Passengers Warned to Be Wary of Airlines "Opt-Out" Travel Insurance

30th June, 2009

Passengers booking flights online are being warned to look out for "opt-out" travel insurance which is still automatically being added by various airlines - despite an EU ruling banning the practice last November.

EasyJet, Jet2.com and Monarch are amongst those which add the charge for travel insurance during the online booking process, with customers unchecking the box to opt-out. Opting-out means if a consumer doesn't notice the charge, it will go through without the policy being examined thoroughly and agreed to.

Which? Holiday magazine noted EasyJet's policy was the only one, amongst the 11 airlines checked, that met it's minimum criteria for adequate cover. Editor of Which? Holiday, Lorna Cowan, said:

"With airlines still opting people into insurance, consumers could unwittingly buy a product which is no use to them, and at up to £10 per person this can add up.

Research conducted by the magazine found any restrictions or exclusions in the insurance policies were not made clear at the point of sale, and were only contained in the small print. Some of the exclusions they uncovered were in British Airways and FlyBe's single trip insurance - this only covered travellers under 65. Across the board, none of the airline policies covered pre-existing medical conditions.

As a result of the magazines attention, EasyJet have said they will change their website over the summer so travel insurance was no longer automatically included. Monarch said travel insurance was made opt-out to make purchase as simple as possible and added 11 percent of it's online consumers purchased the insurance, with six percent cancelling. Jet2.com stated customers taking out insurance was a good thing and their policy was one of the cheapest.

Link to this Insurance News Item

Here's a handy little insurance news html snippet which you can put directly into your website or blog to link to this story:

This will appear on your site as follows:
Insurancewide News Story: Passengers Warned to Be Wary of Airlines "Opt-Out" Travel Insurance.