Travel Insurance Woes & Tips

I would name the insurer but as mentioned, it might be better to do so after this is all settled. Plus my guess is that Admin will be nervous about their site openly criticising a high-profile organisation: they could easily be the subject of legal threat, as j2ski can't know how reasonable or not my statements are.

I have now submitted a Formal Complaint to the original vendor of the insurance (as opposed to the claims handling company), as indicated in their Guidelines. So let's see whether they expedite things.

Of course, any apologies from the vendor will be crocodile tears - they must know that outsourcing claims to the open market is going to get them a lowest common denominator, cheap-as-possible outfit. No surprise we customers end up losing out.

Just heard today from my AA Travel Insurance claims contractor, Drakefield Insurance Services. After fourteen weeks, and innumerable emails, calls and documentation, they have sent me a cheque for just under £300. I estimate they are reasonably liable for at least £1,300.

Those of you considering your next renewal may want bear my experience with AA Insurance in mind.

msej449 wrote:Just heard today from my AA Travel Insurance claims contractor, Drakefield Insurance Services. After fourteen weeks, and innumerable emails, calls and documentation, they have sent me a cheque for just under £300. I estimate they are reasonably liable for at least £1,300.

Those of you considering your next renewal may want bear my experience with AA Insurance in mind.

Bad news :( Time for you to engage in their formal complaint procedure, and then prepare your paperwork for submission to the Financial Ombudsman.

I have had many ski trips and guided many groups .

Such events do happen and I have noticed a tendency.

Skiers who have a comprehensive plan, that is house car, travel seem to get paid fast and with more support than those one shot deals.
One trip,,,,, one insurance plan. Poor choice since often person at table ( in airport) has no idea of coverage, limits etc,,,,

Also take pictures of all items before trip.

Have a witness support your claim.

Have all communications in writing.

Sent copies to head person ( yes the Director)

In final straw,,send copies to travel writers of you area.

The public image is important to many companies.

Hope you get all items.

bandit wrote:

msej449 wrote:Just heard today from my AA Travel Insurance claims contractor, Drakefield Insurance Services. After fourteen weeks, and innumerable emails, calls and documentation, they have sent me a cheque for just under £300. I estimate they are reasonably liable for at least £1,300.

Those of you considering your next renewal may want bear my experience with AA Insurance in mind.

Bad news :( Time for you to engage in their formal complaint procedure, and then prepare your paperwork for submission to the Financial Ombudsman.

Hi,

If you don't already have one, find yourself a decent solicitor.

Assuming you don't already have a solicitor who you have previously used, ring around your local ones and find someone who will give you the first half hour free. DO NOT go with a "no win no fee" one. The former will give you a more honest opinion of your claim status than the latter.

Hope you get it sorted.

OK, so apart from the on-going dispute with AA Insurance on my stolen camera equipment, an interesting statistic:

The costs associated with losing my passport in the end came to £792.
The AA insurance ceiling on costs related to replacing a passport are £250.

And this was in the event where British airways kindly re-scheduled my return flight at no extra charge (something I know easyJet would certainly not have done).

So check your cover on this item alone, and consider - if you lose your passport, you will probably have to travel to a British Consulate somewhere distant, and stay in a hotel for 3-4 days before you can pick up your replacement.

Now, I'm not complaining about this element - I read through the policy and accepted the £250 ceiling. But it has made me realise that you need more like £1,000 maximum to cover the 'loss of passport' costs.

You may be 'lucky' and lose your passport early on in the holiday and just lose a final skiing day going to pick the passport up from a nearby Consulate. But if you're unlucky you'll lose it on a Friday/Saturday, not have any local accomodation, have to travel to a distant Consulate city, stay at least 2-3 nights, and then pick it up on the Monday. And in the very worst case scenario, you then have to wait a few more days until there's a flight home, for which you have paid a premium price.

Thanks for the update. I will make sure I avoid AA insurance in future. And I hope you eventually get some more of your money back from them.

Our annual travel insurance is provided by our bank as part of a monthly fee that we pay for a package of services.

Just checked and we are also only covered up to £250 for passport loss. I'm sure we could seek alternative cover to increase to say £1,000 but then the premium would go up. There are probably lots of other limits within the policy that look to be on the light side. Also, the 'compensation' for delayed departure is fairly pointless at £100 maximum.

That's not why I have insurance though. It is the 'big ticket' items that are important. Our policy allows £10M for emergency medical expenses and £2M for personal liability.