Insurer told us we were covered

We were caught up in the British Airways computer outage on Saturday May 27 and our flight was cancelled.

Our holiday insurance company Holidaysafe (through Travel Claims Facilities) will not accept liability for the cost of our Norway package holiday, which was booked separately to our flights.

Our Holidaysafe Premier policy said if we cancelled after a delay of 24 hours it covered us for “abandonment”.

Before cancelling our holiday, we called our provider and were told that we were covered. We had paid £3,430 for the tour. SARAH COONEY, HANTS

You had queued for around two and a half hours to drop your bags and were already checked in to your flight.

You were told you would not make your outbound flight and were redirected to another queue to rebook. You were in this queue for another four hours. Then the airport staff said that you should leave the airport and try and rebook via phone or come back the next day. There was nothing available until May 30 with British Airways.

There was another carrier leaving on May 29 but this would have cost £600 or more per person, which you could not afford. You went home by taxi.

You had already lost two days of your holiday, so decided to cancel the entire trip.

There was a 100pc cancellation policy on the holiday, which had already effectively started.

The cost of your flights was refunded by BA along with €500 (£443).

You then turned to your insurance provider, which had originally said you were covered.

Travel Claims Facilities then wrote to you and said: “We have carefully revisited the circumstances of your trip cancellation and regret to inform you that we are unable to offer payment towards your loss.” It said you should pursue BA for further compensation.

BA said that it does not pay for consequential loss such as this. Its responsibility and obligation is to get the customer from A to B.

In some circumstances it has, it said, gone beyond its obligation by paying taxi fares and so forth, but this is decided on a caseby-case basis.

Further to my involvement, Travel Claims Facilities traced your call and confirmed you had indeed been advised you were covered.

It accepted that this confirmation led you to cancel the holiday and accepted your claim on this basis.

A spokesman said: “As the appointed agent of the insurer, we must clearly inspect each claim that comes through to us.

“When we first received Sarah Cooney’s claim, it was reviewed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the policy. However, it was related to the BA systems crash and at this time, claims regarding travel disruption were to be directed to the airline.”

It has now paid £3,310, which allows for the £60 policy excess per person, without admission of liability.