'extreme weather scuppered holiday and our travel insurer wouldn't pay'

Jessica Gorst-Williams 24 November 2018 6:18am GMT _We were due to go on a skiing holiday late last winter, leaving the day before as the flight departure was at 7.50am. _ _On that day there

were extreme weather conditions. Our lane and the local roads were impassable. We were unable to leave our cottage. As you can imagine this was a very stressful time for us. We explained

our situation to our holiday company and it advised us to contact our insurer._ _Initially our insurer thought we could claim abandonment of the trip. After conversations and filling of

forms and sending the required information we were very disappointed to find we were not covered._ _We are left feeling let down over this EhicPlus Expand annual policy with Mapfre

Assistance. We would have expected to be insured for this kind of incident without looking for extra cover._ _We would appreciate your help with this matter._ JOHN PRESLAND, DEVON You went

through the insurer’s complaints procedure but were once again informed that it could not uphold your claim. The insurer referred to the policy booklet. Your circumstances did not fit with

the cancellation section. Nor did they fit with the missed “departure/connection” clause, which read: “You are covered up to the amount on the Schedule of Cover for necessary additional

accommodation and travel expenses you incur in reaching your destination if you arrive at any departure point shown on your pre-booked itinerary too late to board the public transport on

which you are booked to travel.” This needed to be as a result of failure of public transport or a road traffic accident or vehicle breakdown. The fact that you had not left your home area

ruled out your claim. Get in touch | How to contact Jessica Gorst-Williams I spoke to Mapfre, the underwriter, and it reaffirmed that the original decision to decline your claim was correct.

However, it did not agree that it had applied the right level of fairness and reasonableness when looking at the circumstances. It appreciated that there had been extreme weather conditions

and that there was only one flight a week to your proposed destination from the airport that you were intending to fly from. It therefore agreed to make a goodwill payment of £1,959 as “a

contribution”. You were abroad when I learnt of this and I asked you to check your emails. You did so and quickly contacted the insurer to point out that you had very recently been

reimbursed £480 for the ski-lift pass, something I was unaware of. The contribution was reduced accordingly to £1,479. This is what would have been paid for a valid cancellation claim,

allowing for the deduction of the excess, Air Passenger Duty, Atol fees and the small voluntary charitable donation you made. You are delighted with this result.