Travel Insurance for Interrailing - Advice Appreciated

[Hejaz]

Hi all, I will taking an interrailling trip around Europe soon and am trying to find the best travel insurance for my needs.

Specifically, I'd like to be able to deal with the following scenarios without too much stress:
* Train delays or cancellations leading to missed connections or last minute hotel bookings
* Lost/stolen/damaged luggage or possessions

(I already have health and accident insurance with worldwide coverage so that's not important to me. I appreciate it tends to get bundled with the other stuff in most travel insurance packages.)

In the scenario where a train is delayed or cancelled, I'm of the understanding that it's actually the rail operators responsibility to either provide alternative travel arrangements or accommodation so tends to not be covered by insurance. I'm happy to not be covered by insurance for this kind of scenario if claiming from the rail operator is simple enough. I have no experience with international rail but I just don't want to be stranded or out of pocket. I'll include the list of journeys I'm making at the end of this post[0] in case it makes a difference.

Does anyone have recommendations for travel insurance that they have first hand experience with?

TopDog insurance looks okay and has good reviews on TrustPilot but two things concern me:
* They keep mentioning "home country" in the scenarios they cover e.g. "you are delayed leaving your home country/BFPO or returning to your home country/BFPO" which makes me concerned about coverage for the intermediate train journeys.
* They will pay at most £400 for the loss of, theft of or damage to any individual item. A gadget like a laptop or tablet, for example, could easily cost much more than that making the coverage not that useful.

Has anyone used TopDog travel insurance and can speak to their experience?

Thanks for your time.

[0]: list of rail journeys
Geneva to Basel using SBB trains (changing trains at Bern or somewhere else along the route)
Basel to Hamburg using OBB Nightjet
Hamburg to Copenhagen using DB EuroCity Express (and the reverse journey)
Hamburg to Brussels using European Sleeper
Brussels to London (home) using Eurostar

 

[Watershed]

You will want an insurance provider whose policies explicitly cover overseas connections. I currently have a Post Office policy - this has a section on Missed Departure and Connections Outside the UK. Their pricing has been pretty reasonable but unfortunately each year they have removed more and more of the benefits. They do still offer a zero-excess option which I value, because travelling as much as I do, you tend to make claims if not every year then perhaps every other year!

Cover for luggage or possessions is pretty standard for travel insurance so you won't struggle to find a policy that covers it. But the amount covered will vary significantly by policy - usually it's one of the things they try to use to upsell you to a more expensive category of cover.

 

[Porty]

If you've got health and accident insurance then for the scenarios you describe it's principally the responsibility of the operator. Yes it's likely to be a hassle but probably less of a hassle than claiming on insurance. You'll probably have a hefty excess so the money you can claim could be a lot less than you have spent (a combination of policy cost and excess).

 

[rvdborgt]

I wouldn't take any insurance to cover alternative transport or overnight accommodation for the listed journeys. Travel in Switzerland is no problem. DB and ÖBB are normally reasonably helpful to provide overnight accommodation and will also reimburse expenses if you had to organise it yourself. European Sleeper will also reimburse, although they take their time. All operators involved subscribe to the AJC, except European Sleeper, but Eurostar will rebook you free of charge if a European Sleeper delay makes you miss your Eurostar. Of course do make sure you have enough margin when catching a night train.

 

[Nigel]

My attitude to insurance is that it I only need it to cover things that wouldn't be able to afford - e.g. medical costs and emergency repatriation. Otherwise I feel that I am subsidising those who are less careful than me when travelling.
The only time that I have ever claimed on travel insurance was when everything was cancelled due to Covid, before insurers got wise and excluded such things from their policies. My claim took many months and was met with endless obfuscation and attempts to wriggle out of paying. I got the impression that the insurer could not cope with independently booked multi-leg journeys. They only finally paid out when I started complaining publicly and, even so, after excesses and other exclusions, the payout was small. Particularly annoying was that they wouldn't cover anything were a voucher was offered, even if I could demonstrate that it would be impossible to use the voucher in the time before it expired.

 

[blimmo]

I agree with @Nigel that you don't really need cover if you can afford to pay yourself. Especially gadget cover I would ignore completely unless you would struggle to afford a replacement: you don't really want to have to deal with an insurance company unless you have to.

I know @Watershed is of the opinion that insurance for missed connections can be worth it because you are more likely to use it than the average traveller if you do a lot of multi-leg international travel. It's difficult to know if that applies to you but if it's just for the journeys you've mentioned I'd be surprised!

