[Anonymous]

[TiredOldHack]

We’ve talked extensively about the pros and cons of booking a long-haul flight in Club World to start in Amsterdam, because of the huge savings to be made.

There’s a potential problem when you add additional sectors that aren’t part of the original ticket. For myself, I’m flying on from Buenos Aires (EZE) to Santiago de Chile (SCL) and I’ve booked that sector separately with LAN Chile, economy class, for £150 a head (three of us). Adding the sector to the original BA ticket would have cost £600 a head. Why? I have no idea. They’re both OneWorld members, after all.

Anyway, if you miss your flight because one of the other sectors was delayed, you are likely to be in trouble and may (probably will) have to buy new tickets.

So I checked my travel insurance. £500/head payable for missed flights, and only if you miss the starting or the ending flight on your journey – mid-journey sectors are not covered.

Not good. Nowhere near enough, especially for a long-haul CW sector.

So I Googled insurance to cover the problem, and sure enough, others have done so, most notably in a letter to the Travel section of the Sunday Times a few years ago. The paper acknowledged that it was potential disaster area and recommended that one contact the Association of British Insurance Brokers to find cover, which I did.

Result: £2000/head cover for any single flight, mid-journey sectors covered, and all for £25 a head for single-trip cover (we got a discount because Number Two Daughter, who’s travelling with us, is a student).

Contact Worldwide Travel Insurance. Tel 01892 833338 or email <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected]

This has been a public service announcement!

[MartynSinclair]

Your question is very timely as I have also tried reseaching a similar question about missed flights.

If a start of a flight is missed due to an road issue, such as an accident or as another poster suffered recently a lorry shedding its load, would this not be a considered as a “consequential loss” and be covered by making a claim on the parties car or in the case of a company, their liability insurance.

Example, car crash closed the M4 spur road. Result, passenger misses flight to Amsterdam, thus causing a further loss of an ex-Europe departure ticket – could a claim be made against the drivers insurers under 3rd party loss?

[TiredOldHack]

I dunno. I had a long correspondence with the insurance company about what causes for delay are covered, because the wording is “public transport”.

This, apparently, covers everything from bus, tube or train travel to the airport to connecting flights. If you get held up in your car on the motorway, I don’t know, because I didn’t ask. Basically, I try not to travel by car to airports: it’s the marvellous X26 bus to LHR, and motorcycle to just about anywhere else.

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