Travel insurance not paying out for hired item due to baggage delay

Jalius

Hi,

I want some advice on this / double check that the travel insurance is within their right.
The situation was; I travelled with BA with my family to Menorca (2 adults, 1 toddler), I prebooked car hire and checked in my own car seat at LHR. At Menorca the car seat didn't turn up despite it being in a massive red sack. I had to hire a car seat from the car hire company instead, this cost equivalent of £50 for 7 days. I filled all necessary paper work for delayed baggage at the airport, and BA delivered my car seat to the hotel 3 days later.
On return home, I filled an insurance claim for the car seat hire cost with AXA the travel insurer who said

Your claim has now been assessed strictly according to the Policy Terms and Conditions and I would like to draw your attention to the below:

"Page 56 - 10. Personal Baggage Delay

What you are covered for:

We will pay you up to the amount shown in the benefit table towards the cost of buying essential items if your personal baggage has been misplaced by the carrier for more than twelve hours on the outward journey of your trip. "
As per the above only items purchased are covered under this section. In view of the points you have raised, it has been agreed that a payment of £24.99 will be made as a gesture of good faith. I am obliged to advise you that this should not be seen to set or infer any precedent for the future. This should show in your account within the next 10 working days.

So, basically, the travel insurance for delayed possessions/baggage doesn't include the hire of items.
The policy can be found on google when searching for "Annual Multi Trip – Bronze, Silver and Gold - American Express" second link down in results (PDF).

What do you think? Are they in their right to only offer half the amount in "good faith" Grr I hate that term, it's so condescending.

Thanks

richardw

It does say 'buying', btw it's always worth doing a bit of research for alternative car seat suppliers before you go. Sometimes there's an alternative supplier at the airport such as http://totsstore.com/airport-collection-service or a large supermarket nearby. Tripadvisor forums can be great for this kind of information.

bagand96

As you've said, it's there in black and white, the cover is for buying and not renting. You could argue the toss with them stating that is was unrealistic to go and buy a car seat. For the sake of sending an email it might be worth it. But at the end of the day they are an insurer and they'll always find an out if they can. They are acting within their rights and following the wording of the policy.

Have you tried claiming from BA? Making baggage claims. Not sure if you'll get ahywhere with them, might be worth a shot.

beeg0d

Well if you want to argue symantics you could argue that you did buy something and so due reinbersment...

You purchaced the use of a car seat for 7 days

Westin

I can understand the OP's annoyance and personally think that this is a really poor showing from AXA/American Express Travel Insurance.

It does not seem an unreasonable claim to me. It is relatively minor and a small amount of money. The statement that the claim was 'assessed strictly according to the Policy Terms and Conditions ' might be true but shows that zero common sense was applied by the insurance claim assessor.

Presumably Spanish law would stipulate that a child would need a child seat or restraining within the vehicle. Even if not I would want to protect the safety of my child within the car. I personally think the OP took reasonable steps by renting the child car seat after his own was misplaced and also probably had limited options. Shame on AXA/American Express for hiding behind the interpretation of small print over common sense and good reasoning.

Depending on how much time you wish to spend on the claim balance, you could try writing to BA but I would also be tempted to write back to the insurers and ask for the claim to be reviewed again.

PeacefulWaters

Claim off BA.

How much is the policy excess anyway?

littlereddevil

I would also claim off BA. They were responsible but probably won't pay now you've claimed off your insurance.

Jalius

Thanks everyone for your advice, all very useful.
@PeacefulWaters Excess was Nil for baggage delay.
@RichardW thanks for that totstore link, that's great, i'll use it next time. I do a lot of research before holiday especially as it was first holiday with child, but can;t believe that one slipped through unnoticed. (Edit: looks like they're only in costa del sol anyway.)

I will write back to AXA/Amex asking to have another look, raising the points that @Westin mentioned. If nothing comes of it, I'll go back to BA about it.

Yes, it's a small amount of money and worse things could happen, but it's the principle of it that I want to fight for.
I paid for insurance for exactly this kind of problem.