Times when travel insurance has paid off for you

[Waterweight]

Just that. Anybody had Experiance of travel insurance "working" & what was the result ?

Evacuated from our villa, after arriving 24hrs earlier, because of a wildfire.
We changed our flights and booked a hotel for one night (after a night in the evacuation centre - a school).
Claimed on insurance and got money back for basically everything (accommodation, food, car hire, case and clothes left behind etc), bar flights as the plane had obviously done its part.
Our insurance was with Natwest bank acc too @bettybyebye , I think they're pretty good! Used it once before for a minor medical issue and v straight forward.

We got £900 for three missed ports of a half world cruise due to bad weather. Other guests who did the full world cruise received £3,500 per person from the same insurance company. The insurance came free with a UK bank account.

$500(!!!!) bill for hotel doctor to treat DS’s raging ear infection from the swimming pool fully covered minus negligible excess

My friends son had a bad accident, head injury, and it paid for the medical airlift/flight to the main land, extra accommodation, food allowance every day. What was meant to be a week in the sun turned in to over a months stay in a foreign country whilst her son recovered in hospital before being allowed to fly home to the UK with a doctor accompanying them! This was 2 years ago and her son is still under care for this accident.

I go for insurance companies that specialise in pre-existing conditions. I have a minor heart issue so it's better to pay £100 over thousands if I get caught out. I am stupidly clumsy, so I insure mostly for that! But luckily, I've never had to claim, thank heavens.

Last September i had to cancel a £5.7k holiday when my partner ended up in hospital ICU 2 weeks before travel.

After a bit of dicking about by the insurance company we eventually got £5k back.

Not for me but for my father. He died on holiday. Insurance covered all costs of medical attention and then after, including repatriation. Absolutely every cost involved as well as the support needed to navigate the bureaucracy involved.
Thank god he was insured.

When my elderly dm visits us in France we obviously get travel insurance.
I couldn’t get the online to work one time and rang the company direct.
The very nice man asked what level we required and was a bit shocked when I replied ‘enough to get her body home.’
Dm thought this was hilarious.

Just to tell anyone who may not realise, if you book travel insurance as a one off (not annual) then you must have a return date booked.
I thought that booking dm for 3 weeks was fine as long as she returned before the insurance expired. Apparently it’s not.

They paid when I couldn't fly to Turkey as I was diagnosed with kidney stones at the hospital near Uk airport. And doctors said I couldn't fly.

Meant I couldn't go on holiday but they paid up for everything and went on a similar holiday when I was better

When I was a child I fell over on holiday and cut my head, had to go to hospital by ambulance and have stitches. Travel insurance covered all of the costs.

DH collapsed with a virus in NYC and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. There a few hours then prescribed medication. Had to reschedule a flight as not well enough to fly. It cost thousands and thank goodness we had it all covered.

Lazy journalist looking for things to quote?

Broke my camera in Israel. Insurance got me brand new one. Also for some reason they did not charge me the excess and I did not remind them.

Insurance is always booked at the same time as the holiday in this house, ever since a friend went in to very early labour overseas on holiday. Insurance ended up caring for her and her micro-preemie daughter until she was strong enough to fly home, then put them both on a private plane with a doctor and a nurse. It was just standard travel insurance through her bank account that she had.

2 occasions:

one was a weeks stay in a Middle Eastern hospital and other was for breaking a tv in a hotel room

all for £40 excess apiece

A basic £12 annual European policy from Coverwise (so AXA I think) through internet - Money Supermarket or similar - covered a fortnight in Spain in March 2020. Cancelled as first few weeks of Covid. Paid out in full, £1,600 reimbursed.

I get a yearly premium with my health insurer. Because we tend to travel outside Europe it’s not much more expensive for a yearly worldwide policy vs a single trip policy. And we don’t have to declare pre existing conditions (of which DH has a few)

I worked for an emergency repat service - I could give you 000's of cases from someone having insect bites to a broken limb while skiing needing a stretcher and nurse to get home to an air ambulance in the many many thousands.

Fifteen years ago DH ended up in hospital with sepsis and just avoided amputation of his leg. No way he would be fit to travel in 3 weeks with a gammy leg. The insurance company were amazing and refunded all costs which we deposited in savings until he was fit and healthy.

I had a claim refused for flights to what was essentially a disaster zone thanks to a horrific weather event. Apparently because it was two separate flights they wouldn't cover either which makes no sense. I've always gone for a 5 star defacto rating ever since on travel insurance - who knows whether it makes a difference. Luckily I haven't had to find out.

I've got a time it didn't help at all...

We got stuck in Cambodia when Bangkok airport was taken over by protesters. We were meant to change in Bangkok so our flight home was cancelled.

We were stuck for 3 days trying to get in touch with / a straight answer from the airline. ended up booking an alternative flight home because they were saying it would be at least 10 more days before they could get us home.

Insurance wouldn't pay as it was civil unrest.

The airline only refunded about 10% of the return flight because they said that was the 'return' portion, and wouldn't compensate for any of the £££ we'd paid for the flight home.

I think most policies cover more random things like this now but back then terrorism, acts of god etc were pretty standard exclusions.

Please also remember the GHIC cards. Not a replacement for insurance but saves the faff sometimes. Entities you to receive the same care at the same cost to locals. My FIL cut his head open in Croatia. Ambulance came in 5 mins, stitched in hospital. Produced ghic. Cost €8 in total as he produced the card.

My late husband was taken ill at the airport, so we didn't get further than the departure lounge. Cancellation of flights, accommodation and car hire all refunded.
Luggage didn't reach our destination on another trip. Given funds to buy clothes and toiletries etc, and when luggage turned up ripped to shreds, new luggage funded.

8 weeks pregnant on holiday in the US and started bleeding heavily. Covered an emergency scan and blood tests - luckily all was well and it was just a haematoma. Wasn't hugely expensive, but so glad we didn't have to sort out money on top of an already stressful experience, and didn't have to worry about needing more treatment later.

That's awful is he OK now?!