 

[Hejaz]

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I've decided to take your advice and forgo travel insurance for this trip. Although I've not really used travel insurance in this scenario, I can appreciate how difficult it can be to get them to pay up so not worth paying for insurance if it doesn't actually save me any hassle.

I plan to get to each station at least 2 hours before planned departure anyway but does anyone know if there is are official "connection times" or the likes which need to be adhered to in this scenario?

 

[Stossgebet]

My gadgets are covered on my household insurance. If you have home insurance, you should check what it offers for taking personal belongings with you. And potentially upgrade if needed. Although i understand you may not have home insurance of course.
As above, travel should be covered by the operator, and you already have heath cover.

 

[Starmill]

For future reference, I find the Defaqto ratings can be useful as a check when you think you have an idea of a provider you'd like to sign up with:

Star Ratings | Defaqto :: Defaqto

Our Star Ratings give you the confidence to choose the right financial products, thanks to an unbiased, at a glance assessment of quality you can trust.

www.defaqto.com

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Sep 2026 ==

I plan to get to each station at least 2 hours before planned departure anyway but does anyone know if there is are official "connection times" or the likes which need to be adhered to in this scenario?

The Rail Planner (Interrail) app should be fine on connections. You can also extend connection times if you feel it beneficial. The DB Navgiator app is sometimes better, although obviously it's extra features don't usually work outside Germany. It's stopover function does however.

 

[bspahh]

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I've decided to take your advice and forgo travel insurance for this trip. Although I've not really used travel insurance in this scenario, I can appreciate how difficult it can be to get them to pay up so not worth paying for insurance if it doesn't actually save me any hassle.

I plan to get to each station at least 2 hours before planned departure anyway but does anyone know if there is are official "connection times" or the likes which need to be adhered to in this scenario?

If you do a search for your interary at https://int.bahn.de/en/ it should only give you valid connections.

With an Interrail ticket, there are a few trains where a reservation is essential as listed at Seat61.com but for most in the countries that you're going to, you can hop on any train you feel like.

With an Interrail ticket, you can add lots of different trains to your trip. Once you have activated a day, then you can toggle on lots of trains. It won't let you have 2 trains toggled on if the times overlap. However, you can untoggle one train and then it will let you toggle another. You should always toggle a train before you board, as a few conductors will check for the time that you toggled the ticket and give you a fine if it was after you boarded.

 

[DanielB]

Once you have activated a day, then you can toggle on lots of trains. It won't let you have 2 trains toggled on if the times overlap. However, you can untoggle one train and then it will let you toggle another. You should always toggle a train before you board, as a few conductors will check for the time that you toggled the ticket and give you a fine if it was after you boarded.

Obviously they check if you toggled it on before the train departed, as they don't log the time you board. But especially Swiss guards are quite strict on this.
Not being able to toggle two overlapping trains can be a challenge should you catch an earlier delayed train, though toggling the previous train of is a useful workaround. If there is time a manual entry circumvents this issue by the way.

 

[rvdborgt]

The Rail Planner (Interrail) app should be fine on connections. You can also extend connection times if you feel it beneficial. The DB Navgiator app is sometimes better, although obviously it's extra features don't usually work outside Germany. It's stopover function does however.

The Rail Planner app should never be used to plan. It's known to be incomplete, often out of date and generally unreliable. The DB planner is much better, and not just sometimes.

 

[Starmill]

The Rail Planner app should never be used to plan. It's known to be incomplete, often out of date and generally unreliable. The DB planner is much better, and not just sometimes.

It's more than fine for the specific purpose it's being looked at for here. Arguably it's also a lot more authoritative to someone using an Interrail pass as to what connection times they should respect, so I listed it first.

The Navigator app is certainly not always better, even though it generally is. In the UK the Rail Planner app often gets last-minute STP which the Navigator app doesn't. It often fails to take any live times from France, even in trains that go to Germany. It often suggests different things outside of Germany that I wouldn't be comfortable relying on if Civ protection might be being claimed. For any trains outside of Germany it's also advisable to check the local sources.

It's certainly wrong to suggest you should never use the Interrail app anyway. What you should do is be aware of its possible limitations. The Interrail forum is good at documenting these. The smoothest way to do this is often to create a plan in the Rail Planner app, and then go through it checking the times on the local app of each country you go through.

