Are you covered for lost baggage?

With the chaos that has surrounded the opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5, and the late Easter school holidays upon us, families are looking to take a break and the issue of baggage being lost or delayed is prominent.

When travelling abroad, if your luggage is lost or delayed and you need to purchase items such as a change of clothes, hygiene products or any other necessary items, you would expect your insurance policy to reimburse you. Similarly, if your flight was delayed you would expect your insurance policy to provide some form of compensation for you being stuck in the airport lounge.

Defaqto has looked into the single trip travel insurance market to see what cover is provided for lost and delayed baggage as well as being delayed at an airport. The research noted:-

14% of single trip policies do not provide any cover for delayed baggage.
40% of single trip policies only provide a maximum cover of £100 or less for delayed baggage.
40% of single trip policies only provide a maximum cover of £100 or less for compensation for flights being delayed.
74% of single trip policies provide £20 or less for the first 12 hours of being delayed at the airport.
82% of single trip policies provide £20 or less for the each subsequent 12 hours of being delayed at the airport.

Mike Powell, Consultant for General Insurance at Defaqto, said: “With the problems that have occurred with the opening of Terminal 5 and the fact that there has been widespread reports in the media of people not being able to collect their luggage and flights being cancelled or delayed, consumers do not always consider what cover is provided by their travel insurance policy for these types of eventualities. It is therefore important to check what is provided by a travel insurance policy before purchasing cover.”