Travel Insurer won't pay out when unable to go on holiday

Capt_Mainwaring

Thrugelmir said:

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Cover should be always be obtained before the goods/service are procured not after.  That's the line the insurance company will understandably take.  In essence you've taken insurance out knowing that an event is more likely to occur than not. 

When did your family member originally make the booking? 

But we shelled out the best part of £1,000. We were always going to take holiday insurance!

Thrugelmir

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Cover should be always be obtained before the goods/service are procured not after.  That's the line the insurance company will understandably take.  In essence you've taken insurance out knowing that an event is more likely to occur than not. 

When did your family member originally make the booking? 

But we shelled out the best part of £1,000. We were always going to take holiday insurance!

Unfortunately wider human nature is to take advantage. The insurer deals in statistics and facts not intentions. 

 When was the original booking made? 

Capt_Mainwaring

i think the flight was booked four weeks before I took the holiday insurance. I thought my wife was sorting but she left it to me. Hence the innocent reason behind the delay. Nothing sinister. When you spend a sizeable chunk of cash, we have always taken travel insurance in the past and will continue to do so in the future, especially with no travel agent involved, we always organise this ourselves.

Hasbeen

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Op above is obviously a typo?  was it 09/03/2020. When you took out travel insurance?

Did the flight operate as scheduled? Was the accommodation available on the booked dates?

Barcelona went into lockdown 14/03/2020

You mention that the flight was booked 4 weeks before you took out insurance.
So perhaps booked mid February. What was the departure date?

Have others in your group been successful in claiming or only one person.

Your reply from insurance company 
"They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased"
 
They were prepared to take your money to cover you going to Spain. The unexpected event was the lockdown.

The FCO did not start to advise against all but essential travel to Spain until the 15th March

As others have said look at your policy carefully and be sure that your situation is covered.

mattyprice4004

Unfortunately it seems the insurer thinks you only took out cover because you knew the situation was going downhill - you'll now need to convince them otherwise.

Insurance always (always!) needs to be bought at the time of booking for the best cover. Also as already mentioned, what one company pays out for has absolutely no bearing on what another will cover.

Capt_Mainwaring

Hasbeen said:

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Op above is obviously a typo?  was it 09/03/2020. When you took out travel insurance? Yes, a typo I will mention in my letter of complaint. This typo tells me they are just rushing through these claims and 'copying and pasting' replies on to a standard 'we're not paying out' letter.

Did the flight operate as scheduled? Was the accommodation available on the booked dates? I believe so. The accommodation booking wasn't made by me but it has been moved on to the same week in 2021.

Barcelona went into lockdown 14/03/2020 which is AFTER I booked the insurance.

You mention that the flight was booked 4 weeks before you took out insurance.
So perhaps booked mid February. What was the departure date? the flight was on 19th July (from memory).

Have others in your group been successful in claiming or only one person. Yes - one person claimed for their family of 3.

Your reply from insurance company 
"They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased"
 
They were prepared to take your money to cover you going to Spain. The unexpected event was the lockdown.

The FCO did not start to advise against all but essential travel to Spain until the 15th March

As others have said look at your policy carefully and be sure that your situation is covered.

Thanks for your reply. 

epm-84

Thrugelmir said:

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Cover should be always be obtained before the goods/service are procured not after.  That's the line the insurance company will understandably take.  In essence you've taken insurance out knowing that an event is more likely to occur than not. 

I say a slight revision to that, unless you buy annual travel insurance, then you should find a suitable quote for insurance prior to booking your holiday (use a comparison site) and then buy insurance immediately after booking the holiday.  The reason I say that is you might plan to travel to Spain on 9-16 of the month but when you come to book you find either that date's sold out or the price has skyrocketed, so instead you book Croatia on 8-15 of the same month.  If you purchased insurance first you will find you aren't covered for the 8th and might find you aren't covered for travel to Croatia.

The only exception should be if you have an annual policy included with another product e.g. through a packaged bank account and you lose that e.g. by changing bank account, in which case you need to buy a new policy ASAP once you no longer have access to the annual policy.  If you do have such a product then you still needs to make sure it provides adequate cover.

Under normal circumstances the main reasons for getting insurance as soon as booked are:
1. If you take very ill soon after booking and won't be able to travel, you won't be able to get insurance which covers cancellation due to your illness.
2. If you've only paid a deposit and you were planning to use future pay cheques to pay the balance then you might struggle to pay or need what you've paid back if you are made redundant, which travel insurance can cover.

sheramber

if you wish to complain about your insurance company then you need to follow the complaint process which will be detailed in your insurance policy.

Capt_Mainwaring

Hasbeen said:

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Op above is obviously a typo?  was it 09/03/2020. When you took out travel insurance?

Did the flight operate as scheduled? Was the accommodation available on the booked dates?

Barcelona went into lockdown 14/03/2020

You mention that the flight was booked 4 weeks before you took out insurance.
So perhaps booked mid February. What was the departure date?

Have others in your group been successful in claiming or only one person.

Your reply from insurance company 
"They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased"
 
They were prepared to take your money to cover you going to Spain. The unexpected event was the lockdown.

The FCO did not start to advise against all but essential travel to Spain until the 15th March

As others have said look at your policy carefully and be sure that your situation is covered.

EDIT - Barcelona went in to a 'voluntary lockdown' on Friday 17th July, when Catalonia's Health Chief advised 1.6M people to stay at home following a sharp increase in cases.

Yahoo_Mail

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Hasbeen said:

Capt_Mainwaring said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds was your claim declined.

They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased; the risk of the FCO advising against travel to Spain has been well publicised for some time.

According to our records you did not purchase your insurance policy when you booked you holiday/trip, and didn’t so until 09/03/3030. At that time the media headlines included reference to an epidemic in the UK that could not be stopped and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The FCO restriction was not unexpected, and we would not be able to refund your cancellation claim'

I don't believe this response is adequate and it doesn't cover all of the points raised in our claim, like local lockdown being announced in the area we were travelling to, prior to the date of departure.

Op above is obviously a typo?  was it 09/03/2020. When you took out travel insurance?

Did the flight operate as scheduled? Was the accommodation available on the booked dates?

Barcelona went into lockdown 14/03/2020

You mention that the flight was booked 4 weeks before you took out insurance.
So perhaps booked mid February. What was the departure date?

Have others in your group been successful in claiming or only one person.

Your reply from insurance company 
"They have confirmed that 'insurance provides cover for unexpected events that happen after the policy was purchased"
 
They were prepared to take your money to cover you going to Spain. The unexpected event was the lockdown.

The FCO did not start to advise against all but essential travel to Spain until the 15th March

As others have said look at your policy carefully and be sure that your situation is covered.

EDIT - Barcelona went in to a 'voluntary lockdown' on Friday 17th July, when Catalonia's Health Chief advised 1.6M people to stay at home following a sharp increase in cases.

They're referring to the initial lockdown, which was 14/03/2020.