Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

[ostell]

Helping out a friend who has had a claim against her travel insurance refused. The holiday had to be cancelled because of the French air traffic controllers strike last month. Ryan Air cancelled the flight and hence she could not take her holiday.

The reason for the refusal is that the strike was already known about when she took out the insurance.

Time line is:
Holiday booked beginning of June, starting 12th June
Insurance taken out Sunday 9th June for the start of the holiday on the 12th
Rumours about strike Monday 10th June (?)
Cancellation by Ryan Air received on 11th June (other airlines flew)

Insurance taken out with "Insure and Go"
Rejection letter from "Travel Claims Service Limited"

My take is that the strike was not know about when the insurance was taken out and if the insurers had know of the strike then why did they accept the risk.

Any ideas about next step and where to escalate?

[TUTTSI]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

TBVH I totally agree with the Insurers, the insurance was taken out after the news of the air traffic controllers strike so I really don't blame them for cancelling. However, they should be able to get some compensation back from Ryanair.

Helping out a friend who has had a claim against her travel insurance refused. The holiday had to be cancelled because of the French air traffic controllers strike last month. Ryan Air cancelled the flight and hence she could not take her holiday.

The reason for the refusal is that the strike was already known about when she took out the insurance.

Time line is:
Holiday booked beginning of June, starting 12th June
Insurance taken out Sunday 9th June for the start of the holiday on the 12th
Rumours about strike Monday 10th June (?)
Cancellation by Ryan Air received on 11th June (other airlines flew)

Insurance taken out with "Insure and Go"
Rejection letter from "Travel Claims Service Limited"

My take is that the strike was not know about when the insurance was taken out and if the insurers had know of the strike then why did they accept the risk.

Any ideas about next step and where to escalate?

[ostell]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

No, that's the whole point: The insurance was actually taken out on the Sunday, before the strike was announced.

I would tell her that she didn't have a chance if she had applied after the announcement but she didn't.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

Well in that case they must fight it tooth and nail and also try and claim compensation from Ryanair as they cancelled the flight. Did Ryanair offer alternative flights for another day?

From your time line they asked for cover from 12th so maybe that is the confusing aspect for the insurer - cover should be from the time insurance taken out and it will depend on the T&C's of the insurance company's policy in this respect. They can take this matter to the FOS for adjudication if they get no where with them. Unfortunately these days the small print and not always being in PIL is hard for people buying this sort of product.

No, that's the whole point: The insurance was actually taken out on the Sunday, before the strike was announced.

I would tell her that she didn't have a chance if she had applied after the announcement but she didn't.

[wales01man]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

I you can prove that the insurance was taken out before the srtike was never talked about or threatned before the policy was taken out she wins insurers lose or are there some other insurance laws?

[des8]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

The insurers are avoiding payment by claiming the strike was announced prior to issuing the policy.
Go back to the Insurers and ask them where in the public domain it was announced (not rumoured) there was to be a strike.
Their letter just states it was already announced, so there must be a record of this and it would be interesting to see if it was where your friend could reasonably have seen it.
It doesn't matter when the policy was issued. The actual issuance of a policy is only evidence of a contract that was struck when the proposal was accepted.
The insurers have to prove the proposer knew (or should have known) that the strike was going ahead before they made the proposal.
If your friend should have been aware of this announcement, so must the insurers and if they took the premium knowing they would not pay under this section they are close to acting fraudulently, although of course there are other policy sections which would have given cover

[Eloise01]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

Not wishing to rain on anyones parade, but in line with French law, the unions announced the dates of the strikes some time before - I believe they are required to give at least one weeks notice. A quick search on Google found that EasyJet announced possible cancellations and delays on 9th June and knew the dates of the strikes - http://www.easytravelreport.com/AIRL...Y-EASYJET.html The strike was definitely not "wild cat". It was definitely not rumours - I recall the ballot results being on BBC news! And that was before the strike happened.

