Insurers and tour operators both refused to refund our curtailed trip

QIn January, my wife and I booked an eight-night package holiday to Berlin, Prague and Krakow with Railbookers, departing on March 12. It cost a total of £3,047, including flights.

As cases of Covid-19 started to rise in Europe, we asked Railbookers if we could postpone the trip. The company said it was confident it could go ahead and it was too late to reclaim the cost from suppliers.

On our first day in Berlin, we received a phone alert from the UK Government (I had signed up to the FCO’s travel advice) to say the Czech Republic was closing its borders in two days’ time and it looked likely Poland would follow suit. Railbookers managed to get us a flight back to the UK the following day, which they paid for.

To reclaim the costs of the lost holiday, I contacted Nationwide, our insurers, as our travel policy included pandemic cover. Its underwriters, UK Insurance, said we should try to claim from our tour operator or our credit card company. If that didn’t work, it would look at our case.

Railbookers said it was not responsible for the curtailed holiday and that the insurer should pay. But the insurer is now refusing to accept our claim.

– Chris Penny

AIf you have to curtail a holiday owing to unforeseeable circumstances, the Package Travel Regulations say the tour operator should make every effort to refund you for any unused flights, hotels, train tickets, excursions, etc, but only if it can recoup the cost from suppliers.

When there is no chance of a refund, the operator should provide written evidence of its inability to secure refunds. Armed with this, you should be able to claim on your insurance if you took out the policy before midMarch, when curtailment cover for pandemics was removed from policies.

As you had pandemic cover when you set off, Nationwide’s FlexPlus policy should pay out in the last resort. Its underwriters, U K Insurance, wanted detailed evidence to confirm Railbookers had declined a refund and – as is increasingly required – confirmation that a debit/credit card dispute had been raised and declined.

After three months of jumping through hoops, your claim was agreed but reversed two days later. The insurer continued to claim that Railbookers should provide the refund.

I appealed to Nationwide as your claim appeared valid. The insurer has now accepted that you had exhausted all other avenues and is refunding £2,865.01. Nationwide has also paid compensation of £350 for the confusion and delay in resolving your claim.

As the industry faces big losses due to Covid-19, customers can expect to be asked for cast-iron proof that the amount of a claim is not recoverable from a tour operator, airline, hotel, Atol bond or debit/credit card provider. If the tour company offers to reschedule a holiday or issues a credit note, the insurer won’t accept the claim.