Sam cancels travel plans
Sam had to travel to Japan for a work conference. He decided to include a side-trip to Iran before returning home to New Zealand. Sam’s work paid for the Japan leg of his trip. Sam paid for the side-trip from Japan to Iran with his credit card, which had a travel insurance policy attached to it.
Unfortunately Sam’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer before he left for Japan. Sam cancelled his trip and claimed $1,400 in un-refunded cancellation costs from the insurer of his credit card travel insurance policy, Flying High Insurance.
Flying High declined Sam’s claim. Flying High relied on an exclusion clause in its policy wording which says that you will not be covered if one of the reasons for your travel is work-related.
Sam complained to FSCL, arguing that his claim arose from the part of his travel when he was on holiday, not the part of his travel when he was working.
Our case manager negotiated with the parties and discussed the merits of their respective arguments. Flying High offered Sam $500 to resolve the complaint during these discussions, and Sam accepted this offer.
Tip
Before travelling, and if you are travelling partly for work-related matters and partly for personal reasons, make sure that you read your policy to check that:
- your travel insurance policy covers you for your journey’s entire duration and
- cover is not excluded because one of the reasons for your journey was work-related.
