Claiming on holiday insurance.

[LuckyManifestations]

I wonder if any of you more experienced travellers can help with with something please?
So, a friend booked a holiday for 4 of us last year. The other 3 of us paid her our share.
I took out the holiday insurance the company we booked with offered around a month ago.
The holiday is in approximately a 5 weeks time, and I no longer want to go.
Now, I know I cannot claim on my insurance purely on not wanting to go.
We have tried to sell my place to others, but no takers.
Does anyone know if/how it might be possible to claim my portion back?
Thank you

Insurance is completely irrelevant here so I’m a bit unclear about what you’re asking.

No that’s not what insurance is for

Are you asking how you can commit insurance fraud?

Your insurance is for problems with your travel, such as lost luggage, flight delays/cancellations so has nothing to do with you no longer wanting to go.
I have claimed on holiday insurance in the past where I had to lay over unexpectedly after flight issues so they paid for accomodation and new flights.

Does anyone know if/how it might be possible to claim my portion back?

Portion of what exactly? Buying the travel insurance, the cost of the flight/accommodation or something else???

Absolutely not!

I am not an experienced traveller, and was just unsure as to whether I could claim my portion back in any way.

Apologies if I wasn't clear.

My portion of the holiday was £1200.

I was asking if that is just money lost now?

Not that experienced if you have no idea what travel insurance covers. It doesn’t cover voluntarily just deciding you don’t want to travel.

No not possible if you just don’t want to go anymore. You’d have to get signed off by a doctor as unfit to fly, or your flight gets cancelled or some other incident but you can’t foresee those things.

I did state that I wasnt an experienced traveller.

Thank you. That was all I needed to know.

The only way you can get some money back is to get someone else to take your place and give you back the money you paid minus the cost of the name change and the admin fee. You cannot claim on travel insurance for “change of mind”.

Travel insurance is to cover emergencies, not a change of mind. I had a couple of claims a few years ago. The first was when I was travelling to meet up with my daughter and my connecting flight was cancelled because of storms so I had to travel by another means. The second was when DH and I went on holiday and 12 hours into the holiday my dad was unexpectedly put on palliative care (he had been well when we left home)

Thank you.

I did know I couldnt claim based on just changing my mind.

I just wondered if there were any other reasons.

Never mind, my desire not to go outweighs the money lost.

So sorry to hear that.

Do you want to discuss why you don't want to go? No worries if not, just wondered if it would help.

You might be able to get a partial refund from the insurance if thats what you mean for not going on the trip anymore.

For changing your mind there is a couple of times this does apply- eg. death of an immediate family member. But again these are all going to be things you would need to prove and would need to be someone immediately close to you, not say an uncle.

@LuckyManifestations Depending on the wording of your policy you may be able to get your money back if you can arrange for one of the following to happen. In some cases it will only work if it happens a few days before travel.

• you or one of your travel companions or a very close relative get diagnosed with a serious illness (eg cancer) are seriously injured (requiring hospitalisation) or die
• your house burns down or there's a similar catastrophic home emergency requiring your full engagement that happens shortly before the dates.
• your passport gets stolen or destroyed (except if destroyed deliberately by you) with insufficient notice to get a replacement before the travel date. (Losing it doesn't usually count)
• you get called for Jury Service or are a material witness in a trial that is taking place during your holiday dates.
• war breaks out in your destination country or similar level of disaster makes the Foreign Office advise against travelling there.

Arranging for one of these to happen may cause you more than £1200 worth of inconvenience though.

If the other 3 still going can rebook into a smaller room/smaller 3 bed apartment, there 'might' be a part refund for you.

You should be able to claim the tax back from the flight if no longer going. I don't know how that works if you booked a package though? I claimed the flight tax back years ago when I no longer wanted to go to a hens do. for multiple reasons.

Edited to say that the above have absolutely nothing to do with claiming anything from insurance though.

Thank you but no.
Nothing dramatic. I just found out some things about the holiday that are fuelling my anxiety, and rather than going and spending more money - spending money and kennelling for my dogs, I would rather cut my losses and just not go.

That made me laugh.
Thank you

It is possible, if unlikely so close to departure, that cancelling your place may get a small refund, definitely air taxes if you were flying. However there may also be an under-occupancy charge, if you were dividing accommodation between four and now three or one friend is now left occupying a room for two, which the others may not be happy to pay. Insurance is irrelevant if you just change your mind.