Not upheld: Travel / life insurance claim disputes complaint against Aviva Insurance Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr P complained that Aviva Insurance Limited unfairly applied two policy excesses (£100 total) to his travel insurance claim when only he was the policyholder. The claim arose when Mr P and his partner needed to take a taxi to the airport after their pre-booked transport was cancelled. Aviva deducted £50 for each person who travelled in the taxi, citing policy terms that specify excesses apply per insured person per incident per trip. The ombudsman found that while the policy was in Mr P's name, it also covered his partner as an insured person, and therefore Aviva correctly applied two excesses in accordance with the policy terms. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Although Mr P argued the taxi fare would have been the same regardless of whether his partner travelled with him, the ombudsman focused on the policy coverage and terms. The policy explicitly covers both Mr P and his partner as insured persons, and the terms state that excesses apply per insured person per incident per trip. Therefore, two excesses were correctly applied. The ombudsman noted that if the partner had not been covered by the policy, she would have needed to claim under her own insurance and excesses would have been split between the two claims anyway.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website