General Chat

Insurers disgrace over ash claim denial

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned that travel insurance will not cover many policyholders for delays and cancellations caused by the Icelandic Volcanic ash.

The joke going round that we asked Iceland for cash, not ash, can now be applied to travel insurers refusing to pay out. Travel insurance has again been exposed as a pathetic product that does not do what its customers expect of it.


Nick Starling, the ABI's director of general insurance and health, said: "Travel insurance policies will differ in this situation; there is no standard set of conditions which applies to a situation of this kind.

"Therefore customers should check their travel insurance policy, and speak to their travel insurer to understand what their individual policy covers them for in this situation."

Bob Atkinson, travel expert at moneysupermarket.com said: "The reaction from many travel insurers has been extremely disappointing. 24 hours into this incident, the majority still haven't developed a position on how they will handle claims for flights and any other monetary losses as a result.

"I would have hoped insurers would have contingencies in place for such events, no matter how unexpected.

"The industry really needs to get its act together and at least provide reassurance to travellers as to whether claims will be considered or not.

"Our position is clear - this is exactly the type of event that customers buy insurance for and they should be able to claim for the cost of their lost holidays and costs that they occur. Insurers must not use their small print to try and wriggle out of this one."

Some companies will be paying out. Jennifer Thomas, spokesperson for Direct Line Travel Insurance, said: "If a customer has a flight cancelled and is refunded from the airline, but still has accommodation that they can't cancel or use, these claims can be considered under travel delay leading to trip abandonment.

"Customers will need to provide written official evidence to support any claims where it is reasonable to request such evidence. In this case, information from official airline websites is acceptable as evidence." That is particualrly helpful.

Fortis, the insurer Tesco has chosen as its partner, said it was treating the ash cloud as a weather event and would be paying out as normal.

"All policies include a Delay compensation benefit which is designed to provide cover in the event that either an outward journey from the UK or a return journey to the UK is delayed for a minimum period specified in the policy," it said.

All Fortis policies provide abandonment cover that comes into if an outward journey from the UK is delayed for a minimum of 12 hours and they choose to abandon their holiday. This too will be paid, the company confirmed.

AXA, said by Datamonitor to be the UK's largest provider of travel insurance, with 23.8% of the market, said some of its insured would be covered.

"Missed departure cover under standard policies is in place for customers who miss their international flight out of or into the United Kingdom as a result of 'the failure of other public transport', such as a connecting flight. This will cover reasonable additional accommodation and travel expenses incurred in reaching the destination," AXA said

Those with Independent Traveller cover will be able to claim if a flight out of the UK or returning to the UK is cancelled or delayed for more than 5 hours. You can claim:

Any irrecoverable unused accommodation costs and charges if your flight is cancelled or delayed for more than 5 hours or you are denied boarding because of overbooking and no other suitable alternative flight could be provided within 5 hours.
OR Reasonable additional room and travel expenses incurred in making alternative travel arrangements to reach your overseas destination.
OR Reasonable additional accommodation and travel expenses incurred in reaching your destination or returning to the UK if your flight is diverted or re-directed after take-off.

Extended missed departure cover (for customers who have already flown out of the UK) will cover reasonable additional accommodation and travel expenses incurred in reaching your overseas destination or returning to the UK.

The Telegraph said Aviva policies would not pay out. Aviva was refusing to provide a statement still at 1.45pm today.

We are half way through day two of the airport shutdown and the fact that insurers don't have answers is disgraceful. The reality is that they were originally saying no to claims and now realise they will look mean to do so. Nobody should ever buy travel insurance again if the industry does not pay up.

As I have said before, travel insurance lets the whole insurance industry down. Its performance this week has reinforced that. It is time insurers got their act together.

We are supposed to be off to Tunisia for a week flying from Cardiff at 3pm tomorrow I been reading that Thomas Cook will reschedule our holidays to take within next 30 days which for me and OH is no problem as we are retired but my sisters OH wont be able to take another week off work in that short time.

I did phone Thomas Cook yesterday afternoon and first I was told that ALL UK flights would be back on by 7pm and I was then put on hold for about 20 mins waiting for somebody else to give me info and so ended that call, I then phoned the store where I booked my holiday and was told that I should be all packed as I may be told up to 11 am tomorrow that I will be going.

