Times when travel insurance has paid off for you

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

Hope he is OK now.

Surely he got the money back after claiming though to repay them?

We let our toddler have a good old run around in a playground just before our journey home, hoping to tire her out before hours of sitting. She fell, and sliced her chin open - gaping wound raining blood. So instead of catching our train to Paris, and connection to London, we ended up in an ambulance to a paediatric hospital.

Because we'd booked our eurostar and onward travel months before, we'd got a great deal and had upgraded to first class for an extra £40. Insurance were insisting that our class of travel be the same as original tickets so the next day we trundled up to the station and spent around €800 just on replacement first class tickets to London. Im not sure what the medical costs were as hospital just took insurance details but our hotel for the night was reimbursed too.

Insurance company was really easy to deal with. We just sent them copies of ticket receipts, hotel receipts, extra parking charges, and they paid us back within about 2 weeks.

It's an odd question OP, as if there is a kind of assumption that insurance rarely 'works', when surely it usually does.

We've claimed three times I think - lost luggage on outward journey, spinal fracture skiing a few years ago for DH, and extended hospital stay for my dad for an infection in Cyprus again a few years ago.

Just curious having never had too buy or use it. No real travel history really

We booked to go sailing in Turkey. A few weeks before I became I sick with gall stones and I had jaundice. The GP told me not too go on holiday. She referred me to the hospital and did a letter for the insurance company. The insurance paid every penny of the holiday, and didn’t query anything.

Husband had a horrendous virus in Greece, paid for treatment in medical centre. Pram was broken flying to Portugal, paid for it to be repaired in England.

We've claimed twice, first time was for a luggage incident. Second time was for a trip to the US that we had to cancel less than 24 before we were due to fly as we tested positive for COVID (back in 2022 when a negative test was a travel requirement!). Both claims paid out in full apart from the excess

I don't understand this at all. My insurance has a 24/7 emergency line, plus your parents could have claimed the whole cost back as soon as the BH was over.

The only time I tried to claim they wouldn't pay out because the government closed the airports (2010 Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud).

Yes, this makes no sense @HayleyBay . I've been buying travel insurance for 45 years, and cover and contact has always been 24/7.
I really don't understand how this situation could have ever come about.

I have year round cover with my bank, Claimed on it while on holiday in Turkey for a fractured elbow, easiest process ever.

It also applies to UK holidays too, we had one where we couldnt travel due to Ds illness, they paid out for the cost of the holiday then too.

We had two expensive holidays booked and paid for. One being a cruise and the other being New York. Booked for 4 of us, so total cost over both holidays was close to £20,000.

OH was diagnosed with cancer between booking and the holiday dates, so we had to cancel as he was initially going to be on chemo for 6 months and then go straight as an in patient for stem cell transplant, meaning another few months.

Separate travel insurance companies, but both paid out, in full, with no arguments or hassle at all. We just filled in the claim form, attached proof of expenses, got a GP certificate to confirm date of cancer diagnosis, etc., and both firms paid out within a few weeks.

Very impressed.

It’s possible they might have had trouble getting through to the insurance company until after the BH if they didn’t have the 24 hr emergency line to hand. However the insurance would have reimbursed what they paid out. I suspect “literally bankrupt” is an exaggeration in how the story was told.

We have it as part if our HSBC Premier account (for which we do not pay a fee).

Two years ago, my partner fell and injured her back shortly before we were due to make a 5 hour drive to a holiday cottage in Scotland. Insurer paid the cost of the cottage without even sering a receipt or doctor's note.

I accidentally crashed a mobility scooter into a plasterboard wall in a hotel. Insurance covers the bill. I don't think the hotel actually got the repair done when I visited a few years later.

Not necessarily. It's worth reading all the small print of your insurance policy and being very clear about what process you need to follow if you have an accident. There have been cases where the insurance company did not pay out because this was not followed to the letter. So, if you didn't call them - say, because you were ringing the main office number rather than the 24/7 emergency line and they were closed - before making any decisions about getting treatment, they could refuse to pay out. When we had to use the travel insurance abroad, the insurer was clear that there were only certain hospitals they would allow treatment at (some they weren't happy about because of standard of treatment, others they refused they were known to overcharge insurers).

True. I was responding to people expressing doubts about the poster’s story so didn’t consider the detail but you are right.

Just to add that poster came back & explained the insurance only reimbursed the costs it didn't pay upfront so the parents went into massive debt/missed payments on regular bills while paying upfront & it sounded as if the stress & wait for reimbursement sent them spiraling financially - by the time the insurance company agreed to pay they covered only the basic costs as first agreed not interest/fees/other bills they owed

Not sure if it was all effected by bank holiday or if they just remember that as being the start of the whole nightmare

We claimed on ours for the first time this Christmas. We were in Thailand and 3 of my 4 teens needed hospital treatment. Totalled over £2,000 and we only had to pay an excess of £100.

Family member has a heart issue on 2 cruises. Luckily was in port for both so no helicopter evacuation but all hospital costs were covered, as were the partners accommodation while staying. Also a private ambulance transfer from Europe to their home in UK

All covered from bank holiday insurance.

My mother collapsed on a flight home. Full "Is there a doctor on the plane?" drama. The plane diverted to Athens to offload her and my father. Mother in hospital with suspected heart attack for quite a few days and father taken underpants shopping by British Embassy staff. Mother then brought home with doctor in attendance on the flight and a full row of seats to allow her to lie down. They were told by the attending doctor what the cost of just the flight home with medical escort was. It was eye watering. Insurance paid out for all expenses, so hospital, flight home, dad's hotel and I can't remember if there was a fee for having had to divert the flight. All was fine in the end.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Travel insurance which is not valid on bank holidays? Really?

Felt ill on plane, on stopover taken to airport hospital. Diagnosed ruptured ectopic and sent to hospital for laparotomy to remove ruptured tube and clear out 2litres blood from abdomen. Hospital costs reimbursed, also hotel costs for DH and DD 16mths while I was in hospital and for a week when I came out. Not easy for DH as hospital wanted an up front payment in cash in local currency and we weren't expecting to disembark there. I remember signing forms on way into theatre but don't know if they related to risk/ payments etc. Think DH was made to make more payments up front while things were sorted out. I think in region of 10k so not as bad as it would have been in another country but money we did not have.

More recently £300 for Dr visits on holiday.

Ah for fucks sakes (not directed at you but this has come up a few times)

The poster already came back & explained the policy was taken out on/during a bank holiday (didn't have a 24/7 line at the time perhaps)

& The policy only covered what was spent rather then charged so the parents under stress & suddenly needing to raise a large sum of money took out debts with high fees/interest rates & failed to pay regular bills

By the time insurance reimbursed they were out of control financially & were only covered for the original expenses minus fees & interest which they had inadvertantly taken on

Just an all round bad experience compared to other posters here who were able to get in touch with their companys & everything was paid direct as needed