Insurance Refuse To Cover Missed Connection

Raekwon

I flew from Dublin to Denver via Chicago with Delta a few months ago, but because of multiple delays departing and landing, I missed my connecting flight to Denver and had to spend the night in Chicago.

I'm not covered by (EC) 261/2004 as I flew with a US airline carrier, but I am covered with Gold Standard Insurance from Allianz, but after several vague correspondence via email and post, they made a final decision not to compensate me.

Their decision is based on their policy not to pay out for missed flight connections and they apparently only pay out for the first full 12 hours of delay from my destination. My flight was delayed by 45 minutes in Dublin then another 40 minutes trying to land in Chicago. That gave me less then an hour to get through O'Hare to another terminal and pasted a busy security check point, which subsequently wasn't enough time.

Overall I had to spend 15 hours overnight in O'Hare before I could get on a connecting flight. I contested their first decision via email but it took them four letters to make a final decision, which I found odd. I'm still not happy about their verdict though, I mean I purchased a premium insurance policy to cover myself just incase I was unfortunate enough to find myself in a situation like I did.

Is there anyway I could contest this decision through an independent body or ombudsman?

fdevine

You could go via the Insurance Ombudsman with a complaint but in my experience insurance companies have themselves more than covered with T&Cs, exclusions & small print

coylemj

Was the trip on a single booking or did you buy two separate flights?

Raekwon

coylemj wrote: »

Was the trip on a single booking or did you buy two separate flights?

The flights were bought together on a single trip booking

coylemj

Did Delta offer any assistance - apart from booking you on the next flight to your original destination? If you miss the last flight of the day having arrived on one of their (delayed) flights, do they just leave you to hang around in the airport overnight?

JCX BXC

Raekwon wrote: »

I'm not covered by (EC) 261/2004 as I flew with a US airline carrier

You would be covered by EU261 on the DUB-ORD flight (as the flight originated in Europe)like howevert sure after that. Id assume not however as it was booked as a single DUB-DEN flight I couldn't be sure. That's something to look into at least.

Raekwon

coylemj wrote: »

Did Delta offer any assistance - apart from booking you on the next flight to your original destination? If you miss the last flight of the day having arrived on one of their (delayed) flights, do they just leave you to hang around in the airport overnight?

No, they didn't offer me anything other then booking me on the next available flight the next morning, no offer of food/drink vouchers, accommodation, I received nothing at all.

steve-o

Your story is confusing. Delta don't fly Dublin-Chicago. If you had to go through security again, then you would have arrived at the international terminal, and the only airline flying into that terminal from Dublin are Aer Lingus.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Reati

steve-o wrote: »

Your story is confusing. Delta don't fly Dublin-Chicago. If you had to go through security again, then you would have arrived at the international terminal, and the only airline flying into that terminal from Dublin are Aer Lingus.

I've was going to say you are wrong as i've done it for work but actually you're right, it was Aer lingus then connected onto Delta for second leg under one booking.

I can't remember how the booking was done in my case (was for work) so the OP might have the same.