Columbus Direct Travel Insurance

Columbus no longer include Airline Failure in their policies.

I received my renewal documentation

"Policy Changes

Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance

Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance has been removed from the policy therefore there is no cover provided in tge event of an Airline financial failure"

I understand that most policies do not include this as standard but Columbus did and now they don't cover at all. I don't think it's available to add on either. No longer one of the top Insurance covers. Now just like most travel policies. Shop around and find a policy with this available if it's important to you. I've had Columbus Insurance for at least 15 years because it was so inclusive but nit now. Disappointed.

Me and my partner went on holiday and took out an insurance with Columbus and unfortunately we got stuck in Greece 3 months ago as our flight was delayed then cancelled and they couldn’t give us a return flight for 3 days! When I spoke to someone from Columbus on the day they were so helpful told me I would be covered and reassured me but since then, I haven’t received an email from them since October despite me emailing pretty much every single week with all the information I have and they’ve asked for. They have caused so much stress and pretty much lied to me, I won’t EVER be using this company again

Totally dismissed my claim, despite all requested documentation and medical reports being provided. Do not put your trust in Columbus Direct to provide your travel cover. Their Insurance cover is worthless and in the event of curtailment due to personal injury, no use at all. Avoid at all costs

Check any positive reviews you see of this company, as they invariably talk about how easy it was to take a policy out with them, i.e. when the company is taking your money. All the negative reviews seem to relate to problems in making a claim, i.e. when it is important to get good service. In this respect, what an absolute bunch of idiots, their customer service and speed to reply is absolutely appalling, amongst the worst I have ever experienced. Been with them for many years, thinking they were a decent company, but HOW WRONG I WAS - the first time I have had cause to make a claim they have been appalling - started a cancellation claim with them in mid March and still dragging on now in mid July. Every time I communicate with them it takes them a month to respond, and only then to ask yet another impertinent question. Raised an official complaint in late May, and they cannot even adhere to their own published complaints procedure, having failed to respond or deal with it within the allotted time frame. I am about to issue a claim against them in county court - for anyone else minded to do the same, a little bit of advice: prior to issuing court papers, make sure you advise them you are billing for your own time @ £200 per hour, this will ensure you receive compensation for your time in dealing with their incompetence, and not just the value of the claim,. once they try to wriggle out of it and reduce it with excesses and excuses. Once again, appalling service, avoid them like the plague.

Don't use them. The process to subscribe is very fast but to have your money back is tedious. Looks like they really try not to pay by requesting an enormous quantity of documents (that of course they don't state when you subscribe) and they limit to one month the claim window.

They ask you to go to your doctor stating that you didn't have any issues before leaving but of course they don't tell you beforehand so your doctor is unable to effectively state your health status before the trip.

They didn't provide any support with local health centers when I called them and they didn't even send me an email feedback (so I had to track the call by my call logs because of course they ask you to state the date you called).

Luckily I didn't spend so much money for medical assistance during the travel so I renounced and simply wasted money with them.

But if you're unlucky and you think you will have your money back, you're lost.

My flight from A to B had been delaying for almost 8 hours and then was canceled around 11pm (there was some fuel problem at the airport), so I stayed at the airport A trying to get a replaced ticket from the airline, until next morning, the queue was still horrible so that I had to booked new tickets on my own through another airline. At the same time, I already missed the connecting flight from airport B to C. Anyway, after coming back from my trip, I prepared every reference and sent to the claiming email, they kept passing the buck, so I contacted by calling, after explaining, they emailed me a claim form, I filled that form and provided all the reference again and sent them back. They emailed me back (started making excuse) and asked me to provide some other references(I had no idea why they need that). I sent back the stuff they asked, and as I expected...finally, they reject my claim (due to their "rules")! It was so wasting time!!! Even the little thing like flight delayed and cancellation they don't accept the claim, what else would they do for customers? (I bought the most expensive deal-Annual Multi-Trip Gold).

Just a quick note to everyone, if you are looking to take out travel insurance then DONT USE COLUMBUS DIRECT.

I have never had so much difficulty in trying to make a claim on a policy ,than what I have experienced with Columbus Direct.

They make things so difficult , that in the in end I told them to SHOVE IT !

What was I claiming for???? a £15 compensation for a flight delay!

God knows what it would have been like if I was claiming for £1500.

So do yourselves a favour and DO NOT buy a policy from this company.

I called the company the day after we were travelling Canada and we had all of our ski and snowboard gear and our savings for the end of the season stolen and we were told they would send me information through email on how to claim for this and I had to ring up a second time to receive the actual form to fill out and find out what we needed to send through to them. We were told we needed to send proof of purchase for the items and the form but were not specific that this all had to be in hard-copy so we originally scanned all of this and sent it online but after a week found out that we had to send it by mail. After doing this we called up to find out how long the claim would take to process once they received this form and all of the receipts for the gear and we were told it would be completely processed within 5 working days of being received. What a load of bull that was since it is now 5 months later and the claim is still being processed. This has completely ruined our season since I had to end my employment as a ski instructor early due to not having any equipment and could not enjoy the last month of free skiing because we could not afford to buy all new gear. My boyfriend also had to end his employment early since he was working on the mountain aswell and we were both living off those wages and could not afford to buy all new equipment. Since the end of April when we sent the claim through they have asked for more information from us 3 times, the first time was a month after we originally sent through the claim. We had to cut our holiday short since we could not afford to stay there as long as we had planned without the money we had saved and since we had to stop working early. We have also now returned to Australia and were unable to enjoy the ski season here even since we haven't received any compensation yet and again could not afford to buy all new gear especially here in Australia where everything snow related is much more expensive. So many times we have contacted them and not received any reply and I actually called them once and was told that they were supposed to call me for more information but it no one was on top of it. It has been the worst organisation of processing this claim and I am faster at replying to their emails when this is their job and I have my own job working full time.

This company seems to operate an auto-renewal policy which I was not aware of when I took out the initial insurance in 2013. They automatically took money out of my account in march 2014 without my permission, although I did not notice this until they've done the same again this week. So They've automatically renewed my policy twice and taken two payments out of my account without my permission.

Cancelled our holiday as we had been involved in a 50 minute ordeal in flying and had two emergency landings almost crashing twice.We were so badly affected and traumatised my wife and I could not face flying again.They showed no compassion.Stalled our claim and will not pay out after asking us for genuine doctors certificates.DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY THEY WILL NOT PAY OUT.DISGUSTING WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.WILL NEVER EVER BOOK WITH THEM EVER AGAIN.I HOPE THEY GO BUST