 

[AdamWW]

It's certainly wrong to suggest you should never use the Interrail app anyway. What you should do is be aware of its possible limitations. The Interrail forum is good at documenting these. The smoothest way to do this is often to create a plan in the Rail Planner app, and then go through it checking the times on the local app of each country you go through.

The Interrail app also has the advantage of working off-line. And being extremely fast too.
At least these were both the case when I last used it which admittedly was a few years ago.

But I agree completely - use the app, but be aware of its limitations.
(Like not always correctly showing that Interrail is valid on a service, which is a bit of an unfortunate failure).

 

[ABB125]

With an Interrail ticket, you can add lots of different trains to your trip. Once you have activated a day, then you can toggle on lots of trains. It won't let you have 2 trains toggled on if the times overlap. However, you can untoggle one train and then it will let you toggle another. You should always toggle a train before you board, as a few conductors will check for the time that you toggled the ticket and give you a fine if it was after you boarded.

Obviously they check if you toggled it on before the train departed, as they don't log the time you board. But especially Swiss guards are quite strict on this.
Not being able to toggle two overlapping trains can be a challenge should you catch an earlier delayed train, though toggling the previous train of is a useful workaround. If there is time a manual entry circumvents this issue by the way.

I was under the impression that it's only the time that you activate the pass itself (ie: click the "yes I'm travelling today" button) that matters - the actual journeys that you add and what time you toggle the "add to pass" button is largely irrelevant. I certainly can't see anything on the pass that says what time an individual journey was added. (Obviously you have to add the first journey in order to actually activate the pass though)

 

[DanielB]

I don't know what's registred in the QR-code itself however, there might be more data available there. And I definitely have had ticket inspections where the guard scrolled trough the added journeys to check his train was added.
Nationality is also somewhere in the code apparently, as I've once (without having to show ID) had a Swiss guard who said "Dankjewel" (Dutch for Thank you) after scanning the QR.

 

[Starmill]

The Interrail app also has the advantage of working off-line. And being extremely fast too.
At least these were both the case when I last used it which admittedly was a few years ago.

But I agree completely - use the app, but be aware of its limitations.
(Like not always correctly showing that Interrail is valid on a service, which is a bit of an unfortunate failure).

Yes - the offline search is absolutely useful too.

I was under the impression that it's only the time that you activate the pass itself (ie: click the "yes I'm travelling today" button) that matters - the actual journeys that you add and what time you toggle the "add to pass" button is largely irrelevant. I certainly can't see anything on the pass that says what time an individual journey was added. (Obviously you have to add the first journey in order to actually activate the pass though)

Yes this is correct in practice.

It's just that you should toggle your journey on at the first opportunity. Definitely don't wait to toggle it on until the ticket inspector approaches you. Do it before boarding, or if you think you could have forgotten, check as you board and do it then.

 

[bspahh]

I was under the impression that it's only the time that you activate the pass itself (ie: click the "yes I'm travelling today" button) that matters - the actual journeys that you add and what time you toggle the "add to pass" button is largely irrelevant. I certainly can't see anything on the pass that says what time an individual journey was added. (Obviously you have to add the first journey in order to actually activate the pass though)

You might be right. Its something I will try not to test though!

My latest pass shows the time when I activated it for day, but not the time when I added journeys.

This is the thread that I had seen where someone was fined when they hadn't activated the day before getting on the train.

In a french TGV i basically got a fine of 50€. I had a valid seat reservation, but i forgot to activate the day in the app before boarding. I did remember before my ticket got checked on the train.

The SNCF guy checked the activation time and told me I'd get a 50€ ticket. He basically accused me of fraud for trying to get away with a reservation without the travel day.

The Interrail FAQ says to add the journey to your pass before you board.

What does it mean to add a journey to my Pass?
Adding a journey to your Pass means the journey will appear on your ticket for that travel day. You need to add all your journeys to your Pass as you travel, so you have a valid ticket for every journey.

The ticket inspector will check the journey details on your ticket, so make sure you add the right journey to your Pass before you board the train.

 

[Watershed]

You might be right. Its something I will try not to test though!

My latest pass shows the time when I activated it for day, but not the time when I added journeys.

This is the thread that I had seen where someone was fined when they hadn't activated the day before getting on the train.


The Interrail FAQ says to add the journey to your pass before you board.

