pot hole on motorway caused a missed flight

katejo

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

We always factor in time for something like that happening or stay in a hotel the night before.

Must have rubbed off on our son as last time he was flying to the USA he left the bag with the passports in his car that he had parked up at the house of the people they were travelling with.

He still made his flight.

I much prefer to pay for a hotel the night before than risk a taxi hold up. I do this with most flights now. It makes the trip feel slightly longer. I am off to Gatwick on Saturday for a Sunday morning flight.

z1a

katejo wrote: »

I much prefer to pay for a hotel the night before than risk a taxi hold up. I do this with most flights now. It makes the trip feel slightly longer. I am off to Gatwick on Saturday for a Sunday morning flight.

We always do that, regardless of time of flight. Much more relaxing and effectively an extra nights hol.

mgdavid

katejo wrote: »

I much prefer to pay for a hotel the night before than risk a taxi hold up. I do this with most flights now. It makes the trip feel slightly longer. I am off to Gatwick on Saturday for a Sunday morning flight.

and usually gets you inclusive car parking for the duration...

peachyprice

lesta1980 wrote: »

She was flying out to St Lucia to meet me for 3 weeks following the cricket, everything was already paid for

lesta1980 wrote: »

The alternative routes were all full, there was nothing, they looked at getting her on the Antigua flight for example but then she would of been stuck for at least 2 days there.

lesta1980 wrote: »

it was the only seat on the plane available, so it was either that or miss out on a holiday all together

OP, this is what I'm struggling with, and what your insurers will struggle with.

Re-routing through Antigua with a +2 day arrival, for a 3 week holiday, is not proportionate to 'missing out on a holiday altogether'. Had it been a week long holiday, then yes you could argue the case, but 2 days late on 3 weeks would have been reasonable.

bradders1983

Yes, I can also imagine being "stuck" in Antigua for 2 days to be hell on earth

Voyager2002

As an aside to this, if I am travelling and something goes wrong I would expect to be able to contact the insurer and agree the next step with them. (When my travel companion missed a flight to Cuba because of problems on the motorway her insurer agreed to pay for a replacement -- two weeks later -- so we each has solo holidays instead.) It is unfortunate that most insurers have outsourced the claims function so that the people who sell you the policy have no idea how a claim would be dealt with, and it can take weeks or months to find out whether a particular choice or expense is covered by insurance.

hybernia

The tone of some of the replies on this thread can be unrepresentative of the good intentions behind them. Typing at a keyboard is no substitute for face to face conversation.

Some posters do, however, seem to live in a world of forensic certainty. They know exactly what they would do, exactly how they will behave, in a crisis. I like to think I would be the same. But different people react to crises in different ways. Cool clear analytical thinking is lost in the pressure of time and circumstance.

So saying "this is what she should have done / what I would have done / what everyone should do" is of no help. People should always halt at the kerb edge to check the traffic in both directions but they so very often don't. Too much on their mind. Too much pressure-of-the-moment to cope with.

I'm really very sorry, OP, about your wife's experience. We always leave "plenty" of time before a flight departure but that doesn't mean we're under no stress in making that trip. At the back of one's mind is always the nagging thought of what-might-happen if such-and-such goes wrong. The stress is always there. As is the relief of making it safe, sound and on time for the flight.

There is no specific rule about how many hours should be allotted to getting to an airport. Depends where one lives. We allow, at minimum, two-and-a-half times the apparent journey time, home to airport, as indicated by Google mapping. But only for flights after 1pm / check-ins after 11am. Anything earlier, and we book an overnight+car parking package, though for many, that cost, when added to the expense of a family holiday, may not necessarily be affordable.

As to your wife's case. It seems, unfortunately, that the compensator of last resort is the travel insurer, because it's most unlikely you are going to be able to satisfy a court's requirement as to the proven existence of any other party, still less the degree of culpability arising.

Hind-sight is the worst kind of vision any of us can ever have, so I know you'll be kicking yourself over the £500 missed departure provision in your policy. But that kind of provision is not nor is ever intended to be a sum equal to the kind of cost your wife incurred: £3,500 is heading in the direction of an overall cancellation indemnity.

