Major travel insurers such as Tesco and RBS should be boycotted, argues one expert…

This is the view of Brian Wright from Karma insurance who believes that Insurers refusing to provide delayed flight and lost luggage cover for travellers flying from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 should be boycotted.

Direct Line, Tesco, Royal Bank of Scotland and Churchill have all withdrawn elements of their cover to people purchasing  travel insurance after the T5 fiasco citing ‘ insurance only covers events that the customer is not aware of at the time of purchase’’ and will not restore them until the Terminal is working properly. 

Doing a poor job

Mr Wright raged: “This is outrageous and totally immoral. It’s saying that travellers should expect their flights to be delayed and luggage to get lost and they’re on their own when it comes to sourcing compensation. 

“Given the whole ethos behind insurance is to offer peace of mind, these players are doing a pretty poor job. Customers must walk away from these insurers and send a clear message that they’re not prepared to put up with this level of discrimination.”

Sub-standard cover

Karma is also concerned that the same travel premiums are being quoted for sub-standard cover.  Brian continues: “Where are the discounts?   If they’re happy to inconvenience customers and leave them struggling to gain recompense, why not offer a 20% discount? 

“I’m appalled insurers are penalising policyholders for others mistakes when they should be supporting them, especially when they can get compensation from BA far more easily than consumers.”

He concludes: “I suspect insurers will not reinstate their cover until the end of October at the earliest when BA’s long-haul operations have moved to T5.”