There are two things here. Firstly you have to activate a day's travel before boarding. Without that you don't have a ticket at all. The time of activation is prominently shown on the pass and is no doubt encoded into the barcode so late activation would be visible through scanning equipment in any case.

Secondly you need to add the train you're taking to the Travel Diary, which is done by 'activating' it (toggling the slider) in My Trip. This should also be done before boarding since your activated pass isn't valid for your train until you do this. However there doesn't seem to be any evidence that this gets encoded into the barcode, as staff often ask to scroll down to the Journeys section of the pass to check you've added the train.

Therefore since the inclusion of a particular train in the diary is purely visually checked, and the pass doesn't state when a particular train was activated, in practice you could often get away with doing so after you board. But if you do so in front of ticket inspection staff it may be obvious and it's easy to forget otherwise, so to be on the safe side it's best to comply with the recommendation to do it before boarding.

 

[rvdborgt]

The Interrail app also has the advantage of working off-line. And being extremely fast too.
At least these were both the case when I last used it which admittedly was a few years ago.

The Rail Planner app has used an online timetable by default for more than a year now. I suppose it's the same one as on the Interrail website. The RPA also still has an offline timetable, for when you're not online, or when you turn online timetables off. However, the RPA's data cannot be trusted. For offline planning, you'd better use ČD's Můj vlak app.

But I agree completely - use the app, but be aware of its limitations.
(Like not always correctly showing that Interrail is valid on a service, which is a bit of an unfortunate failure).

There are many more problems, most importantly not keeping up with timetable updates. It can take several weeks for the RPA timetable to be updated. Even for Germany, where DB send updated to MERITS at least once per week.

It's more than fine for the specific purpose it's being looked at for here. Arguably it's also a lot more authoritative to someone using an Interrail pass as to what connection times they should respect, so I listed it first.

The Rail Planner app should theoretically use the same minimum connection times as all other planners, since they are defined by the operators themselves in their timetables and included in the data sent to MERITS. In reality though, The RPA does not always do that. It is not authoritative in any way.

The Navigator app is certainly not always better, even though it generally is. In the UK the Rail Planner app often gets last-minute STP which the Navigator app doesn't. It often fails to take any live times from France, even in trains that go to Germany. It often suggests different things outside of Germany that I wouldn't be comfortable relying on if Civ protection might be being claimed. For any trains outside of Germany it's also advisable to check the local sources.

This summer, I've still seen missing and outdated timetables in the Rail Planner app in almost every country I've been to, even in Switzerland, while DB was up to date. It may have been less bad than in the earlier years, but I still strongly advise against using the RPA for any planning. I generally don't use DB for planning in the UK, since there are other good planners available, so I use those. Nothing beats the source if you want reliable data. But if you want to do international planning, you should definitely not use the RPA, but DB, OBB, SBB or ČD.
Especially "live" times in the RPA should be ignored. They're often delayed (so not live anymore) and some things are represented incorrectly, such as partially cancelled trains, which often appear as completely cancelled. Or trains using another station in the same city, e.g. Hamburg-Harburg instead of Hbf, would also appear as cancelled and cause a lot of panic (this happened multiple times with the SJ EN, and the ICEs from Brussels). I've turned off online timetables for that reason. I don't need any unnecessary scares. Interrail has been aware of these problems for more than a year now but fixing it doesn't seem to have priority. Complaints turn up regularly in the Interrail community.

It's certainly wrong to suggest you should never use the Interrail app anyway. What you should do is be aware of its possible limitations. The Interrail forum is good at documenting these. The smoothest way to do this is often to create a plan in the Rail Planner app, and then go through it checking the times on the local app of each country you go through.

That's the wrong way around, since the Rail Planner app will be missing timetables, so you're limiting yourself to the timetables that managed to make it into the Interrail timetable. As an example: one summer, all Interrailers piled up in the one train from Austria to Ljubljana that was in the RPA, although more trains were available. If you had planned in the RPA and verified using e.g. ÖBB, then you would find back that one train, but you wouldn't necessarily see the other options.
What also may happen is that parts of the timetable may be missing. The RPA will then often route you another way, possibly taking longer than necessary, and unless you know the network/geography well, you may not even notice.
I stand by my advice never to use the RPA for planning. Only use it to manage your pass.

 

[Starmill]

The Rail Planner app should theoretically use the same minimum connection times as all other planners, since they are defined by the operators themselves in their timetables and included in the data sent to MERITS. In reality though, The RPA does not always do that. It is not authoritative in any way.

