TIF group not paying out on curtailment - help

jcrennie

Probably very similar to a few threads, but I'd just like some advice here. I was due to fly back on 31st March from New Zealand but decided to curtail my trip on 23rd March, but obviously I could not. Anyhow I eventually got a flight on 4th April back to England.

TIF Group are saying they will not pay for the flight on the 4th April as the flight was after my trip originally finished. The problem I have with any policy is it down to interpreation. I curtailed my trip on the 23rd/24th March. I have stacks of evidence; 3 different flights and reciepts or my original method of bus travel. They have not said I can't claim on curtailment, just that they won't pay out because of the trip "ended" on the 4th April. However I have proved to them I tried to curtail on 24th March, I just was not able to board the plane due to transit restrictions. So in summary, I curtailed my journey I just was unable to get out before 4th April on FCO advice.

Further to this the customer service has been horrendous- sent on an extra wild goose chase. Letters have been sent to me left, right and centre unformatted correctly, different font sizes- very inprofessional. Then in the rejection letter they claim I should claim from my trip provider or credit card company (despite the fact I was already abroad) and they call me by my surname and not my first name. Second time they have done this too. So all just basic things- I told them I can't have confidence they can do their job and analyse a claim if they can't even format a letter template.

Long story short, is this worth fighting with them or are they just never ever going to pay out? I can only claim £1250 of which they take £100 and my expenses are £1550 so I'm already in negative equity! If so, what are the next steps I should do? I've just sent them a complaint email tearing their response to pieces and also explaining why I believe I have a claim against their policy wording.

Appreciate the advice.

Life__Goes__On

All you can do is battle with the insurance company  if they still refuse to pay out after your complaint take it to the Ombudsman.

I am wondering if there are other ways you can get money back.
What kind of trip was you on?  who did you buy it from?  what method of payment did you use?

jcrennie

Life__Goes__On said:

All you can do is battle with the insurance company  if they still refuse to pay out after your complaint take it to the Ombudsman.

I am wondering if there are other ways you can get money back.
What kind of trip was you on?  who did you buy it from?  what method of payment did you use?

I was on a backpacking trip. My trip was with STA- my original flights back seem to be covered by the famous travel voucher. But I've complained to them and said I want cash. My original curtialment flight was with Qantas- this I can can get the money back. But then I had to purchase an extra flight from Malaysia Airlines which left on the 4th April. All flights were paid on a credit card. The flights trying to curtail were through the airlines themselves directly.
I honestly don't think I can get the money back from the extra flight I had to buy (£1,313) apart from anyone except the insurer. It seems like a classic word of my interpretation of the policy against theirs.

Life__Goes__On

Seems like you are in a battle, at least you won't have to pay to get your case to the Ombudsman (but it does cost the insurance company)
Was it just flights via STA,  or was any accommodation paid for at the time you bought the flight?

jcrennie

Life__Goes__On said:

Seems like you are in a battle, at least you won't have to pay to get your case to the Ombudsman (but it does cost the insurance company)
Was it just flights via STA,  or was any accommodation paid for at the time you bought the flight?

It was just flights with STA. I bought a multi-flex ticket and they are claiming I can only get a voucher with that. I've put a complaint in and told them I am not willing to accept it. I get their reasoning as they want to stay afloat, but the voucher is pretty useless to me and the fact I am able to transfer it to someone else is a bit bizarre.

I am prepared to be in a battle and I'm happy to go to the Ombudsman. I've already threatened it, but I'll keep pushing it. They did not outright dismiss my claim of curtlailment which was positive but the fact I ended up coming home after my original planned date is challenging (although through no fault of my own). The bigger problem I have is they obviously have not investigated the claim properly and of course they keep calling me by my surname, which I suspect is a company error as all my travel documents are correct.

