Insurance company trying to claw back flight refund from me.

pinheadplanet

Hi. 

Our insurance company flew us home on Qatar after Emirates cancelled our flights. Eventually after much fighting we managed to get a part refund from Emirates for the flights they cancelled but now our insurance company is asking me to pay them any money that was refunded from Emirates (about £400).

This doesn't sound right. I know that Emirates will have had a legal duty to book us on to other flights once they cancelled theirs, so I can well see that my insurers have a right to claim back from Emirates the amount they paid for the Qatar flights,   but not any refund paid by Emirates to us, as this amount is not part of my insurance companies costs. 

What is the legal standpoint? 
Thanks. 

[Deleted User]

pinheadplanet said:

Hi. 

Our insurance company flew us home on Qatar after Emirates cancelled our flights. Eventually after much fighting we managed to get a part refund from Emirates for the flights they cancelled but now our insurance company is asking me to pay them any money that was refunded from Emirates (about £400).

This doesn't sound right. I know that Emirates will have had a legal duty to book us on to other flights once they cancelled theirs, so I can well see that my insurers have a right to claim back from Emirates the amount they paid for the Qatar flights,   but not any refund paid by Emirates to us, as this amount is not part of my insurance companies costs. 

What is the legal standpoint? 
Thanks. 

 Of course it's right. They probably went to try and recoup their costs from emirates only to discover you'd been paid their money. You had no right to a refund, you got your flight home. 

pinheadplanet

Is this the legal standpoint or your opinion?

Their costs are the cost of the Qatar flight which as I understand, by law is recoupable. This is my point, the Emirates refund does not make up anything of 'their costs'.

Grumpy_chap

Yes, the Emirates refund is the cost that needs to go to the insurance company to pay for the Qatar flight.  Emirates cannot pay the costs twice.  You should not expect to profit.

pinheadplanet

But the full Qatar flight costs IS fully refundable to the insurance company, so they are expected to profit from it?

Let's say the Qatar flight cost £1000 and the Emirates refund is £200, so my insurance company can recoup £1200 for a £1000 spend? Is that what you're saying?

68ComebackSpecial

pinheadplanet said:

But the full Qatar flight costs IS fully refundable to the insurance company, so they are expected to profit from it?

Let's say the Qatar flight cost £1000 and the Emirates refund is £200, so my insurance company can recoup £1200 for a £1000 spend? Is that what you're saying?

No, Emirates will pay £800 to your insurer and you will pay them £200.

JamoLew

you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding.

Put it this way -- why do you think you should have/keep the £400 ?

You had a flight booked home and you flew home - why should you profit from that (ignoring any possible delay compensation, out of pocket expenses etc)

Nebulous2

I very much doubt if your insurance company are able to claim anything from Emirates. During the pandemic liability has been limited to a refund of the cancelled flights, not what are known as ‘contingent liabilities’ Equally your insurer cannot reclaim anything, because it is you that has the contract with Emirates, assuming you paid direct, not them. What they usually do is send you away to recover money from the airline and deduct it from your claim. Did you sign anything to say you were giving your right of recovery from Emirates to your insurer?

I’d say you were extremely lucky as it was. I was insured with Directline. I was stranded in New Zealand in April and they offered no help at all.  It cost me almost £4K to get home and after that they only made a partial payment of roughly £2k and sent me away to argue with Barclaycard and lastminute.com about the rest. As it stands I’m still £1000 over and above the original cost of my flight out of pocket. 

CKhalvashi

You have received a flight home under your insurance, which you were entitled to under the terms of the policy.

Emirates therefore owe the refund to the insurer indirectly, which in this case is via you, as you shouldn't be able to unfairly profit from the situation by receiving the flight home and a refund on top.

Just for future reference if this comes up in a Google search for anyone else, I had to spend personally about £200 to get back to the UK in March via Belarus due to a flight cancellation. When putting the claim in, to make everything easier for all concerned, I took the expected refund for flights off of the initial claim and simply claimed for the remainder, minus excess. The insurer had a specific line in their form for this. This was specifically to save problems later on of who is owed what. I'd be surprised if most insurers hadn't put something in place of a similar nature.

Nebulous2

CKhalvashi said:

Just for future reference if this comes up in a Google search for anyone else, I had to spend personally about £200 to get back to the UK in March via Belarus due to a flight cancellation. When putting the claim in, to make everything easier for all concerned, I took the expected refund for flights off of the initial claim and simply claimed for the remainder, minus excess. The insurer had a specific line in their form for this. This was specifically to save problems later on of who is owed what. I'd be surprised if most insurers hadn't put something in place of a similar nature.

My insurer deducted the entire cost of both my outgoing and return flights from my claim. Over and above the money I had already paid for these flights. So rough figures, original flights £2k, additional costs £4K, claim for £4K, paid out £2k.  I booked a return flight and could not evidence the cost of each leg, so they deducted the full price of both flights from my claim pending confirmation of the breakdown. 

CKhalvashi

Nebulous2 said:

CKhalvashi said:

Just for future reference if this comes up in a Google search for anyone else, I had to spend personally about £200 to get back to the UK in March via Belarus due to a flight cancellation. When putting the claim in, to make everything easier for all concerned, I took the expected refund for flights off of the initial claim and simply claimed for the remainder, minus excess. The insurer had a specific line in their form for this. This was specifically to save problems later on of who is owed what. I'd be surprised if most insurers hadn't put something in place of a similar nature.

My insurer deducted the entire cost of both my outgoing and return flights from my claim. Over and above the money I had already paid for these flights. So rough figures, original flights £2k, additional costs £4K, claim for £4K, paid out £2k.  I booked a return flight and could not evidence the cost of each leg, so they deducted the full price of both flights from my claim pending confirmation of the breakdown. 

The original flights in this case were with Wizz (LTN-KUT-LTN), so fully priced on a one-way basis. The return flight that had to be booked (TBS-MSQ-LGW with a 25 hour layover) was also fully priced on a one-way, 2 separate ticket basis, as that's how Belavia do things now (2nd cheapest flight according to Google at the time, as I would would have been denied transit through Turkey due to a day spent in Poland 10 days prior at that point).

Surely it would have been possible for the airline to re-price on request a one way equivalent booking if you were on a traditional carrier, or even the insurer using the fare code?