Travel insurance when holiday is paid for by multiple people

InvestigatingTyrrell

Holiday booked by my parents for all us children and grand children.  My parents paid a fair whack but we all contributed.  

Does anyone know who should have what holiday insurance?  When we did a similar thing with the parents-in-law they told us to all take out our own travel insurance so a claim could be made if the holiday needed to be cancelled.  

However, with this holiday which has needed to be cancelled due to a cancer diagnosis we are being told we should have all had our own holiday insurance but my parents also needed to take out travel insurance for each of us.  Therefore allowing us to claim back the bits we paid for and them to claim back what they have paid for on our behalf.  

Does anyone know if this is right?  Seems slightly odd as then we have travel insurance twice on each person for the same holiday.

DullGreyGuy

The travellers are the ones that need the insurance... who paid for the holiday is irrelevant, its the travellers that are paid out if its cancelled, they get sick abroad or their suitcase is stolen.

Alderbank

DullGreyGuy said:

The travellers are the ones that need the insurance... who paid for the holiday is irrelevant, its the travellers that are paid out if its cancelled, they get sick abroad or their suitcase is stolen.

It's not very clear but I think the situation is that the entire holiday has been cancelled beforehand because of illness.
Individual travellers had not paid for their hotel accommodation, that was a gift from the parents.

The question is should each traveller each claim pro rata for their fraction of the block booking or do the parents claim for the full cost of the block booking for which they paid? (I suspect it is the latter but I do not know).

Also, not the case here but if just one guest had been unable to go although the holiday went ahead, would anyone have grounds for claiming for accommodation paid for but not used?

DullGreyGuy

Alderbank said:

DullGreyGuy said:

The travellers are the ones that need the insurance... who paid for the holiday is irrelevant, its the travellers that are paid out if its cancelled, they get sick abroad or their suitcase is stolen.

It's not very clear but I think the situation is that the entire holiday has been cancelled beforehand because of illness.
Individual travellers had not paid for their hotel accommodation, that was a gift from the parents.

The question is should each traveller each claim pro rata for their fraction of the block booking or do the parents claim for the full cost of the block booking for which they paid? (I suspect it is the latter but I do not know).

Also, not the case here but if just one guest had been unable to go although the holiday went ahead, would anyone have grounds for claiming for accommodation paid for but not used?

Each traveller claims their proportion of the bill (even though they didn't pay it) and there can then be family arguments on if they are obliged to pass that to their parents/grandparents that paid for it in the first place or if the cash is kept as the gift. The parents aren't travelling so couldn't claim. 

The non-travelling guest would have grounds to claim. 

JGB1955

Alderbank said:

The question is should each traveller each claim pro rata for their fraction of the block booking or do the parents claim for the full cost of the block booking for which they paid? (I suspect it is the latter but I do not know).

Yes, each traveller would have to claim their share of the total cost from their own insurance policy.  The parents can't claim the full cost as their insurers are only covering their individual risks - not those of third parties.

InvestigatingTyrrell

Thank you.  I think you were saying that we need to claim the cost of our part of the trip.  When I apple to my insurers they advised I could only claim for the bit I had actually paid for and they needed to see the money trail coming from my bank account.

they advised we would need insurance for each person to be taken out separately by the individuals and parents.  

To be clear it’s not as cut and dried as parents paid for accommodation and we paid for flights or anything like that.  It’s a package holiday.

To drip-feed a bit the holiday was planned for 2020 with oldest generation paying then actually booked for 2022 but cost had increased so we all agreed to help with costs.  Then cancer diagnosis meant it had to be cancelled fairly close to travelling date so we would lose a lot of money by cancelling and one party didn’t have insurance and my insurers told me they would only cover amount that could be tracked leaving my bank account - not what my parents had paid towards our travel and accommodation.  We are now hoping to travel in 2023 (although whole thing is very uncertain due to ongoing treatment) and the cost has gone up by about 5k in a year (2 children have turned 2 so now need paying for which explains some of the increase in cost).  It’s a bit of a mess but it’s been bugging me that my insurance company may have given me wrong information.

DullGreyGuy

InvestigatingTyrrell said:

Thank you.  I think you were saying that we need to claim the cost of our part of the trip.  When I apple to my insurers they advised I could only claim for the bit I had actually paid for and they needed to see the money trail coming from my bank account.

they advised we would need insurance for each person to be taken out separately by the individuals and parents.  

To be clear it’s not as cut and dried as parents paid for accommodation and we paid for flights or anything like that.  It’s a package holiday.

You spoke to a poorly trained person

An insurance policy is bound my the T&Cs in its policy book, I would challenge you (or the agent you spoke to) to show me any mainstream retail travel insurance policy* which has any clauses about the claim being limited to what you personally have paid.

You have to remember the insurance works on the basis of indemnity, you as the traveller were due to have a holiday that costs £3,000 (for example) and if that doesn't go ahead for whatever reason then you have lost the holiday and £3,000 is the appropriate payment to indemnify you (it allows you to buy another one). It doesn't matter if you didn't pay a penny for it as it was a gift, you've still lost a £3,000 holiday. 

Your parents have given you a £3,000 gift, if you decide to go or not or are too ill to go etc they have still given you a £3,000 gift and therefore they haven't lost anything and have no basis to make a claim.

* I have seen free bundled insurance with bank/credit accounts where limit is capped to what had been paid using the associated account

InvestigatingTyrrell

Thank you.  Gives me confidence to go back and argue if need be.

DullGreyGuy

InvestigatingTyrrell said:

Thank you.  Gives me confidence to go back and argue if need be.

Policies are defined by their wordings... if they say anything about him being unable to claim as he didn't pay for it then ask them to tell you which clause in the policy states this but to be honest, I'd be highly surprised if the claims people who actually pay the claims would make such a basic error.