A man who cancelled his flight after his son was bitten by a dog has lost his claims dispute over his insurer’s decision not to reimburse him.

The claimant purchased his travel policy with Zurich Australia on the day of his scheduled flight – September 28, 2022 – but was forced to cancel after the dog attack.

He lodged a claim on October 17 seeking compensation for the cancellation but was denied by the insurer after it said that the policy did not provide any benefit for cancellation cover. 

The complainant acknowledged that he had not selected cancellation cover when purchasing the policy, saying he had no intention to cancel the travel and only did so on medical grounds after being advised by a hospital doctor.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) accepted the insured’s unfortunate situation but says this did not require Zurich to cover him. The ruling noted that the policy’s certificate of insurance clearly showed “$0.00” next to “cancellation cover”.

“I acknowledge the complainant says he had no intention of cancelling the travel and only did so on medical grounds and as advised by the hospital doctor,” AFCA said.

“However, this does not mean the insurer is liable for the claim and does not change the outcome.”

AFCA considered that there may have been other sections of the policy that could have applied to the situation but highlighted that they only provided cover during the period of insurance, which had not started when the dog bit his son.

However, the ruling required Zurich to compensate the complainant for its delayed response to the claim. It heard that the insurer requested further information from the claimant on November 30 2022, more than a month after the claim was filed, before providing its decision on January 13 last year.

“Considering the reasons for the insurer’s decline and the lack of reference to the requested information it is not clear why the insurer needed it,” AFCA said.

“The insurer’s reasons for declining the claim were straight-forward and should have become obvious early in the claim process.

“I am not satisfied the insurer has handled the claim with an appropriate level of speed.”

The decision requires Zurich to pay the complainant $500 and refund him the total policy premium of $396.

Click here for the ruling.