The insurer declined their claim for costs caused by flight cancellation, due to a policy exclusion for war, civil disruption and terrorism.
What happened
Becky and Johnny enjoyed their holiday in Australia. But, just before they were due to go home, their return flight was cancelled because of airspace restrictions imposed as a result of conflict in the Middle East.
Because so many flights had been cancelled, there was a shortage of options and increased demand for any available travel.
Eventually, Becky and Johnny managed to find some flights that avoided the airspace restrictions, but these were very expensive so they had to draw on their savings.
When they got back to the UK, Becky and Johnny made a claim on their travel insurance. But their insurer told them the claim wasn’t covered because of a policy general exclusion relating to war.
Becky and Johnny made a complaint and, unhappy with their insurer’s response, brought the matter to us.
What we did
We considered the circumstances of Becky and Johnny’s claim and compared these to the cover outlined under their policy.
We saw that their policy covered them for:
- cancelling or cutting short their trip
- interruptions to flights due to strike or industrial action, and
- if they arrived at the airport too late to catch a flight due to delays on public transport or an accident on the motorway.
None of these things had happened and Becky and Johnny hadn’t bought the additional travel disruption extension cover offered by their insurer.
We also noted that the policy had a general exclusion for claims arising from war or terrorism.
We didn’t think that Becky and Johnny’s policy covered them for the circumstances they’d been in or that their insurer had acted unfairly by declining their claim.
So we didn’t uphold the complaint and explained our reasoning to Becky and Johnny.