Travel Insurance

[ladybaglady]

My trip to Tenerife in July was cut short due to the bereavement of a close family relative. I was staying at a 5 star accommodation (half board) but flying with a budget airline - the holiday was booked with Thomas Cook but packaged by Seguro holidays. I arrived back in the UK exactly a week earlier than I was supposed to and when submitting a claim to my insurance I basically assumed I would receive 50% of the total cost of the holiday back. However, my claim was 'closed' with a cheque that offered me a FIFTH of the original cost of the accommodation.

I spoke to the insurance company (Axa) who advised me that the invoice I provided with the booking didn't give a detailed breakdown of the cost of the flights and accommodation separately, but that if I spoke to Thomas Cook/Seguro and I could get this breakdown then they could offer 50% of the accommodation cost back... failing that then they would apply a 'standard' 60/40 split assumption (60% = flights, 40% = accom) which was" written in their policy" � FYI I cannot find this anywhere in their policy.

Anyway, I spoke to Seguro (after unsuccessfully speaking to Thomas Cook) who said under no circumstances did they hold information regarding a breakdown of flights, etc - I did have a bit of an argument with the girl but to no avail.

Basically I am now looking for any information or assistance anyone can provide me with as to how to perhaps take this further as I suspect Axa will wash their hands (with glee) at the prospect of only having to pay out this (frankly, offensive!) amount of money.

[noahboy]

Very difficult this and that comes from an insurance broker used to dealing with this type of issue. What I would do is to get prices for flights to Tenerife using the same budget airline and see how these compare to the total cost to see if you can argue they must have been less than 60%. You could do the same for the hotel costs. Basically obtain quotes for going now which show the proprtions to help in your argument.

Not sure if it helps but worth trying. I've successfully used this tactic previously