Life__Goes__On

If I'm reading it correctly  you  had flights from STA booked for 31st March,   you booked flights to come home earlier ( Qantas) but they were cancelled  then you booked flights for the 4th with Malaysia Airlines?
If that is the case who was the airline you were meant to fly home with on 31st March? (I take it that was cancelled)

jcrennie

Life__Goes__On said:

If I'm reading it correctly  you  had flights from STA booked for 31st March,   you booked flights to come home earlier ( Qantas) but they were cancelled  then you booked flights for the 4th with Malaysia Airlines?
If that is the case who was the airline you were meant to fly home with on 31st March? (I take it that was cancelled)

Yes that's correct. The original flights I bought were with Emirates. They changed their policy every 12 hours between 21st-24th March this year so I couldn't change my flights with them. I believe they sent me note of cancellation of my original flights on 23rd/24th March. Don't get me wrong, STA made some errors as well as they did not understand the gravity of the situation and a week earlier they told me to carry on with my journey until my flights were cancelled (of which I have raised a complaint about) when I had concerns about getting stuck. But who knows what they will do, and I suppose they can only go off the travel advice at that time. In the end they were so useless that I just did everything myself in terms of finding curtailment flights.

Life__Goes__On

STA had a duty to get you home, so that is one avenue you could look at, you could claim against them for the extra cost that was involved.  (STA broke the contract you had with them)
So if you haven't had a refund for the cancelled flight (31st Mar),  you can bill STA for the cost of the 4th April flight and not claim the refund
This will be under "consequential loss"
Consequential loss,  is the loss (in this case your 4th April flight)  that occurred because of the breach of contract (the cancelled 31st March flight)





     

jcrennie

Life__Goes__On said:

STA had a duty to get you home, so that is one avenue you could look at, you could claim against them for the extra cost that was involved.  (STA broke the contract you had with them)
So if you haven't had a refund for the cancelled flight (31st Mar),  you can bill STA for the cost of the 4th April flight and not claim the refund
This will be under "consequential loss"
Consequential loss,  is the loss (in this case your 4th April flight)  that occurred because of the breach of contract (the cancelled 31st March flight)





     

How would I go out billing STA? Just flat out saying they should pay for the flight?
This is a worst case scenario as it appears after last week they have handed my insurance claim over to a different advisor. They want a letter from STA stating I could not use the original ticket (technically I could, but I was advised by STA over the phone to "wait it out" a week earlier. Also trying to communicate with them at 13 hours time difference (and they shut on a Sunday) was challenging, context around why I would not leave until 4/4 and proof from Qantas that I could not re-use the booking. But as I thought, taking apart the policy and threataning to use the Financial Ombudsman seems to have at least done the trick for now.

Life__Goes__On

jcrennie said:

Life__Goes__On said:

STA had a duty to get you home, so that is one avenue you could look at, you could claim against them for the extra cost that was involved.  (STA broke the contract you had with them)
So if you haven't had a refund for the cancelled flight (31st Mar),  you can bill STA for the cost of the 4th April flight and not claim the refund
This will be under "consequential loss"
Consequential loss,  is the loss (in this case your 4th April flight)  that occurred because of the breach of contract (the cancelled 31st March flight)





     

How would I go out billing STA? Just flat out saying they should pay for the flight?
This is a worst case scenario as it appears after last week they have handed my insurance claim over to a different advisor. They want a letter from STA stating I could not use the original ticket (technically I could, but I was advised by STA over the phone to "wait it out" a week earlier. Also trying to communicate with them at 13 hours time difference (and they shut on a Sunday) was challenging, context around why I would not leave until 4/4 and proof from Qantas that I could not re-use the booking. But as I thought, taking apart the policy and threataning to use the Financial Ombudsman seems to have at least done the trick for now.

You will bill STA for the flight and make it clear you are billing them for replacement flights that you had to buy because of the cancelled flight,  you also billed them any extra expense billing this as "consequential loss"
I doubt STA will just pay up as they are wrongly withholding other payments, so I believe you would need to take court action.

With regard to the insurance, state that you had verbal instructions from STA  to "wait it out", and in legal terms  this carries the same weight as written instructions,  so this must be used as evidence. You can also state this has been backed up with many Ombudsman's rulings, that have  used such evidence.

Birseh_

jcrennie..sent you a private message