AA Travel Insurance - flights not covered?

joeKel73

I don't normally get travel insurance, but we were heading to the Philippines over the last few weeks and doing a good bit of travel between different locations so decided to take out a policy with AA.

One of our flights between two islands in the Philippines got cancelled with 2 days notice due to an incident with the plane. To keep with the schedule (which was mostly fully pre-paid) we booked an alternative flight at short notice at considerable expense.

I had assumed this was exactly where travel insurance stepped in, added expenses with unexpected cancellations. I rang up today to open a claim but was told only the international flights out of and returning to Ireland are covered by AA Travel Insurance. Any domestic/internal flights while abroad are not.

Does this sound right??
(before I start stepping through all the policy fine print...)

coylemj

J o e wrote: »

Does this sound right??
(before I start stepping through all the policy fine print...)

TBH yes it does. Internal flights in certain countries often involve vintage and/or poorly maintained planes so I can see how a travel policy would exclude them.

In order to fly into the EU or US, airlines have to prove that they maintain planes according to the manufacturer's schedule and they get audited regularly so for a given country in Asia or Africa, their international fleet can be top class while the same company operates a fleet of death traps at home for internal traffic, usually under a different name so that their poor accident record at home doesn't contaminate the reputation of their international airline.