Was the travel insurance specific in terms of destination and dates of travel, because I would suggest that the point of why they took on the risk may have more mileage than it wasn't known about.

[des8]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

the Easyjet report was published on the same day that the insurance was effected, so the Insurers have to show the proposer took the insurance after that report was published, and that they could reasonably be expected to know of that report. As it was on Easyjet's site and the insured was travelling with Ryanair why would the insured be looking at Easyjet's site?
Notice of the strike was also posted on Wagon lit's website on June 7th, but why would the insured know this?
If the insurers wish to avoid the claim they have to show the insured knew, or could reasonably be expected to know the strike was to take place BEFORE the contract was struck.

Unless of course they watched the news where Eloise recalls the ballot results. But in that case was the time of the strikes announced then, or were they to take place at some future undetermined date?
If the date of the strikes was not announced, then one is perfectly entitled to make a proposal. The underwriters then take the possibility of the strike occurring during the period of the policy and rate the risk and charge the premium accordingly.

[Eloise01]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

The report I saw on the news specified the dates of the strikes that were to happen. I clearly recall the reports because I was vaguely thinking of booking some flights to Greece around that period, and one of the reasons I decided not to was because I know that strikes in one place tend to have a ripple effect due to planes being in the wrong place. The fact that the report had the sates of the strikes on it meant that I decided not to book and went elsewhere.

But I do think it may be worth exploring whether the insurer knew the destination and dates because they would have also known about the strikes in advance. I am afraid I don't know how single trip policies work in this respect as I have annual multi-trip insurance, which obviously operates slightly differently because it is always in place.

[des8]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

Another aspect to bear in mind is that although strikes were announced no one could be sure what the effect would be. In the event not all flights were cancelled, so one could argue (whether successfully or not is another question) that underwriters, knowing of the strike, accepted the risk that a particular flight may have been cancelled, whereas others were not.

[Eloise01]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

Another aspect to bear in mind is that although strikes were announced no one could be sure what the effect would be. In the event not all flights were cancelled, so one could argue (whether successfully or not is another question) that underwriters, knowing of the strike, accepted the risk that a particular flight may have been cancelled, whereas others were not.

Yes I agree. As I said, I cannot see how the insurer can argue that they didn't also know the risks since the dates were known in advance, and if the OP could have known, then so could they. What I am not clear about is whether single trip insurance requires someone to say where and when they are going somewhere. I assume, for example, that it would be kind of difficult to get someone to underwrite a trip to the Cairo Museum right now? But that assumes that an insurer asks about destinations etc., and perhaps they don't. It's such a long time since I had single trip insurance that I can't recall, but isn't it just for a "generic" destination (Eg, Europe) and a specified period of time?

[des8]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

And as we were discussing in another post it appears the insurers are relying on the doctrine of "utmost good faith" by saying the insured must have known about the strikes.
That doctrine is a two edged sword as it applies also to the insurers. If they knew the strikes were to take place they should not have accepted the business.
That principle is to protect either side against advantageous knowledge possessed by the other side alone. If both sides have that knowledge, but neither declare it, neither side can rely on it to void the policy.

[ostell]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

Thanks for the responses, certainly gives food for thought. My friend certainly wanted to go on the holiday, it was just a few days away from the kids.

Some airlines did continue to fly, I presume by not overflying France, but as this was just a 4 day break then offers of a flight 2 days later were not a lot of use.

Ryanair did refund the cost of the flight but she is looking to recover the cost of the hotel and transfers.

[charitynjw]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

Hi ostell,

Do you know which policy it was?

Insure & Go have several - it might be worth checking the T&C's.

ie http://www.insureandgo.com/travel-in...y-wording.html

In this one, http://www.insureandgo.com/travel-in...PW_STD_WEB.pdf , p11 - 'Known Events' - is an exclusion.

[ostell]

Re: Travel Insurance claim declined. Insure and Go

If she had known about it, and I don't believe she did, nor had I seen anything until the start of the working week in question, I would have told her not to bother chasing.