What Axa are saying is that part of your policy was to guard against your losses from having to cancel if hubby was taken ill before you went and you have had the benefit of that cover for quite a while - which is true.

But presumably it was only part of the cover and some of it related to what would happen once you were away? So really you've only used part of your £109. If they were being really fair and thinking of future business they would refund (or at least let you transfer to another date) say 60% of the fee. The problem is that travel insurers are seldom fair or think of future business and what I've heard of Axa suggests this is not going to happen. Did you buy the top up through Thomson, if not their T&Cs will undoubtably protect them and their reputation seems to be on a par with the insurers.

The only advice I can offer for the future is book last minute so that you can't get caught out like this. Or possibly look into whether an annual plan would be more useful than specific dated policies - if you have more than one holiday a year it might not be much dearer given the "extra" protection of being flexible in events like this.

hi parker h
i agree with steve8482 about annual insurance,we take out annual with top up for wifes angina,top up costs £120 but for that we can have as many trips as we can afford.
so an annual quote should be looked into, we were quite surprised how reasonable the actual insurance for both of us was.

regards and all the best.

percy123.

thanks steve and perry for taking the time out to answer this post. we took out thomson silver insurance at time of booking, and were given axa number to look to them for top medical insurance. axa would not speak to us until we gave them a number which we could only get from thomson. wish they would transfer insurance save a lot of problems. think we might be the losers here so much for being careful. looks like we will have to claim for holiday cancellation less excess and then retake top up. i just pray holiday is not cancelled again. so much for a stress free zone for my poor hubby. thanks again for your time s and p. best wishes ph x

Doesn't seem very fair to me. If you do re-book then i'd look into getting the annual insurance which would mean if it happens again you are still covered for the rest of the year!

Sorry to hear about your insurance nightmare.
I am interested in the comments about annual cover when someone has angina and had an angioplasty as I didn't think you could get this cover. We have been doing single trip cover for 18 months as all companies contacted would only offer this. Tried several. We pay the post office for basic cover and then the additional medical screening part. As someone who goes away about 3 times a year (but this will now change due to the credit crunch) I obviously want to save money.

have you tried marks and spencer for holiday insurance . They have always been good in the past at covering you for pre-existing conditions so maybe worth a call.

Parker H
Apologies for hijacking your thread. Thanks Lynwestie I will try M & S.

parker h

I'm a bit confused by your last post. Why do you need to "claim for holiday cancellation less excess" ? If Thomson cancelled the holiday (ie breached the contract) they should be refunding you everything you paid them - you shouldn't need to claim off insurance.

steve thomson did refund deposit and silver insurance with no probs its the extra top up for existing medical conditions that we had to take out which cost £109 PDS which axa will not transfer to new holiday, nor thomson refund as an out of pocket expense. we recieved a claim form from axa but no tick box( for getting our money with them is on form)not transferable is all we seem to hear.looks like a lost cause. much thanks for all your replys thoughxxph

Have you tried Ros, our friendly solicitor?
You may be able to write to the company stating that the holiday was cancelled by the Tour Operator and the holiday insurance was refunded in full. As the "Top up" was not activated as the holiday was not taken, you would like to transfer to the top up to the new holiday insurance( and give them the number). Warn them if they do not swap the insurance or refund you will pursue a claim through the small claims court.

Ros should be able to give you better wording if there is a chance.

thanks stevebell we have written to thomson today so will see what happens hopefully someone will see it from our point of view,we will keep our fingers crossed as nothing else seems to have worked in our favour. thanks for your kind replies.xph

hurrah due to thomson girls in aberdeen who never gave up on us, axa are transfering our holiday top up insurance to our new holiday. we are most grateful we can now look forward to majorca next year. thanks to all who replied to this post, i hope it all works out for you too.xxphxx

great news

Excellent news! Thanks for updating us.

luci

Nice to hear a success story. Have a great time in Majorca.

Doe

thanks doe nice of you to say so xxphxx

Good news

thanks hbrac everyone is so kind xxphxx