduce the airspace crunch. The administration's plan, announced late last week, also includes a holiday moratorium on nonessential maintenance at air traffic control centers. Other things you should know:

* Planes will be 90 percent full, meaning that if you miss a flight, good luck getting on another one. To expedite departures, planes will leave the gate as soon as they are full and all ticketed passengers are on board, May said. CoGo advises: Don't dillydally at the airport, and try to get an advance seat assignment.