OH and I have what I regard as a decent travel insurance policy but £1,000 is the Missed Departure / Delayed Departure maximum. No doubt there will be others here with higher maxima, but I'd be very surprised if the sum was £3,500.

My sympathies, again; I sincerely hope you both had a good holiday together though (eventually!)

katejo

mgdavid wrote: »

and usually gets you inclusive car parking for the duration...

True but I don't drive so I don't pay any attention to that aspect.

hybernia

Voyager2002 wrote: »

. . . It is unfortunate that most insurers have outsourced the claims function so that the people who sell you the policy have no idea how a claim would be dealt with, and it can take weeks or months to find out whether a particular choice or expense is covered by insurance.

Couldn't agree more. The problem is that the majority of people either do not or cannot understand that the insurer they've contracted with isn't the insurer at all.

Just a shop front, run sometimes with such scarce staffing resource that it may as well be in the ownership of one-man-and-his-dog. It takes commission on customer payments. It does not take, or insure, customer risks. It may ultimately be owned by another business altogether, though that, of course, will not be readily apparent. It may also share a call handling service with another shop-front, this most usually discovered only when the customer of one outfit makes a call that is inadvertently answered by a CS rep in the name of an entirely different outfit.

MSE has never helped in this matter because it has never once pointed out that, quite often, a "great buy" it highlights from an insurer isn't from an insurer at all but a shop-front outfit. As for the Internet comparison sites: they certainly have no reason to explain. They exist only to entice.

There are plenty of shop-front travel insurance providers. They score high on sites like TrustPilot until it's realised that their 5* ratings are all about buying the policy and talking-to-the-nice-lady-on-the-phone or what-a-lovely-website. Worst of all are the idiotic ratings that say: "Great buy / great value!" when the reviewer has only just bought the policy and has not the slightest idea of what might happen, come the time of making a claim.

By comparison, scores relating to actual claims on policies issued via shop-front outfits are very often 1* because the customer experience has been horrendous.

It might have been hoped that buyers of holiday travel insurance would have woken up to how the industry works thanks to the recent publicity over Boots Travel Insurance.

There for all to see was the fact that Boots is not a travel insurer at all. It takes a commission on sales of policies which actually begin life with a mainland European insurer and which then wend their way to a so-called "intermediary": Travel Insurance Facilities.

TIF claims to be a partner to / associate of, but not the owner of, many shop-front brands. I'm by no means convinced that such is an entirely accurate representation of the facts, but that's just my personal opinion. It certainly doesn't own Boots. But those several other brands . .?

The list of TIF's "partners" and "clients" and "associates" can readily be found on TIF's own website. The glowing praise TIF receives from all these apparently independent operators makes for tedious reading. But their names may come as quite a surprise.

For our own insurance needs, only ever consider policies from Aviva UK group providers or from UK Insurance (and subsidiary brands of the latter, like Churchill and DirectLine. The insurer also owns Green Flag.)

We are not tempted by MSE 'best buys' (unless the ultimate insurers are Aviva or UK Insurance) and we would never waste our time on Internet comparison sites.

An excellent report on the travel insurance industry's "Race for The Bottom" was published by the Fairerfinance website towards the end of last year. Apart from its observations about Travel Insurance Facilities (TIF) its references to the appalling level of complaints to the Ombudsman about MAPFRE's and URV's conduct make salutory reading:

https://www.fairerfinance.com/insights/blog/whos-winning-in-the-race-to-the-bottom-on-quality-in-travel-insurance

Sadly though, thousands of people will carry on in sublime ignorance of just how the travel insurance industry works -- in too many cases, until it's far too late. :(

Aleksmac

So many people here have not-so-helpful powers of hindsight!!

Councils sometimes pay for repair to vehicle damage , maybe it's worth writing to them? I guess it's a long shot.

Cheap travel inaurance rarely covers expensive flights, maybe worth calling them just incase there's something in the policy docs you missed, despite popular belief they want to help with what you're entitled to. Do you have any annual travel policies you might have forgotten about, which are packaged with your banking/credit card?

Such a frustrating situation.