Missed departure

What we look at

We’ll look at:

• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 – “the cancelled flights directive” – this sets out customer’s entitlements to compensation from their airline in certain circumstances if their flight is cancelled or delayed
• Insurance Conduct of Business Sourcebook (ICOBS) rules on insurance product sales

We’ll check the policy terms and conditions, to make sure the specific reason the customer missed their flight, boat or train is covered.

• Did the customer leave enough time?

  If we think a customer left home too late and didn’t give themselves a reasonable amount of time to reach their international departure point, then we wouldn’t expect the claim to be covered by their travel insurance policy.

  For missed flight complaints, we’ll consider the airport’s recommendations for check-in. If the airport recommended the customer check in two hours before their flight time, then the customer should leave themselves enough time to get to the airport two hours before their flight.

  Most travel insurance policies don’t cover missed departures that happen because of long security checks at the airport.

• Connecting flights and policy exclusions

  Most travel insurance policies cover missed departure claims caused by ‘mechanical breakdown or failure of public transport. The definition of public transport usually includes aircraft.

  Most policies cover their customers if their flight delay means they then miss a connecting flight.

  Some policies only cover the first leg of the outbound journey leaving the UK, or the first leg of the return journey.

  If you have an exclusion like this in your policy, it should be clearly highlighted in your policy documentation. If the exclusion isn’t clear, and we think it’s unfairly affected your customer, we might say you can’t rely on the exclusion when assessing the claim.

• Policies that don't have missed departure cover

  Missed departure cover is found in most travel policies – and it’s unusual for a policy not to include it. Some policies may have missed departure as an optional add-on. We’d expect you to make it clear to your customer if your policy doesn’t have this cover included.

  Most policies also cover missed departure on the outward and return flights. If you want to limit your cover to just the outward flight, you should clearly highlight this. If the exclusion isn’t clear, and we think it’s unfairly affected your customer, we might say you can’t rely on the exclusion when assessing the claim.

• Private taxis and public transport

  Some policies cover customers if they’re using public transport and there’s been a mechanical breakdown. But some insurers might not accept a private taxi as public transport.

  We’d look at what’s fair and reasonable. If we think your customer would have missed their flight regardless of whether they’d travelled by public transport or by private taxi/their own car, then we might think it’s fair and reasonable for you to pay the claim.