Airline passenger news and views

I have been examining the small print of travel insurance policies.  No, this is not my new hobby but rather the inadvertent result of my having missed a flight, as reported last week. (see Travel Insurance and Road Delays 24^th April 2010)

I admit to having been lazy in the past, having simply assumed either that it will never happen to me; or that somewhere in my myriad of loyalty, credit and privilege bonus cards there lurked some travel insurance. In my defence, this was not just blind faith, the words “including travel insurance” are liberally applied. What I am discovering is the old adage that the Devil is in the Detail.    

Whilst my immediate attention has been on flights missed through road works or other traffic delays, it seems that the potential problems are much wider than this.

One big question is what happens if the airline, or more commonly the hotel, car-rental company or other supplier goes bust. Surely, this has to be covered by any self-respecting insurance policy? It turns out that a whopping 50% of policies do not always cover these events.

The consumer magazine, Holiday Which? recently reviewed various policy options after which their head of research, Rochelle Turner concluded that "The travel insurance industry must up its game and make their policies clear rather than hiding behind small print exclusions."

One point that surprised me was the extent to which the terrorism exclusion applied. I had guessed that I would not be covered for injuries etc. directly resulting from a terrorist attack but I had not understood that missing my flight because of delays caused by a bomb scare might also not be covered.

Getting back to the bankruptcies, we had the Zoom and XL problems last year and there may still be more to come this year. Two things happen, you either cannot fly out or, sometimes worse, you cannot fly back. If travelling with a low-cost airline, probably other than the big two, it would be worth checking that your insurance policy does provide the cover that you need.

The other thing to remember is that paying by credit card or using a Visa debit card (note that this is not all debit cards) gives you added protection regardless of your travel insurance. This is very good news as you will be dealing with a bank rather than waiting in line for pennies in the pound from the bankrupt company.

For credit card purchases, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes the credit card company jointly responsible with the supplier, which means they have to refund your money if the supplier goes bust. Purchases made on the Visa debit card are covered by its chargeback protection scheme which, legal terminology apart, has the same overall effect.

I, for one, am certainly going to be paying a whole lot more attention to my travel insurances over the coming months. I would be interested to hear any comments on readers’ good and bad experiences.