Travel insurance

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Nov 2003
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Southampton, UK
So, I'm after recommendations for decent travel insurance companies. Obviously it doesn't actually tell you much if you don't claim, so I'm after opinions from people who have actually had to claim for cancelled flights, lost luggage, medial costs etc.

So, what company were you covered by, what did you claim for and how was your experience?
 
Virgin, because it was 23 quid. When I travel all I really care about is medical cover and something to sort the mess out if I don't make a flight due to factors outside of my control. I therefore refuse to pay extra to insure £4000 of ripoff 'holiday money' I got from the Post Office and have no requirement to insure things like mobile phones which I manage to not lose in the UK so probably wont lose anywhere else, either.

People love to over-insure. Insurers must love it.
 
[TW]Fox;21201277 said:
Virgin, because it was 23 quid. When I travel all I really care about is medical cover and something to sort the mess out if I don't make a flight due to factors outside of my control. I therefore refuse to pay extra to insure £4000 of ripoff 'holiday money' I got from the Post Office and have no requirement to insure things like mobile phones which I manage to not lose in the UK so probably wont lose anywhere else, either.

People love to over-insure. Insurers must love it.
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So did you claim?
 
I got a year long policy with Virgin (gold coverage) which cost ~£90.

I had to claim from them for delayed baggage, although I could have gone through the airline. The claim took approximately 5 weeks for me to get a cheque back, which I thought was pretty slow. They also sent me a very confusing email stating that I had not sent all the information (I phoned them very promptly to say I had).

When I did get my cheque through, the letter was stapled to a break down of mileage, that had nothing to do with my claim and was obviously related to somebody else's.

I think the coverage was good and ultimately I got the claim money, but their claims handling was certainly a lot less slick and error free than their sales team. I get the impression that virgin outsource their claims handling to a third party.

If anything, it seems you can save a lot of money by going annual as opposed to going for a single trip.
 
[TW]Fox;21201346 said:
I didn't, but my girlfriends mother did on on the same product and they paid out without question or issue. That was a hefty cancellation claim for a full package trip, too.
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What I'm really after is a company that I know will have good customer service and will be low hassle.

Do you know how long the claim took to settle?
 
Never needed it but always gone with flexicover and been on a lot of lads holidays and got seriously drunk.

/touches wood
 
We used m+s who used AXA. It was a long time ago now but they were dire, it so happens that our honeymoon was meant to be in New Orleans a week after katrina hit. We spoke to our insurer's before we did anything, they told us to cancel, the women even said "I bet your glad your insured with us now". We cancelled, they refused to payout because they said we could have still gone.

Que months of fighting with them, we demanded (under advice) a copy / transcript of the original conversation which they said was "lost". Referee it to ombudsman in the end but they paid out before they were fully involved.
 
LOAM said:
We used m+s who used AXA. It was a long time ago now but they were dire, it so happens that our honeymoon was meant to be in New Orleans a week after katrina hit. We spoke to our insurer's before we did anything, they told us to cancel, the women even said "I bet your glad your insured with us now". We cancelled, they refused to payout because they said we could have still gone.

Que months of fighting with them, we demanded (under advice) a copy / transcript of the original conversation which they said was "lost". Referee it to ombudsman in the end but they paid out before they were fully involved.
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Wow, that's terrible!
 
I used my account with the bank (barclays)

Its part of my additions active, and when I broke my leg a week before the holiday was due they paid out almost everything in full.

Was rather pleased myself :)
 
Nitefly said:
Wow, that's terrible!
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Yeah it was slightly traumatic at the time, It was about £6000 as we had booked some really decent hotels. The intention was to have a week in New Orleans, then drive up to Chattanooga and onto Atlanta where we would depart for a week in Cape Cod / Boston. We paid for flight upgrades and had a V8 Mustang (IIRC) on hire for the drives.

The reason that they refused it was that they said we could have still done the Cape Cod part, This was despite the fact that we couldn't actually get to the US as our flights were to New Orleans Airport which was under 4metres of water and our connecting flight to Boston was from Atlanta which was being used as an evac airport and closed for several weeks. What was equally annoying was that nobody would give refunds, BA said it was non refundable. At the time I said to the guy that in that case I expected the flight to go ahead and I would be at Heathrow on the day of departure and he just laughed at me and said the flight was cancelled and I should speak to our insurers.

It took so long to resolve we never got our honeymoon either :(
 
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I'v used Virgin last 2 years, basically because they're the cheapest for the amount/type of cover I wanted.

Never heard anything bad about them, but I have never had to claim on Travel insurance so far. Hopefully never will! insurance is one of those things that we buy hoping never to have to claim on.
 
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