Travel Insurance - Missed flight home not covered

pryonic

I'm currently shopping round for an Annual travel insurance policy to replace the one I've had this year. My current one is provided by OIM Underwriting as part of my employer's Flexible Benefits package, and I chose it because:

• It has good cover limits and excesses
• It's deducted from my salary over the year

I'm less than happy with it now - after they refused a claim this year. I was travelling in Portugal with my girlfriend in a hire car, having arrived in Portugal by train after some DIY travel through Europe. We had a flight booked back to Manchester from Faro with Ryanair, and we ended up missing this flight as the hire car broke down on leaving our Portugal accommodation.



Fortunately the service company representing Ryanair were incredibly lenient and only charged us the missed departure fee of €150 each to get the next flight back - even though we were two hours late. I was quite confident I'd be able to claim this back from OIM minus the excess and submitted the required documentation.


Six weeks later I received a letter rejecting my claim, apparently a "departure" only meant my travel out of the UK at the start of my holiday and any travel as part of the holiday - not the flight home. I must stress this was a annual policy and had not expired on the day of my return journey.


So, I'm now shopping round looking for a new policy - but it seems all insurers state "Missed departure" and some even imply this includes getting back home! I'm happy to dump OIM for the annoyance, but I don't want to fall into the same trap.


Any thought/comments/suggestions on whether this is normal?

rs65

pryonic wrote: »

Six weeks later I received a letter rejecting my claim, apparently a "departure" only meant my travel out of the UK at the start of my holiday and any travel as part of the holiday - not the flight home.

Seems a bit harsh. What does your policy say about missed departure?

InsideInsurance

It certainly sounds an odd description of why the claim was declined. What is the actual wording in the policy?

"Departure" means what it means in the dictionary unless it is called out in the glossary of the policy to have a special meaning. If not then it simply means leaving so applies for when you leave the UK and also when you leave your holiday location to return to the uk.

property.advert

I suspect this exclusion was written in a time before low cost airlines where almost every outward flight was matched with a corresponding inward flight on the same airline. The airlines at the time would probably "understand" and simply rebook you.

You will also find that unless you tell them, an airline will try to cancel your return ticket if you do not fly the outward leg.

As to why you paid EUR 300 to change a flight. Could you not have simply bought a new flight. Flying tomorrow it EUR 76 one way.

jollyme

I'm currently looking to buy insurance and read this thread with interest. The insurance offered by Age UK states in Section 3 - Missed Departure What is covered 2. "An accident or breakdown involving a car you are travelling in the United Kingdom and which causes you to arrive at the airport,port or station you are leaving from too late to start the journey you have booked."
I can find nowhere in this policy which allows the same for a problem on the return journey not in the UK