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Hi,
My wife was due to travel today to visit her parents in Canada with our 6 month old this evening. During the night, she developed a high fever and was in excruciating pain due to Mastitis (inflammation of breast tissue with an infection) which was confirmed with a doctors appointment this afternoon. A prescription of strong penicillin was given, and was told that it needs to be kept an eye on and if the infection spreads or gets worse, we’d need to go straight to a hospital as a GP can’t do anything else.
We have Amex Platinum travel insurance, would this postponement/cancellation of the trip be covered? Replacement flights for next week are scarily expensive, and there is zero avios availability until November. (The flights were booked on avios originally).
The wording on the policy is the follows:
CANCELLING, POSTPONING AND ABANDONING YOUR TRIP
✓ £7,500 per insured person for unused travel, accommodation,
excursions and leisure activities that have been paid for,
or pre-booked, on the Card account, and these are not
refundable or a fee is charged to change them.
✓ £7,500 per insured person for costs to return home (and to
resume original trip) and unused travel and accommodation
costs where a trip has been purchased on the Card account.The only exclusion which I feel the insurers may try to use it ‘Disinclination to travel’. Whilst it would probably have been possible (but not sensible) for her to get on a flight with a high fever with an infection that needed checking, she was in no fit state to care for a 6 month old on her own for the flight and travel to/from airports on both sides. I’m currently away for work, so feeling pretty helpful from afar but need to look at next steps on what to do..
Call BA asap
Ask for a medical postponement of the tripThey will explain the process
Try BA first of all as e14 says, they’re usually pretty helpful (as they don’t want to be carrying around sick people risking diverts etc)
You’ll need some kind of certificate or proof – ask your GP if they’re willing to provide it, otherwise I’d do a video GP appointment (even if you have to pay) to get something in writing
I believe Amex will pay out the value of the Avios if you paid the taxes with the card but not cover the cost of buying new ones next week so fingers crossed BA will work with you on that
I believe Amex will pay out the value of the Avios if you paid the taxes with the card but not cover the cost of buying new ones next week so fingers crossed BA will work with you on that
I’m also of the opinion that BA should be your first port of call. With the proper evidence, they should be able to rebook with no cost to you.
If that fails however, I am keen to hear about how Amex/Axa calculate and pay out the cost of Avios. I’d have argued that the only way to not be out of pocket would be to pay out the same amount as it’d cost to buy Avios via the portal.
Try BA first of all as e14 says, they’re usually pretty helpful (as they don’t want to be carrying around sick people risking diverts etc)
You’ll need some kind of certificate or proof – ask your GP if they’re willing to provide it, otherwise I’d do a video GP appointment (even if you have to pay) to get something in writing
I believe Amex will pay out the value of the Avios if you paid the taxes with the card but not cover the cost of buying new ones next week so fingers crossed BA will work with you on that
Amex may cover the cost of replacement tickets if someone is obliged to postpone for an insurable event such as this. It isn’t totally clear in the policy as it only refers to covering any “fee” to change but someone reported recently that Amex did pay the extra costs in full. Definitely worth a call.
“Up to £7,500 for Your unused travel, accommodation, excursions and leisure activities that have been Purchased on the Card Account, which are non-refundable or any fee You are charged to change them if You cancel, postpone, change or abandon Your Trip…”
I believe that is what they do so that you’re restored to your original position. With BA refunding flights up until T-24hrs I doubt they have to pay out very often!
Of course if you’re planning to travel again soon then this doesn’t cover the cost of new flights at what is probably a much higher cost. There was a discussion recently about postponement cover recently and I don’t think anyone found a policy that would buy you new flights at a higher price to go later
Try BA first of all as e14 says, they’re usually pretty helpful (as they don’t want to be carrying around sick people risking diverts etc)
You’ll need some kind of certificate or proof – ask your GP if they’re willing to provide it, otherwise I’d do a video GP appointment (even if you have to pay) to get something in writing
I believe Amex will pay out the value of the Avios if you paid the taxes with the card but not cover the cost of buying new ones next week so fingers crossed BA will work with you on that
Amex may cover the cost of replacement tickets if someone is obliged to postpone for an insurable event such as this. It isn’t totally clear in the policy as it only refers to covering any “fee” to change but someone reported recently that Amex did pay the extra costs in full. Definitely worth a call.
“Up to £7,500 for Your unused travel, accommodation, excursions and leisure activities that have been Purchased on the Card Account, which are non-refundable or any fee You are charged to change them if You cancel, postpone, change or abandon Your Trip…”
interesting ! Difficult with Avios as they just can’t be changed but for cash then that seems like it’d cover it – the “fee” being the fare difference. Wonder if they’d pay out for new cash tickets. Especially if you cancelled more than 24hrs out and had got your Avios back. Perhaps they’d let you offset these against a new BA cash flight and cover the difference
I believe that is what they do so that you’re restored to your original position. With BA refunding flights up until T-24hrs I doubt they have to pay out very often!
Of course if you’re planning to travel again soon then this doesn’t cover the cost of new flights at what is probably a much higher cost. There was a discussion recently about postponement cover recently and I don’t think anyone found a policy that would buy you new flights at a higher price to go later
My comment above was based on a report here recently from someone who had to postpone a Eurostar trip for medical reasons and Amex paid for the new much more expensive tickets. I was surprised because that’s not strictly what it says, so there can be no certainty.