It is the only 100% authoritative source if the customer is travelling on an Interrail pass. The times in it form a direct inclusion of your contract with the railway company.

This summer, I've still seen missing and outdated timetables in the Rail Planner app in almost every country I've been to, even in Switzerland, while DB was up to date. It may have been less bad than in the earlier years, but I still strongly advise against using the RPA for any planning. I generally don't use DB for planning in the UK, since there are other good planners available, so I use those. Nothing beats the source if you want reliable data. But if you want to do international planning, you should definitely not use the RPA, but DB, OBB, SBB or ČD.
Especially "live" times in the RPA should be ignored. They're often delayed (so not live anymore) and some things are represented incorrectly, such as partially cancelled trains, which often appear as completely cancelled. Or trains using another station in the same city, e.g. Hamburg-Harburg instead of Hbf, would also appear as cancelled and cause a lot of panic (this happened multiple times with the SJ EN, and the ICEs from Brussels). I've turned off online timetables for that reason. I don't need any unnecessary scares. Interrail has been aware of these problems for more than a year now but fixing it doesn't seem to have priority. Complaints turn up regularly in the Interrail community.

There are many missing trains, awkward UI bugs and the like as I suggested. But you still need to give weight to what it says, otherwise you are risking the loss of some of your rights.

That's the wrong way around, since the Rail Planner app will be missing timetables, so you're limiting yourself to the timetables that managed to make it into the Interrail timetable. As an example: one summer, all Interrailers piled up in the one train from Austria to Ljubljana that was in the RPA, although more trains were available. If you had planned in the RPA and verified using e.g. ÖBB, then you would find back that one train, but you wouldn't necessarily see the other options.

I don't find that at all as I do see different options between interchange points. It's incredibly unlikely that you will miss an interchange location opportunity entirely, although I do run my own checks for that using e.g. Google Maps.

I stand by my advice never to use the RPA for planning.

Nobody is stopping you giving whatever advice is your preference, that's perfectly fine, just as I did. In fact my advice wasn't really any different to yours save in that I suggested an element of preference for readers to be used, while you suggested your preference was more important than theirs. But regardless of all of that, the particular question which was asked about what constitutes a valid connection for a journey made by an interrail pass is best served by considering the app or interrail planner. That's just a fact, rather than a piece of advice. You can't avoid giving any weight to what it reccomends if your ticket is from interrail.

I actually lodged a strongly-worded complaint about the app myself, as it produced an error which prevented my ticket from being shown with the correct journey endorsed. It refused to permit a negative connection off a sleeper train, but the sleeper train was incorrectly timed. This would usually be an irrelevence as you can toggle an incorrectly timed schedule off before you board the next train. Except you can't do that if it was yesterday, as a result of their ridiculous rule change. Now, luckily, the DB train manager didn't attempt to charge me and just accepted my explanation for why the correct train wasn't displayed in the pass. But I risked an enormous charge for a new first class ticket with a supplement for paying onboard, all because of the basics of the service being wrong. It's unfortunately still necessary to follow along with what interrail say about this though. I did report the problem with the pass not displaying in real time and I did receive responses which suggested that they accepted this was a flaw and promised to take it into account. Now that I've been reminded, I'll prompt them again.

 

[styles]

For many years now I've used Post Office insurance. I've made a small number of claims, including for missed connections, and all have been accepted, and very quickly I would add.

I have never used TopDog Insurance, but my general approach to insurance is to take out a recognised name unless to do so would be astronomically large. I'm sure there's some good players in the smaller insurance market but it's not really something I'd want to risk. An annual travel insurance policy from the Post Office doesn't even cost me £100 including a bunch of extras like ski coverage. I think even if a provider were offering it for a tenner, I'd stick pluck for the Post Office.

There are a couple of trips a year where I take out specialist insurance for e.g. alpine mountaineering, but that's because "normal" travel insurance policies never really cover this and I don't fancy ever finding out a heli evac costs!

 

[DanielB]

I actually lodged a strongly-worded complaint about the app myself, as it produced an error which prevented my ticket from being shown with the correct journey endorsed. It refused to permit a negative connection off a sleeper train, but the sleeper train was incorrectly timed. This would usually be an irrelevence as you can toggle an incorrectly timed schedule off before you board the next train. Except you can't do that if it was yesterday, as a result of their ridiculous rule change.

