Insurance claim for travel delay

cogito

In December, I was in France returning to the UK by road from Italy. I had arranged to meet some friends who flew to Geneva and we spent 3 days together. On the day they were due to fly back to the UK, they received a text from their airline to say that their flight had been cancelled due to snow at Geneva airport and inviting them to rebook. The next available flight with their airline was 5 days later.

As there was room in my car, I brought them back to the London, took them to a station to catch a train back to Leeds and they got home around 36 hours after their flight would have returned. They incurred costs of around £300 including an overnight hotel, meals and railway tickets.

They put in a claim under their travel policy and have now received a cheque for £60 representing £20 per person for the first 12 hours delay and £10 per person for the next 12 hours.

It makes you wonder what is the point of having a travel policy if it does't pay out in full in circumstances such as these. They are inclined to argue that settlement should be on the basis of 5 days delay and the insurers are not entitled to benefit from their good fortune that they were able to secure a lift home.

Before doing this, I wonder if other MSEers have any thoughts as to whether any other parts of the policy would apply.

cogito

Anyone????

huckster

I think the delay payment made by the Insurers, is the total amount due.

I am sure if you check the t&c's of the policy, there will be a limit as to what the Insurer are liable to pay in these circumstances.

Which Insurers were they with and is the policy wording available to read online? It would be helpful to read what it actuallys says.

dzug1

cogito wrote: »

They put in a claim under their travel policy and have now received a cheque for £60 representing £20 per person for the first 12 hours delay and £10 per person for the next 12 hours.

It makes you wonder what is the point of having a travel policy if it does't pay out in full in circumstances such as these. They are inclined to argue that settlement should be on the basis of 5 days delay and the insurers are not entitled to benefit from their good fortune that they were able to secure a lift home.

Before doing this, I wonder if other MSEers have any thoughts as to whether any other parts of the policy would apply.

Travel delay in insurance policies is never a reimbursement of expensies - it's a flat rate per 12 hours, there's no excess and it's paid out on proof of delay, no need to prove any costs. There's usually a maximum - mine is £100 per person.

I assume in this case they were actually delayed between 24 hours and 35 hrs 59 mins?? You say 36 hours. Or has their insurance company a low maximum?

The argument about 5 days is disingenuous - if they had profitted from the delay the insurance company wouldn't have deducted that from the claim.

They may be entitled to something from the airline - a refund of the fare at minimum