Travel insurance

DullGreyGuy

redginger44 said:

It was a single policy yes a very expensive lesson but I feel insurance company find any excuse not to pay surely they did not expect me to travel alone ? 

They just apply the terms as stated and available to you before buying. There is nothing that even hints that something other than sickness of your travelling companion is covered but other policies do cover a variety of things that can befall your companion. 

They dont expect anything, its a non advised sale, the obligation is on you to ensure its appropriate for your needs. Some people will travel without their friends, some are travelling solo anyway and others are buying the wrong product. 

Mass market consumer insurance is almost all unadvised sales because it's a highly commoditised product and a distressed purchase. Very few are willing to pay an extra £75+ on their travel insurance to speak to a proper advisory seller who will record all your demands and needs and then personally recommend products that meet those requirements.

redginger44

I’m not sure it is as my travel companion was unable to travel and the wording states travel companion and yes will get joint travel insurance in future 

lisyloo

You are not reading what it says correctly.
It does not say you're covered if your travelling companion can't travel.
What it says if you're covered if they can't travel due to THEIR death, serious illness, pregnancy complication.

These things are very specific in insurance policies so there is no ambiguity. 
Policies also come with a glossary for definitions of phrases like "close relative".
Serious illness also has to be very serious e.g. heart attack.
One of the scenarios I've always struggled with personally is when an elderly relative has something like flu but it's a concern as they are very frail. This is not considered serious illness.
My FIL was in hospital and we asked the consultant if there was any chance of him going onto a life support machine whilst we were on holiday as did not want sibling to deal with that alone. The consultant said he was "not a candidate for life support". The consultant told us to go on our holiday, so we did. It was 50/50 at one point but he surivived.

Did your travelling companion successfully claim?

redginger44

Yes she did as it was her Mother and her insurance company advised as our holiday was booked jointly they could not understand why I was not able to have my claim processed 

lisyloo

your travel insurance wasn't booked jointly and that's the main issue.
You only bought cover for you, not your friend's issues.

The call centre person is just being nice I'm afraid.
You're not covered because your policy doesn't offer cover for that scenario.

DullGreyGuy

redginger44 said:

Yes she did as it was her Mother and her insurance company advised as our holiday was booked jointly they could not understand why I was not able to have my claim processed 

Do you happen to know who her insurers are?

redginger44

Allianz she did try for mine as well ! 

DullGreyGuy

redginger44 said:

Allianz she did try for mine as well ! 

Assuming its direct with Allianz, they do a lot of delegate authority stuff, then their wording is materially different because their policy states:

3 a close relative of you or someone booked to travel with you;

So their policy would have covered them had the tables been reversed and it had been your mother that was ill/died as the close relative can be related to anyone thats travelling with you

Presumably the agent is like most people working in insurance company call centres and hasn't worked in a dozen different firms or studied lots of different policy books to understand the market norms and the variances. Most are just paying their way through uni or trying to work out what to do with themselves. 

Generally I'd put Allianz above Admiral in terms of quality of products but only for their direct business, they're a massive organisation and will create cheap and cheerful options for vendors who want to stick their own name on the front of the booklet.