So, when I read your message correctly it also refuses to activate a journey on a new travel day when it is still before the arrival time of a night train on the previous travel day?

The ban on deactivating journeys on a later moment is a pain indeed, especially as they ask to provide a screenshot of the pass with the originally planned trains added when applying for delay repay.
So you have to remember to make that screenshot on the day of travel, as otherwise you cannot toggle the actually taken trains off anymore.

However since this year they don't accept delay claims on the day of travel anymore (you can select "today" as a date, but that results in an automatic reply they can't process it), so you have to remember to do it the day after.

Apparently this resulted in a lot of delay claims where they have to investigate more, as where previously you could request on the day of travel and have approval the day after, they now auto reply there is an enormous queue. I actually am still waiting for claims from early August to be processed.

 

[rvdborgt]

The ban on deactivating journeys on a later moment is a pain indeed, especially as they ask to provide a screenshot of the pass with the originally planned trains added when applying for delay repay.

They want a screenshot of the pass with the trains you took, and a screenshot of your trip with the original trains still in it, but deactivated. This isn't clearly explained anywhere though.

Apparently this resulted in a lot of delay claims where they have to investigate more, as where previously you could request on the day of travel and have approval the day after, they now auto reply there is an enormous queue. I actually am still waiting for claims from early August to be processed.

Last week they finally processed my claims from 27/7, so there's hope...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==

There are many missing trains, awkward UI bugs and the like as I suggested. But you still need to give weight to what it says, otherwise you are risking the loss of some of your rights.

The Interrail conditions of use don't mention "timetable" at all, and the app conditions of use (see More > Legal) explicitly say that actual timetables may deviate from the ones in the RPA, and that you can't hold Interrail liable for additional costs caused by relying on the RPA timetable, or on inaccurate information shown in the RPA. IMO that just means the RPA is not authoritative, unless these conditions are unlawful. It looks like they're saying: "Use at your own risk".

 

[Coleridge]

For many years now I've used Post Office insurance. I've made a small number of claims, including for missed connections, and all have been accepted, and very quickly I would add.

I use the Post Office, too, and consider them the best overall provider at the moment.

Unlike some on this forum, I would never go away without adequate travel insurance. The price I pay for annual, worldwide travel insurance is worth paying just for the peace of mind in knowing that if the worst were to happen I'd not lose out financially.

Despite taking up to a dozen overseas trips each year, I haven't had to claim on travel insurance since 1986, but still consider it essential.

 

[styles]

I use the Post Office, too, and consider them the best overall provider at the moment.

I've a feeling that Saga would top the charts in terms of what's covered but that is specifically for the over-50s. There are some others I'd pluck for like Aviva or high street bank providers like Barclays, Natwest, etc.

The main reason I've enjoyed Post Office insurance is complimentary lounge access (or I think £50 if you prefer) for flight delays >2 hours, which I've unfortunately had a few of. When you've already been at an airport for an hour then your flight is delayed by another couple of hours, being able to get somewhere quieter and comfier to sit with a bite to eat and drink makes a big difference!

Unlike some on this forum, I would never go away without adequate travel insurance. The price I pay for annual, worldwide travel insurance is worth paying just for the peace of mind in knowing that if the worst were to happen I'd not lose out financially.

100%. It's peace of mind like you say, and that's really why I wouldn't skimp with a provider who offers me a policy for £30 less or whatever it is. Also for overseas travel, one massive benefit is medical cover as not every country has free healthcare, and having the confidence that your insurance company will actually sort out your medical bills is worth well more than the £100 or whatever the annual policy cost is. I'm personally not so fussed about gadgets or baggage cover as they're insured separately or not really of particularly high value. For most EU trips I wouldn't be too bothered about things like cancellation or delay costs because passenger and consumer rights are very good.

But yeah, I reckon my travel insurance somewhat pays for itself, and the cost isn't ginormous unless you've retired or developed a serious disease.

 

[Watershed]

For many years now I've used Post Office insurance. I've made a small number of claims, including for missed connections, and all have been accepted, and very quickly I would add.

I've had mixed experiences with them. They've generally been reasonably quick at responding to claims, and they've paid out delay based claims without issue.