I believe that is what they do so that you’re restored to your original position. With BA refunding flights up until T-24hrs I doubt they have to pay out very often!
Of course if you’re planning to travel again soon then this doesn’t cover the cost of new flights at what is probably a much higher cost. There was a discussion recently about postponement cover recently and I don’t think anyone found a policy that would buy you new flights at a higher price to go later
My comment above was based on a report here recently from someone who had to postpone a Eurostar trip for medical reasons and Amex paid for the new much more expensive tickets. I was surprised because that’s not strictly what it says, so there can be no certainty.
Interesting! Actually makes sense as they specifically mention postponing a trip whereas Nationwide & HSBC only talk about cancelling. So they must be aware that postponing by a short period could incur some chunky uplifts in cost & may require new tickets if someone holds completely non changable tickets e.g. Avios or very inflexible airfare
Update: So I spoke to a very helpful man the evening that my flight departed, once I saw the first response to this thread. The man told me the process for the medical postponement and documentations needed and gave me the email address. He called me back after a few minutes who told me that unfortunately as the flight had already departed, my wife and infant were listed as a no-show and would not be able to rebooked via the medical postponement route. He told me that the only other thing I could do is write to the complains team, but I doubt i’ll get anything out of that.
Found this deeply frustrating as I was never told this was an option to me when I first called British Airways when it was clear that she would not be able to travel that day. I was told my only options were to move to date when there was availability in avios cabins or buy a new cash ticket (which I now know was incorrect) I am now left with an ill wife and an unhappy infant.
We would like to postpone the trip for when she is well enough to travel alone – If it was just her, she may be able to ‘suck it up’ and travel with the fever, dizziness, soreness in infected area etc, but with travelling long-haul with a 5 month old we are not wanting to book anything until she has completed the course of medication as she is still feeling quite rough.
Cash prices to rebook are scarily high… Really hoping there’s another way to get rebooked with BA but it is looking unlikely at this stage.
Waiting a call back from GP to get a note sorted for Airline or insurers…
Have you called the Amex insurance? It’s not unheard of for people to be unable to make the relevant enquiries prior to a flight departing in the case of illness, so you may be covered.
Oh dear. I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere with BA on this. A lesson for the future is you shouldn’t ever let a ticket no show, BA could have cancelled your reservation and left the ticket there whilst it was dealt with. But often it’s knowing what to ask for as front line call centre operators aren’t the most proactive.
get on the phone to Amex/AXA and see what they say about leveraging the postponing benefit. From what @JDB says this could potentially cover you for a new ticket booked on the Amex
Oh dear. I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere with BA on this. A lesson for the future is you shouldn’t ever let a ticket no show, BA could have cancelled your reservation and left the ticket there whilst it was dealt with. But often it’s knowing what to ask for as front line call centre operators aren’t the most proactive.
get on the phone to Amex/AXA and see what they say about leveraging the postponing benefit. From what @JDB says this could potentially cover you for a new ticket booked on the Amex
It’s frustrating because I tried to remedy it prior to check in closing! Will call Amex insurance this afternoon. Thanks
What did you try and do?
If you have evidence of several calls the BA that weren’t answered / disconnected that would stand you in good stead with them
Still I’d call them anyway. Even as a no show you may get some of the taxes back and it’s likely Amex would expect you to do that anyway to help ameliorate the loss.
SO I spoke to them 3 hours prior to check in closing when it was clear that my wife was not fit to travel. I was told my only options were to move to date when there was availability when purchasing using avios or buy a new cash ticket which was £2,000+ and non direct!
Just tell Axa the flight wasn’t refundable or changable as it was within 24hrs of departure. They’ll expect you to recover the taxes as @BA Flyer IHG Stayer but they wouldn’t expect you to have pursued BA’s unpublished medical process.
You’ll at least get back the value of the Avios but hopefully you can leverage the postponement wording and get a rebooked flight covered instead
SO I spoke to them 3 hours prior to check in closing when it was clear that my wife was not fit to travel. I was told my only options were to move to date when there was availability when purchasing using avios or buy a new cash ticket which was £2,000+ and non direct!
As I think has already been mentioned you need to make a formal complaint to BA about this. Your call should have been noted in the PNR. I would follow the process advised by the helpful agent and send the information into BA, stating that you will be raising a compliant and expect that a medical postponement will be actioned by customer services due to BA’s failure to offer a such a remedy.
SO I spoke to them 3 hours prior to check in closing when it was clear that my wife was not fit to travel. I was told my only options were to move to date when there was availability when purchasing using avios or buy a new cash ticket which was £2,000+ and non direct!
As I think has already been mentioned you need to make a formal complaint to BA about this. Your call should have been noted in the PNR. I would follow the process advised by the helpful agent and send the information into BA, stating that you will be raising a compliant and expect that a medical postponement will be actioned by customer services due to BA’s failure to offer a such a remedy.
At this stage, I really wouldn’t waste time with BA. The two most important things are that your wife recovers and to ascertain the position with Amex/Axa who will also tell you what, if anything you need from BA. BA has no legal obligation to offer any medical postponement and that fact that they will sometimes offer this is a matter of goodwill, something in very short supply currently, even if you are GGL, means nothing. You are also often dealing with incredibly poorly trained and inexperienced staff who make things up if they don’t know, as the culture makes them afraid to say they don’t know. Also, they tend to dig their heels in and there’s little point in arguing with them if you value your sanity.
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