I know it something that nobody can do anything about and but its oh so frustrating

Pam

I was considering going to our airport to offer a bed for 1 night for 1 or 2 people who are supposed to be returning to England, but cant go because of all this. Would I be silly to do so?

Huia.

Huia, a bit late in responding due to being off line but I think your offer would probably be very welcome, and who knows what new friends you might make. You would need to be careful who you took, it goes without saying really, but I know I would appreciate it.
Maybe ask your son what he thinks or is it too late to help now?


Be careful
Lizx

So frustrating for you Pam and upsetting for your sister and her hubby.

Hope something can be rescued from the holiday plans

Lizxxx

Seems most companies are paying out now thank heavens, but there are some people having to pay upfront for other ways of getting to where they want to be, whether home or away or lol back or forth!

Lizx

Apparently a local radio station sent out a call for volunteers to take tourists and there have been more offers than tourists wanting accommodation so far. I might leave it until late this week (if things havent changed re flights) as I will be busy to-ing and fro-ing or going back and forth like a blue tailed fly for several days this week. And I need to tidy up a little bit first!

Huia.

Liz-that would be disgraceful if the travel insurance company didn't pay up.It would really make you think twice about taking out travel insurance.This sort of unexpected event is what it's for! I hope any company that doesn't pay out is "named and shamed."

I read in the paper that the ash cloud is 7 kilometres high, and 5000
kilometres long,and the airline companies are losing a fortune in lost revenue every day. It could go on for quite a while,too.The airlines can't afford to ignore it,because the plane engines can seize up in it.
Happy days! I hope that it is over and done with soon,for the sake of all
caught up in it,and affected by it.

Gentle nudge please

Thank you
xx

Must speak as I find apart from a little bit of mis information the other day Thomas Cook have been very good I have to go in to the shop and book another holiday and my sister because her OH will have probelms getting more time off she will have a refund, dont see any point in rushing in to book something until we have an end to the flying ban.

Hope everyone gets good results like us .

Pam

Pam
Glad to see that you can hopefully take your holiday at a better time and your family won't lose.

Gwyn

Pam, let's hope you can get a good holiday out of this, after the volcano has stopped pumping stuff out. At least with that tan people won't know if you have been away or not lol
Can your hubby go into work and save part of his holiday at all?

Great that your sister will get her money back, every cloud (of ash or whatever) has a silver lining.

take care and hope you aren't too disappointed, you can be with your sister through her treatment now

Lizx

I wondered why people were still going to the airport even though they were told not to bother as there would be no flights,

Probably people going home who have nowhere else to sleep without paying for hotels. Plus people who are desperate who intend being first in the queue when they start flying again.

Incidentally for those who will be nervous about flying when they do start again. Despite several aircraft being affected by previous volcanic ash, not one person has lost their life due to volcanic ash seizing up an engine, all engines have restarted. (According to a report in the paper).

There was a fascinating programme on tv last evening showing exactly how the jet engines work and how the molten glass in the ash would stick to the blades and make them out of balance and too thick which would then cause problems. They said one way to get rid of the glass on the blades was if the pilot was brave (or mad, my words) enough to shut down the engine, and steer lower into cooler air so the glass which was hot on the blades got cold so fast it broke off again. I don't think it was something recommended in the manual tho!

i am quite glad we hadn't booked to go back to Corfu, with the possibility of this volcano causing problems off and on all summer.

Lizx

I would guess that the insurance companies are going to put this in to the section which say
act of god!!

So people wont be paid to stay on holiday .....whatever their circumstances!!

I heard one chap say he had been told that as it was an Act of God he wouldn't get compensation but have also heard others say they will be getting help towards getting home, I suppose it depends on what company they are with.

Still chaos for a lot of people, and things could change again if the volcano erupts some more'

I did hear a plane overhead about half an hour ago so think some are being relocated to where they should be at this stage of the week.

I bet there will be fewer holidays abroad booked for the mo, as people rethink their plans (those that haven't already booked of course)


Lizx