Travel insurance claim - Volcanic Ash

Ximian

I was on vacation a few months ago when the volcano in Iceland erupted and my flight (BA/Qantas) was cancelled. As a result, I arrived back in the UK 2 weeks later. I did purchase travel insurance for the duration that I was initially on vacation for and when I was notified that my flight had been cancelled I notified the insurance company by email and informed them that the flight had been cancelled. I purchased travel insurance through http://www.travelinsuranceweb.com/ and I was contacted by Global Claims Services Limited by email informing that they have received my email and had provided me with a reference number. When I arrived home I submitted a claim for the additional expenses which I incurred: hotel and a train ticket, totalling less than £400.

I was informed by mail that Global Claims Services had received my claim and that they would process it as soon as possible. Yesterday I received a cheque in the post ... for £100. When I was stranded I read through the details of the policy and nowhere did the policy state that they would not cover "acts of God" so I thought that I'd be covered fully for this situation.
Interestingly, my colleague was on vacation at the same time as I was and he was also stranded. Virgin took care of a large majority of his costs as well as his insurance company (AXA), he has received more than what he claimed for, totalling over £2400.

It seems that there is some discrepancy between insurance companies paying out for the Volcano eruption. What I find interesting is that Virgin covered a large portion of my colleague's expenses yet BA has not offered any compensation for the cancelled/delayed flight.

The cheque received from Global Claims Services states "Travel Delay" and I have read the summary section in the insurance policy for "Travel Delay" and it states:
Travel Delay £100
per 12 hours £20
Trip abandonment £5000 (after 24 hours) with £60 excess

I believe that the insurance company has categorised my claim as "travel delay" with £100 compensation, but surely this can't be right, if the additional compensation is £20 per 12 hours the this should also be factored in as far as I know, which means £40 (for 24 hours) x number of days delayed.

I'd appreciate any advice or comments from anyone in a similar situation. Did you receive 100% compensation? Was the compensation provided by the airline or the insurance company?

bouncydog1

Suggest you read through the volcanic ash insurance discussion thread. Insurers are all taking different views on how they deal with the matter.

If you read through your policy you are likely to find an exclusion for force majeure, which is probably why they are excluding the additional expenses because they have declared that the volcano eruption falls under this definition. Some insurers decided to include it as a bad weather incident so some insurers have paid and others have paid nothing at all.

If you colleague was on a virgin holiday, rather than just a virgin flight then they did appear to help their holidaymakers telling them to stay put in their resorts. Presumably this was because the accommodation was already booked for inbound holidaymakers who were also affected by the volcanic ash cloud by having their flights cancelld.

dzug1

What section of the policy were you claiming under? It seems to me that the insurance company HAVE paid up, volcanic ash or not, to the extent the policy covered you - certainly to the extent most policies would.

I've commented on the airline aspect on your other thread. You should be able to claim expenses - but not compensation - from them

Ximian

Thanks dzug1, you're right, I have just received a letter today from the insurance company explaining that the maximum is £100 and that £20 is for the full 12 hours, not accumulative.

I flew out with a Qantas/BA combined flight and was due to fly back with the same operators Qantas/BA, at the time, I was bounced between airlines regarding if the flight was cancelled or not and I never contacted either airline for compensation as there was major confusion regarding whether the airlines were going to compensate or not. I did contact BA when I got back for a letter required by the insurance company explaining that the flight was cancelled by the operator on that date. I sent this to the insurance company with all relevant receipts (boarding pass, hotel receipt etc..) and I'm wondering if I can get that back from the insurance company and contact BA for compensation.

dzug1

You should be able to get the documents back from the insurance company - might take them a while though. BA might be happy with copies, which would be easier.

You can but ask them

missile

dzug1 wrote: »

You should be able to get the documents back from the insurance company - might take them a while though. BA might be happy with copies, which would be easier.

You can but ask them

I made a claim on BA for lost luggage and they insisted on original documents.

Never had documents returned after a claim. Fortunately I never wanted them to. I think you would have to request that.