Travel Insurance

[unhappy]

To all members a note of caution, my wife & myself were caught up in the flight cancellation problems in March this year & after contacting our Travel Insurance Company & explaining that we were stranded in Tenerife & they said that's OK you are covered but keep your receipts, which we did

We booked our accommodation from the 03/01/20 to 02/04/20 and our one way outward flight for the 03/01/20, when the Pandemic started we booked our return flight early on the 27/02/20 for March we then had 2 flights cancelled & were left stranded in Tenerife.

Although we caught the first flight that flew back to the UK on the 01/05/20 it has cost us about £1500.00
to pay for extra accommodation, medication, & taxis to get home.

The WARNING is because we did not book a return flight when we flew out on the 03/01/20 the Insurance company have now declined our Insurance claim for these costs, saying it is classed as curtlaling our holiday. ( work that one out)

I am sure there are many owners like us, when we owned our own property over there & went over for long periods, only booked a one way flight so we could fly home anytime that suited us but it appears we are NOT Insured if we do this

[Georgie]

The best thing is write to the financial services compensation scheme part of the regulatory Fca

See what happens then

[angiebabes]

That’s just ridiculous Unhappy. Can you get onto your lawyer and challenge this? You took first available flight. Where does it state in your policy that you must book a return flight for cover to kick in? Seems insurance look for any loophole.  I had insurance for a cruise that was cancelled in May due to virus, they too tried to say they weren’t responsible and no refund, but I replied that I was and would take further action, seven days etc.... and next thing there was a refund in my bank account.

[will]

This happened to my friend a number of years ago.She fell ill and was in hospital for a week, and the insurance paid for the stay in hospital and all the treatment.
She arranged her own flight home and was told to keep all receipts, to claim on her return to the UK.
Her policy was a 90 day cover, but after claiming the insurance would not pay and demanded the hospital fees back.The reason was she was on a one way ticket and could have stayed more than the 90 days, therefore the policy was invalid.
She was lucky because my friend had rang and told them she was on a one way ticket but would be returning before the 90 days.The advisor told her this would be fine, but she only had her telephone bill confirming she had rang, it still took a solicitor to sort it out and she still did not get the refund for flight tickets and other expenses.

[Tanemera]

I took out travel insurance in June with Nationwide so, after reading this thread, I phoned to check if we needed to book return flights before departing.  The agent said he had never been asked the question before and thought it was definitely NOT required.  I explained what I had read (on this forum) so he went off to check the policy book and his supplementary information.  After some time he came back to confirm that there was no mention of the requirement so it was definitely safe to assume that we could travel out without booking a return.  Great, I thought, but I then asked him to send me an email to confirm what he had told me.  He said he couldn't send emails but our conversation was recorded so no problem. He then decided to check with his team manager.  The result....NO, I would not be covered unless I booked a return flight before departure.  And they wonder why we don't trust insurance companies!

[Georgie]

Madness

[nophead]

I think the reason is if you have booked both ways then the airline has to get you back either by flying you or finding you another airline and paying the cost. If you have only booked a single flight their duty of care ends when they get you there.

If you subsequently book a return flight as another single they can just cancel it and as they haven't taken you anywhere yet (as far as that flight is concerned) they don't need to bring you back.

So insurance companies would end up picking up the cost, rather than the airline.

[Tanemera]

On the other hand, nophead, if I book a return then have to return early in an emergency, Nationwide agreed that they would have to pick up the cost of the new ticket, whereas if I did not have a return pre-booked they would have no liability. So it is to their advantage for me NOT to book a return flight.
With regard to the airline's responsibility for repatriating passengers with return tickets, try explaining that to Ryanair! We were dumped by them in March and never received the applied for and promised refund. Our credit card provider eventually reimbursed us after 3 months.