A Brisbane man who was robbed while visiting Las Vegas and sought almost $16,000 for the cost of subsequent business and first class flights has lost a claim dispute with his travel insurer, receiving just $1251 for the travel.

The man, the CEO of a company involved in speaking engagements, took out a one-year policy in May last year with TCA Insurance Services, or TravelCard, which is underwritten by Hollard.

In November, he flew to Las Vegas via Singapore and San Francisco on a business trip, where he was meant to depart for his return to Australia on December 5 via Los Angeles.

All the flights he booked for this trip were economy class, apart from an initial flight from Brisbane to Singapore.

A few days after arriving in Las Vegas the man was robbed and briefly returned home to attend to his affairs and secure available funds. He went back overseas again on December 2 to complete his scheduled business.

The CEO lodged a claim with TravelCard for the robbery, as well as four flights taken in this return journey to the United States: Brisbane to Sydney (business class), Sydney to Dallas (first class), Dallas to Sydney (business class) and Sydney to Brisbane (business class).

TravelCard covered the losses from the robbery but disagreed with the requested sum of $15,869 for the flight costs, saying it was prepared to pay economy class fares only, totalling $1,251.

The man said he was on a tight schedule when returning to the United States. However the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) said there was no evidence economy travel was not available to him or that the upgraded flights he took were the only options available.

“The complainant travelled to and from the United States in the first instance using economy flights. I consider any reimbursement for resuming this aspect of his travel should be on the same basis,” AFCA said.

“The insurer is entitled to limit the incurred travel expenses to the equivalent travel fares for economy class.”

AFCA ruled the policy should only cover “commensurate flights” and the man had not established the expensive upgrades were “reasonable and necessary”.

“None of his prior travelling on the trip had been in first class,” AFCA’s ruling said. “I similarly see no reason why the insurer must reasonably or necessarily reimburse business class travel to and from Dallas. I accept this would be suitable if a pattern of such flights had been established. This is not the case regarding his travel to the United States,” the AFCA ombudsman said.

See the full ruling here.