Travel Insurance - per person excess? Am I being screwed?

justin42

Having just got the documentation back from a travel insurance claim, I'm wondering whether anyone has come across this before - I strongly suspect I'm getting screwed, but I'm not sure how to approach this :-

Recently my family had to cancel a trip to Chicago as our two year old came down with Chicken Pox a couple of days before we were due to leave. As I was travelling on business, I had a non-refundable ticket, and I also had another non-refundable side trip for a conference. All up, we lost about £700 on my tickets alone as I only got the taxes on the tickets refunded.

My wife and daughter were flying on miles. Sum total lost on their tickets - £30 in cancellation fees. Note in this case, they were on a totally separate booking - however we were on the same planes there and back.

The travel insurance company (Europ Assistance) says that there is a "per person" excess, so instead of the £200 excess I was expecting to apply to my claim (and get back £500 odd, with nothing for my wife/daughters tickets) they apply £600 instead - meaning I get about £90 back. This seems very unfair to me, since I would have been better off if I hadn't sent in my wife and daughter's documentation in the first place, as I had no expectation of getting that £30 back!

Had anyone had this happen to them? Is this yet another way the travel insurance companies screw you, or is this not kosher?

dacouch

This type of thing (Along with putting big excesses such as £200) is done by some Insurers to gain business as most people tend to buy on price alone so this enables them to offer a low price.

luci

Yes it's kosher. You agreed to the T&C's when you took out the policy.

I read on here about someone else who had a cheap policy. It covered up to £250 in lost cash, but the excess was £200 so the most they could get back was £50.

On another board someone has had to cancel their holiday due to the illness of a grandparent, but grandparents are not included in their policy.

People are always quoting that they have got annual insurance with PEMC's much cheaper than the policy I have, but my policy even covers nephews and nieces and only has a £50 excess. Therefore my policy is much better value even though it is more expensive.