The recent chaos at Gatwick following drone activity has caused serious losses among those whose travel plans were wrecked. You’ve probably already seen in the national and social media that no compensation is due under the European rules (and we shall lose the benefit even of those in three months) and that airlines are only liable for sending you to your destination or refunding your fare. If getting you eventually to where you wanted to go involves extra accommodation, the airline has to pay that as well.

But you’ll get no compensation for many other expenses such as hotel or onward travel that you’ve already paid for and can’t get a refund on. Your car may be incurring additional parking costs – not payable by the airline. You’ve paid for a treat like a ride in a helicopter or a special meal and can’t get that back from the provider: nor from the airline. Extra phone costs, all lost.

Never mind, you think, I’m insured. The problem is that there’s no standard cover under a travel policy. They differ widely in what is covered and for how much, what’s excluded and what’s not, what conditions have to be complied with, what the consequences are of not complying, and in some policies we’ve found sections that contradict each other. It’s impossible for us to state any general principles on how insurers will respond to claims for your holiday wrecked by drones. All we know is that claiming is likely to be difficult.

Ten years ago many holidays were ruined by an erupting Icelandic volcano. Our colleague who runs our Contentious Claims Division saw a number of claims that insurers didn’t want to pay (and even learned how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökul). Every one of those claims got paid after professional intervention.

If you run into problems with a drone claim, let us know. We can’t guarantee success – insurers learned lessons after the volcano eruption and have tightened policy wordings. But we’re happy to look at the case to see if we can help. Please contact us by using this email link and adding “Drone Claim” to the subject header.

When emailing, please tell us:

• Who the insurer is
• Where you bought the insurance
• How many in your party
• What and how much your losses are
• What offer if any was made to you by the airline
• Whether you have any other travel insurance, for example attached to your home policy or bank account.

We’ll be pleased to help.

The recent chaos at Gatwick following drone activity has caused serious losses among those whose travel plans were wrecked. You’ve probably already seen in the national and social media that no compensation is due under the European rules (and we shall lose the benefit even of those in three months) and that airlines are only liable for sending you to your destination or refunding your fare. If getting you eventually to where you wanted to go involves extra accommodation, the airline has to pay that as well.

But you’ll get no compensation for many other expenses such as hotel or onward travel that you’ve already paid for and can’t get a refund on. Your car may be incurring additional parking costs – not payable by the airline. You’ve paid for a treat like a ride in a helicopter or a special meal and can’t get that back from the provider: nor from the airline. Extra phone costs, all lost.

Never mind, you think, I’m insured. The problem is that there’s no standard cover under a travel policy. They differ widely in what is covered and for how much, what’s excluded and what’s not, what conditions have to be complied with, what the consequences are of not complying, and in some policies we’ve found sections that contradict each other. It’s impossible for us to state any general principles on how insurers will respond to claims for your holiday wrecked by drones. All we know is that claiming is likely to be difficult.

Ten years ago many holidays were ruined by an erupting Icelandic volcano. Our colleague who runs our Contentious Claims Division saw a number of claims that insurers didn’t want to pay (and even learned how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökul). Every one of those claims got paid after professional intervention.

If you run into problems with a drone claim, let us know. We can’t guarantee success – insurers learned lessons after the volcano eruption and have tightened policy wordings. But we’re happy to look at the case to see if we can help. Please contact us by using this email link and adding “Drone Claim” to the subject header.

When emailing, please tell us:

• Who the insurer is
• Where you bought the insurance
• How many in your party
• What and how much your losses are
• What offer if any was made to you by the airline
• Whether you have any other travel insurance, for example attached to your home policy or bank account.

We’ll be pleased to help.