Flight cancelled insurance

A snowHead

Hola,

I'm looking for a "top up" insurance to cover a gap in my existing travel policy.

I want an insurance policy to cover the costs I incur when an airline cancels a flight, for example BA recently cancelled my flight back from Salzburg and I had to pay for an Easyjet flight to get home along with additional hire car costs.

Has anyone seen such a thing please?

Thank you,

Keith

A snowHead

Can't you claim compensation from the airline. Or get a better travel policy.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks Hells Bells,

BA have said they will cover hotel and subsistence which I didn't need/look to recover, but not for the costs of hire car extension or an alternative flight to their alternatives. BA have paid out the EU261 compensation and refunded the Avios for the cancelled flight which in this case leaves me "£OK", and also means the flight was not cancelled for extraordinary circumstances which is covered by my insurance policy.

I have a policy through work which is a good one for everything else and just renewed for the next 12 months, tbh I could not see this type of cover in other policies from looking around.

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@Keith_b, Why couldn't BA just a get you back, or b. transfer you on to another carrier?

Per WikiP, "If a flight is cancelled, passengers are automatically entitled to their choice of (a.) re-routing to the same destination at the earliest opportunity (under comparable conditions); (b.) later rerouting, at the passenger's convenience, to the same destination under comparable conditions (subject to seat availability); or (c.) a refund of the ticket as well as a return flight to the point of first departure, when relevant. Any ticket refund is the price paid for the flight(s) not used, plus the cost of flights already flown in cases where the cancellation has made those flights of no purpose. Where applicable, passengers are also entitled to refreshments, communication and accommodation as described below. Where re-routing is to another airport serving the same destination, the airline must pay for onward transport to the original airport or to a close-by destination agreed with the passenger."

Did you follow BA's "rules" at the time?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Keith_b, why doesn't your existing travel insurance cover this? I had a flight cancelled by Lufthansa a couple of years ago. I couldn't claim against the airline as the reason for cancellation was weather-related, but I could have claimed against my travel insurance. In the end I decided not to as I was only 90 quid out of pocket and the excess was 75.

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@ under a new name - yep, I followed all the BA rules and BA complied with the regs by offering a later replacement flight back to Heathrow, but not Gatwick as the original destination (I live in Brighton). I did give this alternative BA flight a go but their "accept" button did not work - this all at 1230am when BA's customer service number is not in use and you know you're in competition with lots of other people with the same problem. In the end I took the refund option processed via Avios who I could speak to, not BA, and booked a flight with Easyjet back to Gatwick.

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Hi @queenie pretty please - are you well?

Speaking to my insurer this morning a claim for costs because of cancelled flights needs to be because of volcanoes, war, hurricanes etc etc (extraordinary reasons).

BA have not said why they cancelled the flight btw, the fact they paid out EU261 means they could not avoid it for "extraordinary reasons" and is an implied acknowledgement of "operational reasons" - this was during the "snow" on the 19th March - BA seem to have a habit of cancelling short haul to protect long haul.

The gap in my insurance is I don't have cover for the more boring reasons for flight cancellations.

After all it is free

@Keith_b, fair enough. I have heard about "accept" buttons not working elsewhere here... rolling eyes

and of course it would happen in the middle of the night.

Easyjet have just refunded north of CHF 1,100 incurred to get us home from Edinburgh during the late feb snow flurries. Which was a welcome bit of afternoon news for me as I was skeptical.

Most insurance policies will have this gap as you are expected to mitigate your loss by taking the airline provided alternatives - in your case if staying in pocket had been the key thing you should have taken the LHR flight and got BA to give you a taxi voucher or transfer back to Gatwick, or accepted an overnight hotel and a LGW in the morning.

You did your own thing without checking first with your insurer. TBH I might have done the same thing if getting home was a priority to me but I'd probably have half expected to have to eat some cost - just one of those things in a lifetime of travel,

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@Keith_b, awesome thanks! Where have you skied this season?

