Virgin Money travel insurance policy - declined claim.

RTguy

My Virgin Money travel insurance policy from Dec 19 has been administrated (terribly) by Travel Claims Serviced Ltd - a useful lesson in seeing beyond the big name branding when buying insurance.

I have had a claim lodged with them since Apr 20 for flights to Australia and NZ totalling £1400 with Emirates but bought via Opodo.com cancelled due to C-19, FCO advice and border closures. 

 Opodo have not fulfilled their obligation to refund. In making my claim, in months of back and forth, I had to prove that I could not claim via Chargeback and in doing so provided a letter that stated a chargeback was not possible as Opodo had written to my CC confirming they had offered a credit note. Regardless that I did not ask for this note and have still not received a refund, this is classified by Travel Claims Services as a ‘recoverable cost’ and therefore not covered by the policy.  They advised me to pursue Opodo, as if I haven’t been doing so for months.  This has been done on final appeal after my claim was dismissed.

I want to hold this company to account - they have employed every trick in the book to avoid approving my claim and effectively trapped me by asking for proof of a chargeback rejection.  Financial Ombudsman next? 

Alan_Bowen

Emirates claim that they have fulfilled all refunds to agents and director customers. You might want to check with the airline to see if the refund had been paid and it is Opodo sitting on your money. If you can prove that, you have evidence that they are in breach of contract which is to act in accordance with Emirates instructions and pass the refund back to you and a chargeback/section 75 claim should be successful and a lot quicker than getting in the queue for the Financial Ombudsman

Voyager2002

I agree with Alan Bowen. The loss is the airline's responsibility and the agent is responsible for passing the refund on to you, so the insurance company is justified in declining this claim. However, did your travel insurance (or any other insurance you have, such as household) include any cover for legal expenses? In effect you have been cheated by Opodo and may wish to take legal action to recover the refund that is due to you.

Thrugelmir

RTguy said:

Opodo had written to my CC confirming they had offered a credit note. 

Were you expecting them to tell a lie? Whatever you think of this, it's factual. 

If you don't use the travel voucher issued by the Emirates. These can be exchanged back into cash once the 12 month period for which they are dated, has expired. 

RTguy

I suppose that depends on your definition of an irrecoverable cost. If 7 months later I have still not been refunded (or formally issued the unwanted credit note) or received anything other than automatically generated emails from Opodo then I consider this cost irrecoverable.