Travel Insurance CLAIM DENIED

[ComebackQueen]

Hi All

We had recently booked a last minute holiday to Portugal over the Easter holiday period.

We saw a good deal considering it was peak time and the OH has some friends living in out there which we thought would be another good reason to go over.

We had booked about two weeks before we were due to travel.

About 2 days before the flight our three year old came down with the most awful sickness, diarrhoea and high temperature.

We had to involved NHS111 who triaged him to be seen and within a few hours not only a callback but OOH appointment made and confirmed he had viral tonsillitis because it was very red but no puss so no antibiotics unless it continued for more than seven days.

I explained I was due to catch a flight that day and they advised not to travel but couldn’t provide any reports as NHS do not provide such service and instead said a private GP would most likely provide such a letter.

We found a GP and did an online consultation as my son was poorly and we didn’t want to drive another 45 minutes considering he was soiling himself and vomiting. After the consultation I was emailed a letter saying he was not fit to fly.

Armed with this, a few days later I provided that letter, invoice of payment, cancellation payment and all other associated costs such as car hire, extra baggage and paid seats.

Natwest have declined the claim based on how soon booking to cancellation was.

Yet this defeats the entire notion of booking last minute for cheaper deals and just general spontaneity.

Should I complain and if so, are there any tips or tricks I should know.

I find this completely unreasonable as we had travel insurance in place, booked because of an amazing deal and the chance to see friends my husband hadn’t seen since pre COVID and all because my son suddenly became ill, we are penalised.

He stayed off nursery for more than a week with the lingering after effects too.

so I can not fathom what they are implying about the short booking/cancellation considering excess is £300, it would not make sense for anyone to just suddenly cancel because they were not ‘feeling it’.

Just a word of warning on this sort of thing. Insurers can refuse to pay out for anything at all if something pre-existing has not been declared, not just an issue relating to the condition itself. Not proactively asking you to declare might be an elephant trap and you should check it out. For example there was a case in the press very recently about a woman who was left with huge medical bills because she hadn’t declared her HRT.

Yes, and I think if you have an annual policy and something crops up in that year you’re also meant to tell them. Even for something minor or short lasting.

Our annual policy didn't require that (we tried to declare new things and they told us they didn't need to know!) but that did make me nervous - I'd rather give them chapter and verse than worry about being turned down on a technicality.

the woman who had not declared her HRT had also failed to declare other medication. As part of that case she did point out that she wasnt asked to pay extra on quoted from other insurers where she declared HRT.

Some insurers require anything occurring in year to be declared, the Ombudsman has made it clear that they can do this for something serious but not every cough or cold. Basically if a doctor prescribes you something tell them.

Oh I know. I was very grateful when he got back unscathed. It irritates me that I always need to declare a condition for DS that was corrected when he was 2yo (now a teen), which has caused zero issues since.