First of all this is not COVID related. I read through all the threads and couldn't really find someone with a similar experience so interested to know if any one has experience with type of situation. It relates to a flight I had cancelled, booked with rewards points, due to Typhoon Hagibis in Japan in October 2019 and the refund of an alternative flight that needed to be booked. You can basically read the last paragraph to get to my question.
I have put in date order so easier to follow the story;
12/10/19 Was due to travel from Shizouka to Tokyo via Shinkansen however all transport from heading to Tokyo was cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis.
12/10/19 Received email from ANA that my flight from Haneda to Saigon Vietnam on 13/10/19 was cancelled. ANA were uncontactable and flights from Tokyo were grounded for a couple of days. My flight was a points booking in J with ANA and there were no flights able to be booked online, back to Vietnam, with cash for the next few days, 14-15th October 2019.
I had to return to Ho Chi Minh Vietnam by 15/10/19 for my departure at 12.30pm that same day, for my connecting flights back to Australia, SGN-SIN booked with points in J with SQ and.
SIN-MEL-SYD booked with points in F with QF.
13/10/19 Looking to reduce a potential claim, as per this wording in the PDS; "You not doing everything You can to reduce Your loss as much as possible", I found an alternative flight further south in Japan, from Nagoya direct to SGN on the 14/10/19, my flight that was cancelled was via Hanoi so this was not too bad however I did my best to reduce the claim and get back to SGN for my connecting flights. If I had of missed my J and F legs home the insurer would have been up for a much bigger claim.
From that point, all went to plan and i made the connections home.
I lodged a claim with the insurer for the new flight I had to book, it was in J the same class of travel as the cancelled flight and a few other incidentals and the claim was accepted however the claim amount accepted was reduced by a notional value of what the points were worth and the taxes I paid for the reward ticket. Ii disputed this and the insurer stood their ground and after disputing with AFCA the sent me a separate email to basically pay half the disputed amount without accepting liability.
Their reason for the reduction is based on this from the PDS;
"only those reasonable expenses over and above what You expected to pay for accommodation, meal and travelling expenses (including emergency personal telephone calls), had the Trip gone ahead as planned”
Based on that they have said that the claim was only payable for those expenses over and above what I had expected to pay had the trip gone ahead as planned. This was done by deducting the original travel expenses from the additional travel expenses.
That's understandable as you would expect to get the monies back for your cancelled flight and then you would only be basically be paying your out of pockets above what the original flights cost which the insurer would refund.
Taking all of that into account and this is where the real question lies, I only paid taxes for the cancelled flight, with the taxes paid working out to be around 7% of the cost of the new flight. In other words the taxes were low on the cancelled flight however as per the wording above, all I expected to pay out of my pocket were the taxes for the flight. Instead the insurer has made up a value for the points and reduced the claim amount by the notional value of those points plus the taxes. Would love to get some opinions on this.
I have put in date order so easier to follow the story;
12/10/19 Was due to travel from Shizouka to Tokyo via Shinkansen however all transport from heading to Tokyo was cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis.
12/10/19 Received email from ANA that my flight from Haneda to Saigon Vietnam on 13/10/19 was cancelled. ANA were uncontactable and flights from Tokyo were grounded for a couple of days. My flight was a points booking in J with ANA and there were no flights able to be booked online, back to Vietnam, with cash for the next few days, 14-15th October 2019.
I had to return to Ho Chi Minh Vietnam by 15/10/19 for my departure at 12.30pm that same day, for my connecting flights back to Australia, SGN-SIN booked with points in J with SQ and.
SIN-MEL-SYD booked with points in F with QF.
13/10/19 Looking to reduce a potential claim, as per this wording in the PDS; "You not doing everything You can to reduce Your loss as much as possible", I found an alternative flight further south in Japan, from Nagoya direct to SGN on the 14/10/19, my flight that was cancelled was via Hanoi so this was not too bad however I did my best to reduce the claim and get back to SGN for my connecting flights. If I had of missed my J and F legs home the insurer would have been up for a much bigger claim.
From that point, all went to plan and i made the connections home.
I lodged a claim with the insurer for the new flight I had to book, it was in J the same class of travel as the cancelled flight and a few other incidentals and the claim was accepted however the claim amount accepted was reduced by a notional value of what the points were worth and the taxes I paid for the reward ticket. Ii disputed this and the insurer stood their ground and after disputing with AFCA the sent me a separate email to basically pay half the disputed amount without accepting liability.
Their reason for the reduction is based on this from the PDS;
"only those reasonable expenses over and above what You expected to pay for accommodation, meal and travelling expenses (including emergency personal telephone calls), had the Trip gone ahead as planned”
Based on that they have said that the claim was only payable for those expenses over and above what I had expected to pay had the trip gone ahead as planned. This was done by deducting the original travel expenses from the additional travel expenses.
That's understandable as you would expect to get the monies back for your cancelled flight and then you would only be basically be paying your out of pockets above what the original flights cost which the insurer would refund.
Taking all of that into account and this is where the real question lies, I only paid taxes for the cancelled flight, with the taxes paid working out to be around 7% of the cost of the new flight. In other words the taxes were low on the cancelled flight however as per the wording above, all I expected to pay out of my pocket were the taxes for the flight. Instead the insurer has made up a value for the points and reduced the claim amount by the notional value of those points plus the taxes. Would love to get some opinions on this.