But they were very stingy when it came to a claim for a lost rail pass this year; I wanted to claim back the ~£50 ticket I needed to buy to get to where the pass was found (it was Japan, so of course it was handed in!). If I'd not bothered to check with the station staff after making my lost property report, I'd never have known it was found, and I'd have had a solid claim under the policy for the cost of replacement tickets costing hundreds of pounds.

But because I recovered the pass, they claimed the cost of getting to the station where it was found was a consequential loss - and so they owed me nothing. Given that I had saved them hundreds of pounds, and wasted nearly half a day of my holiday to do so, I was not best pleased to put it mildly. They only ended up paying out "as a gesture of goodwill" when I submitted a complaint.

That, together with the continual worsening of the flight delay benefits, makes it a less attractive option than in the past. But still, the wording that covers missed connections abroad is better than most other insurers so it's still a reasonably attractive option overall.

It's a shame that Wanda by Avios have pulled the flight delay compensation from their policies since their rebranding. That was an easy way to get around the Post Office's low annual flight limit

The ban on deactivating journeys on a later moment is a pain indeed, especially as they ask to provide a screenshot of the pass with the originally planned trains added when applying for delay repay.
So you have to remember to make that screenshot on the day of travel, as otherwise you cannot toggle the actually taken trains off anymore.

I understand why they've made the changes (essentially to prevent fraudulent delays claims) but there should be at least some leeway to amend the previous day's trains, perhaps until say 12pm the next day. The number of negative changes they've been making in recent months, without any upside for passholders, is really frustrating.

However since this year they don't accept delay claims on the day of travel anymore (you can select "today" as a date, but that results in an automatic reply they can't process it), so you have to remember to do it the day after.

There's nothing in the Interrail Conditions of Use that supports this arbitrarily imposed deadline so I'd have no qualms submitting a claim on the day of travel, before I forget. If it's rejected then you can take that further.

Apparently this resulted in a lot of delay claims where they have to investigate more, as where previously you could request on the day of travel and have approval the day after, they now auto reply there is an enormous queue. I actually am still waiting for claims from early August to be processed.

Yes, I've noticed that the speed of processing claims is now much slower. Very disappointing given that they would often previously approve claims the same or next day.

 

[styles]

But they were very stingy when it came to a claim for a lost rail pass this year; I wanted to claim back the ~£50 ticket I needed to buy to get to where the pass was found (it was Japan, so of course it was handed in!). If I'd not bothered to check with the station staff after making my lost property report, I'd never have known it was found, and I'd have had a solid claim under the policy for the cost of replacement tickets costing hundreds of pounds.

But because I recovered the pass, they claimed the cost of getting to the station where it was found was a consequential loss - and so they owed me nothing. Given that I had saved them hundreds of pounds, and wasted nearly half a day of my holiday to do so, I was not best pleased to put it mildly. They only ended up paying out "as a gesture of goodwill" when I submitted a complaint.

The lowest excess offered by the Post Office is £50 on their Premier policy isn't it?

If they actually paid out for the consequential loss roughly the same as the excess then I'd actually suggest that's quite a good service!

Hypothetically you could've saved them a few hundred pounds in replacing the ticket, but given you informed them that you had actually recovered the ticket, they will have presumably assessed it as well it's not actually going to cost of hundreds of pounds

I've never heard of the TopDog Insurance mentioned in the first post, but my gut instinct is they wouldn't have paid out for it!

 

[Watershed]

The lowest excess offered by the Post Office is £50 on their Premier policy isn't it?

If they actually paid out for the consequential loss roughly the same as the excess then I'd actually suggest that's quite a good service!

Hypothetically you could've saved them a few hundred pounds in replacing the ticket, but given you informed them that you had actually recovered the ticket, they will have presumably assessed it as well it's not actually going to cost of hundreds of pounds

I've never heard of the TopDog Insurance mentioned in the first post, but my gut instinct is they wouldn't have paid out for it!

I always go for the zero excess option; it's paid for itself many times over.

That's the thing, policy wordings always say you should try to mitigate your loss - that's what I was doing by spending half a day recovering the pass. But they then thought it'd be fair to exclude my claim because I'd gone and done that!

I'll know for next time that insurance companies will always punish you for trying to do the right thing...

 

[DanielB]

There's nothing in the Interrail Conditions of Use that supports this arbitrarily imposed deadline so I'd have no qualms submitting a claim on the day of travel, before I forget. If it's rejected then you can take that further.

It's mentioned above the form, though I initially overlooked it as well as all my previous claims were made on the day of travel.