I booked flights to Lanzarote for Christmas with XL earlier this year and paid a deposit. Unfortunately, about a month ago, my husband had a heart attack. He is ok now but waiting to have an Angiogram at the end of November. Today I received a balance request from XL. They have also taken this opportunity to include amended flight details. Our return flight was due in UK at 22.10pm originally. Now it is not due back until 02.55am - the next morning!
We aren't happy about the flight tiime change and certainly wouldn't have booked a return flight landing in the middle of the night, however I don't want to lose £100 deposit.
Another issue is travel insurance. Our annual policy was still valid when my husband had the heart attack but has now expired. The cheapest quote I can now get for cover for him is £330! And that's single trip. It seems to be so high as he is waiting for the Angiogram and it's only private healthcare in the Canaries. The premium should hopefully go down if the results of the Angiogram are good, but XL want paying now, we can't afford the £330 insurance and don't really want to return at such a late time!
Advice, please!
Insurance you may find something helpful in our insurance topic - or try posting in there. Will leave a message for one of our team who recently needed to get medical insurance for a family member.
You should be able to claim against the insurance you had in force when your husband took ill, provided he didn't have any pre-existing conditions that weren't declared. You will however have to pay the excess which may be £50 each in some cases.
Your problem is as you say because your husband is waiting for the angiogram. My husband has a number of medical problems and we have had a nightmare regarding insurance, so understand where you are coming from.
One broker that I found very sympatheic and extremely helpful is JD Consultants 01689 859 102 / 103 / 104 . However, before taking out any recommended insurance check and double check that you are covered.
Alternatively, see if XL will let you transfer the holiday to a later date for after your husband has had the angiogram.
Good luck
Kath HT Admin
However,I have paid a deposit of £100 for the flights. I cannot risk paying the balance which is due now as the insurance premium they want may not come down to a reasonable amount after the angiogram. Also, XL have changed the flight to a night flight which we do not want. We have been reading XL's booking conditions and it seems to be a 'significant change' as it is a change from a day flight to a night flight and the return time changed by more than 4 hours. I wonder if we can claim the deposit back?
lanzafan
They have quoted us £33 for a single trip world wide.They send you a email with all the details within minutes and you have 14 days cooling off period if you need to cancel,they ask a few details.I hope this may be of help to you. Very best of luck to you both.
technically you now land on a different day so you may have some clout there for arguing your case!
http://www.xl.com/Privacy_Policies/booking_cond.asp
See point 3(c). Bear in mind, I've only paid the deposit, but from what I see, we may be covered for a refund of that?
You never mentioned your outbound flight altering what are the changes to that flight?
No changes to the outbound flight, just the return. I have now decided to bite the bullet and try and get my deposit back. I've written to XL on the grounds that it is a 'significant' change of over 4 hours, and a change to a night flight, which seems to meet their refund terms.
Fingers crossed that I'm right. I doubt there will be bargain Xmas flights come December when we hopefully get the angiogram results, so it looks like we'll be spending Xmas in the UK for the first time in a decade!
lanzafan
Hi,
Also any car parking charges will have to have an extra day!
Call me dim but i cant find the insurance topic
Ta Luci xx
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