REFUSED REFUND

joseyanne73

Hi, I was just looking for some advice.

I purchased tickets on the 5th February 2022 to take my son to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London on the 25th June 2022 to celebrate him finishing his exams/school, I took out the insurance on these tickets as you just never know.....anyway fast forward to last week when the rail strikes started, I hummed and hawed about going as we were travelling from Newcastle to London via LNER, I did keep checking my train to see if it was still going to be going but was also worried that what if we went but couldn't get home on Sunday.  Just to put you in the picture this was my first get away for myself and my son since we lost his Dad in December, so I decided to re-arrange everything to September as I thought I wouldn't have a problem with a refund, oh how I was wrong. The insurance company have just emailed me to say that as the rail strike was public knowlege I am not covered under my insurance, I have replied saying there was no public knowledge of a rail strike when the tickets were booked in February. does anyone know if I have a leg to stand on? if not I will just have to take the hit but i'm really upset that you think taking out insurance is for the best but obviouly not....  

jon81uk

Do you have a link to the terms of the insurance you purchased?

Also you have not been refused a refund. Your insurance claim has been denied.

user1977

We can't see the terms of your insurance from here - what does it say? I suspect their point may be that you could have arranged alternative transport - different if e.g. your train was cancelled at the last minute.

pinkshoes

joseyanne73 said:

Hi, I was just looking for some advice.

I purchased tickets on the 5th February 2022 to take my son to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London on the 25th June 2022 to celebrate him finishing his exams/school, I took out the insurance on these tickets as you just never know.....anyway fast forward to last week when the rail strikes started, I hummed and hawed about going as we were travelling from Newcastle to London via LNER, I did keep checking my train to see if it was still going to be going but was also worried that what if we went but couldn't get home on Sunday.  Just to put you in the picture this was my first get away for myself and my son since we lost his Dad in December, so I decided to re-arrange everything to September as I thought I wouldn't have a problem with a refund, oh how I was wrong. The insurance company have just emailed me to say that as the rail strike was public knowlege I am not covered under my insurance, I have replied saying there was no public knowledge of a rail strike when the tickets were booked in February. does anyone know if I have a leg to stand on? if not I will just have to take the hit but i'm really upset that you think taking out insurance is for the best but obviouly not....  

Surely your decision to rearrange everything was a couple of days prior to the 25th June, in which case did you not phone the train people to change your tickets, and phone the theatre to change the date of your booking?

Who was the insurance taken out with?

Companies like TicketPlan offer insurance, and their T&Cs state they will refund if:
unexpected disruption of the public transport network which could not have been reasonably known about before the date or time of the booked event provided you supply an official notice from the transport service provider in the event

So assuming the theatre were not able to move the ticket (again, did you phone and check??) and the train did not run, then your insurance (depending on the T&Cs) should pay out.

Can you post a copy of the T&Cs?

jon81uk

pinkshoes said:

joseyanne73 said:

Hi, I was just looking for some advice.

I purchased tickets on the 5th February 2022 to take my son to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London on the 25th June 2022 to celebrate him finishing his exams/school, I took out the insurance on these tickets as you just never know.....anyway fast forward to last week when the rail strikes started, I hummed and hawed about going as we were travelling from Newcastle to London via LNER, I did keep checking my train to see if it was still going to be going but was also worried that what if we went but couldn't get home on Sunday.  Just to put you in the picture this was my first get away for myself and my son since we lost his Dad in December, so I decided to re-arrange everything to September as I thought I wouldn't have a problem with a refund, oh how I was wrong. The insurance company have just emailed me to say that as the rail strike was public knowlege I am not covered under my insurance, I have replied saying there was no public knowledge of a rail strike when the tickets were booked in February. does anyone know if I have a leg to stand on? if not I will just have to take the hit but i'm really upset that you think taking out insurance is for the best but obviouly not....  

Companies like TicketPlan offer insurance, and their T&Cs state they will refund if:
unexpected disruption of the public transport network which could not have been reasonably known about before the date or time of the booked event provided you supply an official notice from the transport service provider in the event

But the strikes were known about two weeks in advance, it was reasonably known before the date of the booked event as strikes were announced on the 7 June. Yes changing plans isn't ideal but it isn't just a unknown disruption.

joseyanne73

Thank you for the comments, I'm all sorted.

jon81uk

joseyanne73 said:

Thank you for the comments, I'm all sorted.

Out of interest how did you get it sorted?

Did the insurance pay out? Did the theatre move the booking?