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

BA should still be liable for reasonable out of pocket expenses.
The EU compensation is to compensate you for your troubles, not to pay/offset reasonable expenses.
I think Car hire for an extra day or so, would be a lot cheaper for them to pay than a taxi/transport for yourself & clan.
As you paid with Avios, maybe make a counter offer to pay you in avios?

snow reports

@queenie - only three trips this year, Campitello di fassa, Sölden and hinterglem. Hopefully back to alpendorf next year 😊😊, how about you?

@dotm - yep, it’s a gap in the insurance I have and I’d like to close it.

I’m not getting any tips here around an extra insurance option, so I think I’ll go look at the wider policy I’ll use for next season.

You know it makes sense.

@mr egg, I agree with your analysis, however the law leads the outcome to a different conclusion

I’m not in a bad place here tbh. I’ve had this happen twice now in two years and the losses have been “£OK”, I want to be ready for when the costs don’t work out so well 😊😊😊

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@uann - sorry to hear of your cancellation as well

A snowHead

A snowHead

@Keith_b, I live in Ski Amadé now so skiing every weekend! You'll have to give me a shout if you come this way next season.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@philwig - my aim here is to cover a gap that I (and you) have not lost on yet. I reckon I will, but as you point out I might not.

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@queenie - I will be in touch when I'm down your way next and congratulations Happy

. What insurance do you use so I can move over to one that covers this scenario please?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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I had a conversation with insurers (through Nationwide FlexiPlus) about what would happen if our RyanAir Flight was one of those cancelled last September. (It was not though the one before to the same destination was). As far as I could ascertain, if my flights were delayed for 4 hours or more I would have £1 000 (minus £50 excess) per person insured, to pay for alternative travel and associated costs that I could not recover from any other source.

@Keith_b, In case thats of any use.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@caravanskier - thank you, I'll go check that one out Happy

After all it is free

Being in Insurance myself, theres never really a scenario where you are 100% covered of all eventualities. Theres usually some kind of excess to keep the cost of being the contract in the first place more affordable.
Ive had many a scenario myself where EasyJet flights out of Munich have been cancelled. One where the next available seat wasn't until late on Tuesday 48 hours later. They were going to put us up ina hotel in munich and pay for 3 meals a day from the sunday night until 21-00 ish flight on the Tuesday. I arranged independently for the five of us to remain in the hotel that EJ put us in for the sunday night, got taken my taxi from airport to city centre, paid for by EJ, and had breakfast in the hotel the following morning.
We then paid for a taxi to the Bhanhoff, got trains to Innsbruck, taxi to the airport in Innsbruck, flights back to Gatwick, arr 5pm on the Monday.

EJ paid me back every Euro it cost us to go back that way. Cant complain, so I don't understand where under Regulation 261 they couldn't compensate you. I know I was using EJ to get back. I had another scenario where we used Airlingus and they still settled my alternate flight costs.

@jafa, it's not highlit in bold at the top of EZY's Ts & Cs, but if the earliest they offer as a replacement is >48hrs from your scheduled, you can switch to an alternate airline (presumably alternate transport?) at their expense.

My recent experience during a wee bit of snow in Scotland suggests that thats the optimal choice. That said, EZY were clearly doing their best (at call centre level) to be helpful in a difficult operational situation - and as mentioned above, have refunded me completely for all pit of pocket expenses. Well done them.

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@Keith_b, at the time I had travel insurance with my bank account, NatWest. I don't have travel insurance as such any more.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Thanks everyone for the contributions here, very useful to me. Keith

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Just a thought re accept buttons not working. Might using an alternative browser have worked. More of a question than a suggestion.

@jbob - good question, in my case neither Safari nor Firefox worked on my iPhone at the time.

It would have been helpful to have a sms or automated call centre option to accept, BA use these tools for other customer interactions.

I’m personally left with the perception of BA that their priority is minimum cost compliance of their legal obligations rather than effective rerouting of a customer due to operational changes they needed to make.

Help!!

Flight cancelled insurance

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