‘Travel insurer let me down after my friend died on Table Mountain’

Dear Katie,

My wife and I went on holiday to South Africa with our best friends, another couple in their 60s. We flew to Cape Town on an overnight flight and arrived on a glorious sunny morning. We dropped our bags off at our guesthouse and then went straight up to Table Mountain, as clouds were set to draw in and we wanted to make the most of the sunshine.

At around 2.30pm our friend chose to walk down by himself while we got the cable car – but he never arrived at the bottom.

After several hours of him going missing, a search party went out, but he was nowhere to be found. We were all beside ourselves. At 1.30pm the following day we received a call from mountain rescue to say our friend’s body had been found. He was a very fit man, so his death came as a huge shock. We were told that there had been no fall, but there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

During the next two days we assisted his widow in dealing with the police, the British Consulate, and funeral directors. Fortunately, due to the intervention of the Consulate, our friend’s post mortem was carried out very quickly, which meant we could fly back within a couple of days.

I must say that throughout the whole traumatic few days all the involved parties were fantastic – including our insurer Allianz, which our late friend was also covered by, and which arranged for his repatriation. However, since our return Allianz has seemingly done all it can to avoid paying our claim in full. Only around 70pc of it has so far been settled.

It is refusing to pay for taxi fares between our guest house and police and funeral directors etc, and our hotel expenses between the day our friend went missing and our return to the UK. We have not asked for any money for meals during this time, and our return flights were paid for by the travel agent, Kuoni, as a gesture of goodwill.

Allianz simply says our policy does not cover these items but will go into no further detail. I am at a loss to understand its logic.

I have even pointed out to Allianz that, unbelievably, its approach is to encourage people in our situation, where they experience the death of a travelling companion, to immediately leave the grieving widow and book the earliest flight back, because that will reduce their abortive holiday costs.

I lodged a formal complaint with Allianz over a month ago about this but I have got nowhere. Despite chasing on many occasions, including having to speak with a number of very unhelpful members of its claims team, I am now in dialogue with a member of its customer care division. However I have received not one update, nor written acknowledgement, other than when I call them.

The last call on Tuesday (following a very blunt email from me) resulted in a customer service representative telling me that she was discussing the case with team leaders on Wednesday, but that they have never had to deal with a case of this nature.

She suggested they may need to speak with their underwriters, or even go to the ombudsman for guidance, none of which I believe.

I get the feeling that Allianz has no interest in the matter. It seems that it thinks it has paid most of the claim, so is hoping that, due to our grief and shock, we will give up.

– Anon 

Dear reader,

I was so sorry to hear about the devastating loss of your friend on Table Mountain. What should have been a fun and relaxing holiday with friends turned into a nightmare on the very first day, after your friend decided to go it alone by walking down while the rest of you took the cable car. After struggling to contact him by phone, it became clear something was wrong, but you faced an agonising night before discovering his fate. This must have been truly awful for you all.

He was finally found by the mountain search and rescue team, who you say were absolutely amazing, and proceedings from then on were swift, which you were all grateful for.

It is only since you returned home that you have been unhappy with your travel insurer Allianz, which has pushed back on some of the things you were claiming for.

It seems the crux of the matter lies in a feature of your travel insurance policy called the “curtailment date”, which kicks in when you have to cut your holiday short for reasons including illness or death.

Allianz seemed to be treating the end of your holiday as the day you flew home, but as you rightly say, your “holiday” ended the moment your friend was found dead on the mountain. You made this point repeatedly to Allianz, but it appeared to fall on deaf ears, which was deeply upsetting for you, given the tragic circumstances.

Happily when I made this point on your behalf, Allianz quickly listened and agreed it had made the wrong call over when your holiday ended. As a result it has agreed to settle your claim in full, bringing the value of your total claim up from around £9,000 to £11,000.

A spokesman said: “We appreciate that this has been a devastating experience for all concerned. We have spoken to Mr and Mrs G to pass on our condolences and apologies that, on this occasion, our service fell below the standards of customer service we aim to provide.

“We have reviewed the unique circumstances of this case and can confirm that we will pay Mr and Mrs G’s claim in full.”