The 25 Most Bizarre Travel Insurance Claims Ever

What links a tourist who lost 84 kilograms of Bombay mix on holiday with another who had his camera stolen by a monkey? Both are among the more unusual claims received by travel insurance companies. Times Money has trawled through the files of some of the UK’s biggest insurers to bring you the 25 most bizarre travel insurance claims ever.

1. One thing you don’t expect when you go on holiday is to be harassed by a monkey. One British traveller in Gibraltar, however, was so besieged by the attentions of an over-friendly primate that he asked his insurer to refund the cost of his trip. The insurer refused but did pay out for his camera, which the monkey had run off with one evening.

2. Monkeys also blighted the romantic getaway of a couple in Malaysia, who foolishly left the window to their chalet open during the day. They returned to find their underwear, clothing and belongings strewn across the resort and neighbouring rainforest. Luckily for the clothes-less couple, their insurer paid the claim.

3. One unlucky pensioner managed to lose his false teeth after throwing up over the side of a cruise ship on the choppy seas of the Bay of Biscay. Thankfully for the squeamish septuagenarian, his misplaced dentures were covered in his travel insurance policy under lost baggage, so his claim was paid.

4. Another unfortunate pensioner had to make an even more embarrassing travel claim after a stroll on the deck of a cruise ship went disastrously wrong. The poor gentlemen was chatting with friends when a strong gust of wind lifted his toupee off his head and blew it into the sea. He never got over the shame but at least his travel policy reimbursed the cost of his hairpiece.

5. It is all too easy to lose your sunglasses, or even your passport, on holiday. Less easy, you might think, to misplace 34 large bags of Bombay mix. Yet one holidaymaker claimed he had lost £300-worth of the spicy snack while in Europe. At roughly 89p for a 250g bag, the misplaced mix would have weighed a hefty 84 kilograms. Needless to say, his insurance company turned him down.

6. It is a good idea to keep your wallet secure at all times when you are away, as one careless Briton discovered to his cost in Israel. The holidaymaker accidentally dropped his wallet down a drain in Natanya. However, his claim wasn’t for his lost credit cards or cash. It was for hospital treatment after being stung by a poisonous scorpion while reaching down into the drain to get his possessions back. Thankfully, his travel insurance covered the cost of treatment.

7. A holidaymaker in Spain lost his camera after setting it down beside him on a park bench. The strap, hanging tantalisingly down over the edge of the seat, caught the attention of a passing dog, which grabbed it and ran off with the camera. His insurer paid for a new camera under accidental damage.

8. One family camping in a remote field in Wales had their peace disturbed when a parachutist from a nearby airbase missed his target and scored a direct hit, landing on their tent and destroying their camping equipment. Sadly, the family weren’t covered for accidental damage so their insurer didn’t reimburse them.

9. It’s every parent’s nightmare. Your children are playing on the beach and they think it would be fun to bury your camcorder worth £600. Thankfully, when this happened to a family in Cornwall, their insurer saw the funny side and refunded the cost.

10. Police in a holiday resort in France were on the lookout for a wrinkle-free burglar after a woman who had her cosmetics bag stolen from her hotel room admitted that she had transferred medical-strength haemorrhoid cream into an empty tub of moisturiser earlier in the holiday. Her claim for make-up, lotions and perfume was paid.

11. A holidaymaker who was refused entry to a plane at Manchester Airport had his travel-insurance claim for holiday cancellation declined after it emerged that he had actually booked a flight from Manchester, New Hampshire, USA.

12. Mis-reading your flight details is easy to do, usually necessitating a frantic rush to the departure gate. But one family that turned up late for their flight had no such panic. Their plane had departed the previous month. They were denied compensation from their travel insurer.

13. A holidaymaker who arrived in a ski resort only to find that there was not enough snow, claimed for the cost of the brand new skis she had bought before leaving the UK. Unsurprisingly, the insurer rejected her claim.

14. A man walking along the street in Greece became so transfixed by two bikini-clad girls that he walked straight into a glass-panelled bus shelter and broke his nose. He successfully claimed on his travel insurance for his hospital bills.

