There are certain buttons on the internet that no one ever clicks. No 17-year-old presses “exit” when warned that the content is only suitable for adults aged 18 years and above. No one clicks “reject” when told about cookies (even if they should). And I thought no one ever said “yes” to Trainline’s insurance. Why bother to pay a few more quid to “insure” something as mundane and risk-free as a short train trip? Most of us just swipe past the junk insurance “offers” on train, concert and budget airline sites as speedily as possible.
But we were contacted this week by a reader who, remarkably, did actually pay £4 to insure her journey – a £37.50 ticket from Birmingham to York. And her experience when she tried to claim tells you everything you need to know about these policies.
The most extraordinary aspect of the payment protection insurance saga was not just that it was scandalously overpriced (which it was), but that even after charging ludicrous amounts, and paying vast commissions to the banks, the insurers did their best to avoid making payouts.
One wonders if train “cancellation protection” is that much different. Our reader had to cancel her trip because her friend had, unexpectedly, to go into hospital for eye surgery. She diligently assembled extensive documentation, including letters and emails from the hospital, running to 17 pages.
But her application for a refund was flatly turned down. Why? Because the cancellation policy only pays out if the person you are visiting is a close relative. If it’s a lifelong friend it is not worthy. Even aunties and uncles are excluded – only “immediate family” qualify.
Our reader describes the policy as “a complete waste of time”. TicketPlan, which sells it, doesn’t agree. It says it administers many thousands of refund applications each year on behalf of a range of different clients and receives very few complaints.
“We and Trainline go to great lengths in order to ensure that the cancellation protection facility is clear and administered fairly, but this product is not intended as a substitute for a flexible ticket.
“Clearly, the range of circumstances in which claims can be made cannot be exhaustive and a balance has to be struck between what is reasonable and what would effectively render the service impractical,” it told us. The company declined to reveal what proportion of claims received are paid.
We then took a closer look at the terms and conditions. We found that if you are the traveller but miss the train because of illness, you have to provide a doctor’s letter to show you couldn’t make the journey – at a typical cost of £20. This is not repaid. So for a £37.50 journey, that’s £20 of the compensation out of the window.
Then there are the processing fees that the company deducts from any payout which, oddly, rise according to the value of the ticket.
If you make a successful claim for a ticket costing £101, TicketPlan deducts £30 as a processing fee. If the claim is £21-£50 it deducts £10. There is no processing fee if the claim is up to £20, but if you have to pay for a £20 doctor’s note there’s little point.
Then there are other exceptions. Pregnant women can’t claim if their morning sickness means they are unable to travel. If there’s a strike on a connecting service – for example, if your ticket is King’s Cross to Edinburgh, but you can’t make it because the trains up to London from East Croydon are on strike, then cancellation protection won’t pay out.
To be fair, all these points are in the terms and conditions Trainline publishes on its site. However, when I tried to reserve a trip to Edinburgh, the booking timed-out because it took so long for me to read the T&Cs.
