Sickness travel claim - please help!

starrybear

Hello all,

We'd planned the trip of a lifetime, pre-Covid, and having had to postpone it twice, finally got to the airport in October.

(For context, it was a 5 day USA city break, costing over £5k)

On the way to the airport, I wasn't feeling great and ended up having to run frequently from the check-in queue to the loo, where I was violently ill in the worst ways.

I quickly realised that there was no way I could board the plane in the state I was in, and once I felt able to get in the car, we went home, absolutely devastated.

It turned out to be a 24 hr thing - whether it was a bug or food poisoning, I don't know.

What I didn't do was seek further medical advice. I felt too ill initially to do anything other than rest, and i felt better within about 36 hrs  so there was no good reason to call the GP. Oh, for the benefit of hindsight...

Anyway, the insurance company won't take forward my claim without medical evidence or a certificate, and my GP have advised that they're unable to do this retrospecively. 

Does anyone have any further advice please? Could I pay privately for a backdated certificate, or do I not have a leg to stand on?

£5k is such a vast amount of money for us (and so many people) to lose - I'm so upset.

Thank you

PhotoGirlLancs

No leg to stand on I'm afraid.

DullGreyGuy

Every insurance company will want evidence to support any claim and wont just payout £5k on trust; unfortunately there are those that miss their flight for other reasons that arent covered and so try to claim they had a short term illness. The evidence required to support a medical/sickness based claim is going to have to come from a doctor.

Did you speak to the airline? I've known from first hand experience that they can at times be much more generous than they are required to be (they moved our flights for free after turning up to the airport without passport). Was all of the accommodation prepaid/non-cancellable? 


Unfortunately it is likely to be an expensive lesson for having not spoken to the Dr to get a record of the illness. 

I've only been ill before a flight once, return leg, but went to the local equivalent of Boots at the airport and loaded up on imodium that slowed things down enough to be able to take the flight. 

starrybear

I thought this may be the case. Thank you for your replies. I so wish I'd picked up the phone and logged it. Absolutely gutted.

Westin

Did you tell the airline/check-in staff?  They might have been able to add notes to your booking recording the issue at the airport.

starrybear

Westin said:

Did you tell the airline/check-in staff?  They might have been able to add notes to your booking recording the issue at the airport.

No. :-( We pulled out of the queue whilst deciding what to do. 

I wonder if the ins company would be willing or able to access the airport CCTV from that time - they'd be able to see me ending to and from the loos. Feels like a long shot though. 

As a PP said, I think this.is going to become a very expensive lesson...

TELLIT01

No doctor should provide a retrospective medical certificate if you weren't in contact with them at the time.

onashoestring

Sounds like an awful experience- in retrospect if your travelling companion had made the airline aware before the flight departed they may have been able to make a note - ( which possibly -depending on the airline - as a goodwill gesture may have given you options of changing your flight dates to a future date ) As it stands since you did not inform them prior to departure you will have been recorded as “no shows.”

While you were incapacitated at home - your travelling companion could have also checked or phoned the insurance company to see what was required to make a claim .

The onus is on you to provide proof of your sickness not for the insurance company to request CCTV from an airport .Its not in their interest to do this  as it would involve time and expense and anyway it wouldn’t be granted to them under data privacy law .

Even if theoretically the CCTV footage showed a passenger going to the toilets repeatedly , this would not of itself prove the medical cause - it could be that a passenger was drunk or scared of flying .

I understood why you are desperately exploring every avenue to recoup some of your money -but I am sorry to say that realistically without a medical certificate you are clutching at straws . 

The best you can hope to get back is your entitlement to air passenger duty (APD )refund for the flights that you didn’t take . You will need to contact the airline to claim this . Don’t have your expectations too high though , it won’t be much - depending on the type of ticket you may be able to claim from £84 each minus any admin fee that the airline charge you to process this .

DullGreyGuy

starrybear said:

Westin said:

Did you tell the airline/check-in staff?  They might have been able to add notes to your booking recording the issue at the airport.

No. :-( We pulled out of the queue whilst deciding what to do. 

I wonder if the ins company would be willing or able to access the airport CCTV from that time - they'd be able to see me ending to and from the loos. Feels like a long shot though. 

As a PP said, I think this.is going to become a very expensive lesson...

It's more than a long shot... insurers are entitled to set what reasonable evidence they are willing to accept that a coverage has been triggered. In the case of medical emergency its a medically trained expert opinion.

Not to sound as if I am bragging but the video of me would be the same but I was able to become fit to travel where as you weren't. Similarly if CCTV alone was sufficient then the person who's split up with their overseas g/friend could run from the line and back again and then claim is was a case of the squits rather than the breakup that made them abandon their holiday.