15. The fairytale wedding day for a British couple on a West Indian beach went up in smoke after the bride’s dress caught fire from a brick of coal that fell from the BBQ. The quick-thinking groom picked up his now blazing bride, ran along the beach and tossed her into the ocean. They were able to claim on their travel insurance policy for the ruined wedding outfits as they had taken out wedding cover before jetting off.

16. Another couple stayed in a Parisian hotel room infested with fleas. After two days of itching and scratching, the pair cut their trip short and returned home, where they hastily burnt all their clothes on a bonfire. However, their claims for replacement wardrobe were rejected.

17. A traveller who lost his bag on holiday claimed only for its contents: a bottle of water, a newspaper and a packet of mints. With an excess on his insurance policy of £50, his claim was rejected.

18. When you’re holidaying in the Black Forest, it’s not thieves that you need to watch out for. One family left the door to their chalet open and came home to find that their wallets and passports had been eaten by a greedy goat, who had also chomped through some sandwiches that had been sitting on the kitchen table. The family’s claim for cost of new passports and wallets was rejected.

19. Sometimes Dads don’t always know best. A resourceful father whisked his teenage daughter to a local hairdresser, after she frazzled her hair on the oven in their holiday apartment in Spain. The result was hardly the work of Mr Toni and Mr Guy, leaving the girl running in tears from the salon. The dad tried, but failed, to claim the cost of the disastrous haircut from his insurance policy.

20. A chilled-out traveller in Sri Lanka needed £400 worth of hospital treatment after a large, ripe coconut fell from a tree and landed squarely on her head while she was peacefully reading below. She was knocked out cold, which is hardly surprising. Fresh coconuts weigh roughly 2 kilograms, and the trees grow up to 30 metres tall. The coconut would have been falling at 53 miles per hour when it hit the poor woman on the skull. Her insurer covered her medical expenses.

21. Meanwhile Direct Line received a claim for two lost coconuts from a couple who returned home from a holiday in Mauritius. As a coconut costs just 69p (from your local Tesco), the claim was rejected. The couple’s excess on their policy meant they would have paid for the first £50 of the cost of any claim.

22. A customer submitted a claim for a “guitar made out of a pumpkin”. The slightly baffled staff at Direct Line were forced to reject the claim.

23. The clue was in neon lights above the door. A young party animal in Greece got badly burnt when she tried to order a cocktail in local hangout called “Fire Bar”. Ignoring the loud warning buzzer, and the disappearance of her fellow drinkers, she stood firmly at the bar waiting to be served when it suddenly became engulfed in flames. She received third degree burns to her hands, and successfully claimed £300 worth of medical expenses.

24. A British backpacker was chased down the street by an angry bull in Kerala, Southern India. It wasn’t clear from his claim whether he provoked the animal, but he did require £2,800 worth of hospital treatment after the attack, which was reimbursed by his travel insurer.

25. Finally, according to one long-serving insurance underwriter, there have been more Rolex Oyster watches, worth upwards of £1,000, recorded as lost in the Costa Del Sol in the Spain than have ever been manufactured.

Image courtesy of  Franco Campione

List compiled by James Charles with grateful thanks to Churchill, Direct Line, Lloyds TSB, the AA and Norwich Union.

Comments

[A R Fontes]

My wife and I went on a cargo boat from London to Cape Town, calling at various ports on the way. Two days before we left, our daughter was suddenly taken ill and my wife decided to cancel her trip. However, within three days, daughter made a sufficiently good recovery so that my wife decided to fly to Rotterdam to join the ship when it called there. Subsequently, I tried to claim the cost of the flight under the medical section of our travel insurance. This was rejected by the insurers on the grounds that the holiday had not been cancelled. However, they added that, had I claimed that my wife had had to cancel the trip (as was originally expected), they would have paid up in full. Ther must be a moral there somewhere.

[Andrew Milner]

Keep in mind the travel agent earns more in commission on the travel insurance than he/she does on the holiday. Travel light and watch your step, and you can essentially "insure yourself".

