Travel Insurance that doesn't cover ALL flights?!

Ali_Delicious

I have just come back from a holiday where I flew from Malta (where I live) to London
London - Boston
Boston - Baltimore
Baltimore - Boston (this flight was cancelled), so
Washington DC - Boston
Boston - London
London - Malta.

I have travel insurance through Globelink, a UK based company that will provide cover for citizens in the EU - which is why I bought it, I am a Brit, living in Malta.

The claim was declined because, "The policy provides cover for the first outward flight and last return flight to your home country. As the travel delay was not incurred on these flights, but, rather the flights in-between, we have no alternative other than to decline liability for your claim."

So they are saying, that only my flights from Malta to London and London back to Malta were covered.

I'm disputing this with them because surely travel insurance covers all of your travel. Connecting flights are common practice.

I cannot find this wording in their policy either.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Is there a travel ombudsman I could report this to?

All comments welcome!

agrinnall

Ali_Delicious wrote: »

Is there a travel ombudsman I could report this to?

No, but Globelink make it quite clear what the escalation process for complaints is, and that the ultimate appeal is to the FOS.



https://www.globelink.co.uk/keyfacts.html


(scroll down to complaints)

BoGoF

Dies your policy include travel outwith EU?

Aylesbury_Duck

They are treating your trip as a single trip - one outward leg and one return leg - and anything you did in between as part of the holiday not the travel. In other words, you went on holiday to London and whilst there, did a load of travelling around to the US and back. Seems a bit odd, I grant you, but if that's the policy you took out then that's the policy.

I found what I think is the relevant policy wording on their site:

If, due to one of the Specified Events below, the departure
of the public transport on which you are due to travel is
delayed at the final departure point from or to your home
country, or if any subsequent outbound or return
connecting public transport is delayed, for at least 12
hours from the scheduled time of departure, then
provided you still travel we will pay the amount shown in
the Validation Certificate Schedule of Cover.

There's also this exclusion:

Additional expenses where the scheduled public
transport provider has offered alternative travel
arrangements within 24 hours of the original departure
time and of a comparable standard and duration

I think those are the two paragraphs you might go back to them to question.

hollydays

Is this what they call backpackers insurance.
The advantage with backpackers insurance is that you don’t have to specify the return date of your travel.

davidmcn

It's not clear from your post whether the policy covered travel to the US? In any event, what losses are you claiming for?

Ali_Delicious

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

They are treating your trip as a single trip - one outward leg and one return leg - and anything you did in between as part of the holiday not the travel. In other words, you went on holiday to London and whilst there, did a load of travelling around to the US and back. Seems a bit odd, I grant you, but if that's the policy you took out then that's the policy.

I found what I think is the relevant policy wording on their site:

If, due to one of the Specified Events below, the departure
of the public transport on which you are due to travel is
delayed at the final departure point from or to your home
country, or if any subsequent outbound or return
connecting public transport is delayed, for at least 12
hours from the scheduled time of departure, then
provided you still travel we will pay the amount shown in
the Validation Certificate Schedule of Cover.

There's also this exclusion:

Additional expenses where the scheduled public
transport provider has offered alternative travel
arrangements within 24 hours of the original departure
time and of a comparable standard and duration

I think those are the two paragraphs you might go back to them to question.

Yeah, which is weird, people take connecting flights and travel around when they are there, which is what I did. You've hit the nail on the head with the clauses though, but I think the "or if any subsequent outbound or return connecting public transport is delayed, for at least 12 hours from the scheduled time of departure, then provided you still travel we will pay the amount shown in the Validation Certificate Schedule of Cover. " is where I might have a point as that's the flights inbetween.

You're a legend, thanks for that. I'll see what response I get!

Ali_Delicious

Worldwide cover, including US and Caribbean.
Claiming for the cost of the new flight I had to book after the BWI BOS was cancelled. Plus Taxi's to and from the airport. No hotel bill, as I stayed with my friend another night.

The soonest flight Spirit Airlines could offer was Saturday, I was travelling Thursday night.

Caz3121

the spirit flight looks like a standalone flight rather than part of your outbound flight you would probably need something like backpackers insurance than would cover you for flights not departing to or from your home country

there was another post I saw recently with someone who had insurance rejected as the issue was a domestic flight before a long haul and they were not covered as they were not departing from the country at that point

I wonder how many people have thought through these different scenarios in advance to check they would be covered (guilty in the past!)

I suspect you may have to take a hit on this one unless you can get something out of Spirit but US don't have the same flight delay compensation that the EU does but a refund of the cancelled flight would be a minimum (if not already given)

lammy82

In line with others, the way I interpret it, it's not about connecting flights not being covered. It's the difference between a multi-leg flight that is part of your outbound or return journey (which would be covered), and a flight that you take as part of the holiday itself (not covered).

You haven't really said which bits of your flight were a single multi-leg journey and which bits were just part of the holiday moving from one place to another.

Skibunny40

I always assumed that travel insurance covered every aspect of the holiday - apparently not! I'm off to check my own insurance as we have a holiday coming up with a couple of internal flights.