'Insurer won’t pay for cruise illness - even though we paid £1,277 for cover'

I have a problem with Allianz travel insurance over a claim arising from a South American cruise. Briefly, I was diagnosed with acute bronchitis by the ship’s doctor while travelling through the Panama Canal. 

On the doctor’s recommendation, my wife and I cancelled two shore trips we had booked to take together on the following two days. Allianz paid for the medical bills (minus the excess) and for my cancelled trips but refused to cover my wife’s trips on the grounds that she was not ill. 

I have argued that the ship’s doctor would have sent me to hospital in Costa Rica, or at the very least kept me in the ship’s medical bay, had my wife not been available to stay in the cabin with me during my illness. That would have led to a far larger insurance claim.

RH, London

The £113 for the trips you had missed out on during the shortish time you were ill on this 11-week South American cruise had indeed been reimbursed. Also the other part of the claim had been paid. 

The insurance cover had cost the two of you £1,277 and allowed for a mini-stroke you had previously had, as well as for an arthritic knee. In all, the claim was for less than half of what had been paid for the insurance.

Had you had to go ashore for treatment, which was a very real possibility as you could not be left alone, the claim would have indeed been for much more.

The policy document does state that cover is provided in the event of excursions being cancelled as a result of illness. 

Further to my involvement Allianz Global Assistance said: “The decision to decline the part of the claim surrounding Mrs H’s cancelled tours was a little harsh. 

“Mr H was confined to his cabin and it was therefore understandable that his wife would have wanted to stay with him.” 

It is therefore now paying the £113 for the two onshore trips at issue.