Travel Insurance Claim - Advice Please

bauhaus100

I'll try and keep this as brief as possible as it's quite a long story. We were due to fly out on holiday a few weeks ago, just after there had been heavy snowfall in our area. The traffic reports the nigh before said that all roads were passable with care and that airports were unaffected.

Not wanting to leave things to chance, we allowed 2 hours for what is usually a 50 minute journey. The roads were fine and we arrived at the airport carpark with over an hour to spare. This is where the first problem arose. The airport car park had not been cleared of snow resulting in the car becoming stuck for half an hour. When we eventually managed to dig it out and park safely, the shuttle bus (which is supposed to run every 10 minutes) didn't turn up for half an hour. When it did turn up, it detoured via another terminal before dropping us off.

The end result was that we missed check-in by five minutes and were denied boarding. The T.O. could offer us no other flights so we were forced to abandon the holiday.

I immediately contacted our insurers for a claim form. Looking at the policy wording, there are three areas which appear to relate to our claim:

* Did we make reasonable efforts to arrive at the airport prior to check-in? Yes, we checked the road conditions and weather forecast then doubled the projected journey time to make allowance for possible problems.
* Did the vehicle breakdown on the way to the airport? If being stuck in snow with the car unable to move can be classed as a breakdown, I think we could possibly meet this criteria.
* Did failure on public transport occur? Can an airport shuttle service be viewed as public transport? I'm unsure on this.

I listed in detail on the claim form the circumstances for our late arrival and posted it off to the insurers. Needless to say, they are denying our claim even though I feel we took reasonable steps to ensure that we arrived at the airport on time. I also contacted the car park owner and of course they deny any liability.

Can anyone offer advice on how to progress the claim to obtain a more favorable outcome as the cost of the holiday was over £1000?

dacouch

Which Insurer is it

bauhaus100

Thanks for the quick response,

The policy is labeled as being provided by InsureFor.com but Europ Assistance are handling the claim.

Quentin

bauhaus100 wrote: »

Needless to say, they are denying our claim even though I feel we took reasonable steps to ensure that we arrived at the airport on time.

What is their reason for denying your claim?

bauhaus100

"Please not that the policy only covers you for missed departure as a result of breakdown or accident involving the vehicle in which you are traveling..." was the response from Europe Assistance. Hence my query if being stuck in snow could be classed as a breakdown. The letter completely ignores the issue about the late running of the shuttle bus even though the policy states I'm covered for "Cancellation or curtailment of scheduled public transport due to adverse weather conditions".

Quentin

You may have a problem as you didn't have a breakdown or an accident, and they define public transport like this:

A train, bus, coach, ferry service or scheduled airline flight (non internal) operating to a published timetable to join the booked travel itinerary.

SandC

According to your post though, you left early and arrived early, therefore if your flight check in was 2 hours before departure, you actually arrived at the car park 3 hours before the flight so even with the delays you stated, you should have been able to check in on time.

I think this is why they have quoted what they have quoted.

choc_mouse

I think your case is weak but you might still be able to claim for missed departure by going along the lines that the shuttle bus is "public transport" (just pulled it from the policy wording from InsureFor.com):

cancellation or curtailment of scheduled Public Transport due to adverse weather conditions,Strike or Industrial Action or mechanical breakdown, derangement or accident; then

You will probably need a written letter from the shuttle bus company/car park (assuming they're the same) saying
a) the advertised departure times are every 10 minutes
b) the advertised journey time to the airport
c) their recomended time to allow for journeys from the car park to the airport terminal
d) if possible, a sentence that says that severe weather was experienced on your travel date (specify date) which meant shuttle services were not running on time - even better (pushing your luck here), get them to write the time delay to a+b - but I doubt they would keep this statistic. They don't need to take any liability, just state the facts.

Also supply with your updated claim:
- Car park booking if you booked it in advance.
- Copy of your car park ticket that shows your entry time (hopefully this time is well before your checkin closure time), the car park name and possibly your licence plate number.

Do you have the car-park ticket by any chance - I don't recall getting to keep it whenever I leave the airport carparks...??? It could help you a lot in this case if the entry time was say, 1 hour before check-in. You may be able to ask evidence for entry/exit times (maybe for a fee) from the car park.

If this fails, then I'm afraid you were just unlucky. I hope you've exhausted the chances of getting refunds on hotels/pre-paid trips too.