EasyJet’s travel insurance says ‘no’ to my valid claim

On 18 February I booked a halfterm holiday trip for my family to Portugal. I bought the flight with easyJet and, at the same time, bought the airline’s travel insurance provided by Collinson.

A week before we were due to fly, while visiting family in the Netherlands, my four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and given oral antibiotics. These were not effective and she was rushed to hospital.

It was obvious the Portugal trip was off so I claimed on the policy, providing all necessary documents, including a declaration from a doctor stating that she had caught pneumonia and was unfit to fly.

I received a phone call from Collinson from an agent who seemed ready to settle the claim over the phone, but stopped once I said I was claiming for our nonrefundable hotel bills, as well as the flights.

The next day I received a short, generic email saying my claim had been denied. The reason stated is: “I can see from the details provided that the person giving rise to your claim was not considered stable at the time of booking your trip … we cannot consider these circumstances as unforeseen.”

This was ludicrous. A pneumonia infection cannot be foreseen. My daughter was a healthy child and was attending school at the time of the booking.

Surely this kind of case is exactly what insurance is for. The policy has a £3,000 maximum for emergency cancellation which would allow me to recover about 90% of the expenses.

JP, by email

I agree that this is exactly the kind of scenario that travel insurance is designed to cover – a last-minute medical emergency that was not foreseen.

In the end, your daughter was in the Dutch hospital for three weeks. Happily she is better now.

I struggled to find someone at Collinson to discuss this matter as its dealings are all seemingly online. When I was finally able to find the right person, the company quickly established that your claim was genuine – it appears you may have ticked the wrong box by accident. The claim has now been paid in full.