Travellers caught up in the current baggage crisis at Heathrow Terminal 5 have been running to travel insurance companies for assistance.
The passengers, Go Travel Insurance said yesterday, were turning to insurance firms for advice rather than airport or airline staff.
Chief executive, Christian Young said they had received increased number of calls and queries to their call centre since things went wrong at the airport soon after its launch at the end of last month.
"This reached a peak at the end of last week as patience wore out with the continuing delays and confusion," said the insurance firm’s chief executive.
The crisis has drawn more attention to travel insurance market with more deals emerging. Totally Insured Travel is, for example, offering a new Security Delay Insurance package that includes additional travel, overnight accommodation, subsistence, alternative reticketing and excess car parking charges if the delay is for more than six hours.
Reports said it will cost travellers from £5 to get this additional cover.
Director of Totally Insured, Andrew Norman said they expect business travellers as well as holidaymakers to appreciate the extra cover.
Meanwhile, the chaotic situation at the airport continued yesterday with British Airways saying it had cancelled 34 additional flights because of knock-on effects of snowy weather over the weekend. A spokesman confirmed the cancellations were due to the effect of freezing weather, not the baggage system.
“This is not caused by the baggage system, this is simply because of the weather yesterday,” said the spokesman.
138 flights were pulled on Sunday because of heavy snowfall and problems with the baggage system at the terminal, reports said.
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