[Mikey]

Someone of my acquaintance fell asleep in a US motel without unpacking their bags, and when they awoke the next morning their clothes, money, luggage, car keys and rental car had all gone.

It took 2 weeks for the insurers to respond at all, by which time the holidaymakers' marriage was in tatters from the stress of wearing nothing but towels and eating whatever the motel owner could spare

[Robert Jones]

25 Most Bizarre Travel Insurance Claims - No. 5, should be 84kg of bombay mix, not 8.4kg. It kinda robs the story of meaning!

[Pondlife]

I used to work for UK ski tour operator many years ago, just about the time that Sony Walkmans became the must have item. Every Monday morning we would wait for the calls to come in registering the loss of such items mislaid on the returning coaches. We would have dozens of calls and needless to say, the coach drivers never recovered a thing.

Different market from the Rolex wearers, but same way of thinking.

[Pete Thompson]

No. 8: Why didn't they claim off the parachutist, they all have to have comprehensive insurance for any damage that may be caused to third parties/property?

[Phil Hannah]

Not so much a holiday claim but my old cat once mistook our new Sony Television for a litter tray and peed down the top. Result a flash and a bang and one cat flying across the room looking like a spiny sea Urchin (she was OK but did not go near electrical appliances after that..)
The Insurance company replaced the set but imagine the fun I had filling in the claim form..

[Caroline Hutchings]

What about this one:
Two months ago the mother of a good friend of mine was on safari in South Africa. One morning she was invited by the tour guide to join him on a trip to feed their favourite (wild!) elephant. They set off in what must have been an open top vehicle. When the feeding wasn't quick enough to the elephant's taste, he decided to lift the lady out of the car by her ankle. She was dangling up side down, held by his trunk, until the guide got the elephant to drop her. She fell to the ground, shattering her shoulder and her lower leg was left stripped of the skin and muscle. When her family contacted the travel insurers they found out that ... activities like these aren't covered ...

[Sam]

Why bring 2 coconuts from Mauritius!!I guess they were fresh from the tree but when they scan your luggage at the airport, they ask you to leave it behind.A typical fresh coconut costs around Rs50, around 80p.So this couple was claiming for £1.60 with a £50 excess!Bless

[David Birt]

With my wife away I thought I would do some ironing. I left the iron to warm up only remembering it when I returned to the room to find it full of steam. I managed to find the switch and turn off the power before dunking the iron in a bowl of water. The iron had become so hot that the sole plate was melting and blobs of molten metal had dropped off and burnt several holes in the carpet. "Were there any flames?" asked my insurance company. "Well, no, the molten metal simply dissolved the carpet fabric." Result - claim rejected as there was no fire!!

[Peter Taylor]

#20 - for the coconut to have reached 53mph in 30 metres due to Earth's gravity, it would have had to be falling in a vacuum. You might want to redo that calculation taking into account air resistance.

[Europe Travel Insurance]

oh, that was a nice laugh. It most certainly informed me

[finance guide 101]

Oh gosh some are unbelievable... :D

[savageparrot]

I can't believe the insurance company didn't just take the £50 excess and send them 2 coconuts while upping the premium at the smae time...

[Yellowpages travel]

Yellowpages.travel is the first site where users can search the top 12 travel sites on one screen, side by side, with a single click. They offer comparison travel sites backed by the most trusted name in the internet community. User will be able to get mixed results by all the 12 top travel websites and can pick the best suited one.

[J Heron]

Definition of an insurer.
Some who gives you an umbrella then askes for it back when it starts to rain.

[Nik Frengle]

There is a Scandinavian travel insurance scheme from Dansk insurance, that make a special point of not questioning claims. Some of the claims I have seen my Danish or Swedish friends file are simply amazing in the bald piss-taking nature of them: Tennis racket (which actually never existed)eaten by alligator, bus ticket (which also never existed) nicked by someone posing as a policeman, and so on...

[Craig]

Great to see my home country up at the top of the list there. Its very important that people realise these apes(not monkeys)are wild animals just like any other so you need to take that into account before ignoring the signs such as "Do Not Feed The Apes"...anyways great article there btw