Flexplus Travel Insurance

Rowlaw

We had a holiday booked at Easter to Ibiza consisting of Easyjet flights and a villa booked through a local Ibiza company.  We eventually got a refund from Easyjet for our cancelled flights.  The villa company would not refund us so I claimed on our Flexplus travel insurance in April.  The villa company did offer to carry forward the booking to higher season when we would have to pay extra or to lower season at no extra cost.  However we are not able to take up this offer due to our personal circumstances and the fact it was due to be a special last family holiday for us all as a family and other dates are not going to be possible for us.  I have still had no formal confirmation of acceptance or denial of claim but after holding on the phone twice for over an hour and a half each time I was told that because the villa company had offered alternatives, subject to availability and additional costs depending on dates, the claim had been denied.  Nationwide themselves won't talk to me about it.  I have written formally to complain to the insurance company but no response yet (3 weeks later).  Any advice?  Has anyone else struggled with Flexplus insurance?

blindman

Rowlaw said:

.  The villa company would not refund us so I claimed on our Flexplus travel insurance in April.  The villa company did offer to carry forward the booking to higher season when we would have to pay extra or to lower season at no extra cost.  However we are not able to take up this offer due to our personal circumstances and the fact it was due to be a special last family holiday for us all as a family and other dates are not going to be possible for us.  I have still had no formal confirmation of acceptance or denial of claim but after holding on the phone twice for over an hour and a half each time I was told that because the villa company had offered alternatives, subject to availability and additional costs depending on dates, the claim had been denied.  Nationwide themselves won't talk to me about it.  I have written formally to complain to the insurance company but no response yet (3 weeks later).  Any advice?  Has anyone else struggled with Flexplus insurance?

It quite clearly states on the Nationwide web-site that if you are offered a voucher then Nationwide will not let you claim.

Whether this is fair or not has yet to be tested IMHO as there are scenarios where a voucher is useless.
IMHO I would tell Nationwide you are taking this to the Ombudsman.
The best time to ring is 08:00 on any day they are open.

Rowlaw

The website did not contain this caveat at the time I made my claim and neither does the policy wording!  I think they changed the goal posts.   I have already raised a complaint with the ombudsman but have to wait for the insurance company to respond to me before it can proceed.  Since they have not yet even denied my claim in writing "we don't do this if we tell you on the phone" - even when they only told me on the phone after I chased and then waited for 3 hours.  I only took the account out because of the insurance coverage and i would suggest people think very hard before making the same mistake.