Awards
Baggage Claim Questions

Please click on one of the frequently asked questions below to reveal the answer.

Q. What documents do I need to support my claim for Personal Possessions?
A. Different claims will demand different documents and once you have notified us of your claim we will confirm exactly which documents you need to provide.

As an indicator it is likely that we will require the following documents:

Proof of insurance
Booking invoice/proof of travel dates
Reports obtained in support of the incident and where no reports provided, the contact details and references given by whoever you did report the incident
Receipts and other evidence of value and pre-loss ownership.
Cash withdrawals/bank statements/foreign currency exchange slips for claims for lost money.
Estimates of repair costs or confirmation any damaged items are beyond repair, provided by an official repairer.

If you do not have any of the above documents, please discuss this with your claims handler as they will be able to advise you of any alternative documents that are acceptable.

Q. What evidence of lost money do you require?
A. We will require evidence of the amount of cash taken with you on the trip and any subsequent cash withdrawals, this doesn’t just support the amount of cash lost but the context in which it was in your possession.

You can provide copies of your bank statement, cash withdrawals slips or foreign currency exchange slips.

Q. What evidence of lost mobile phones do you require?
A. In the event of you losing your mobile phone, you may be required to submit confirmation from your carrier to show that a stop was placed on the phone.

If the line was pay-as-you-go you may be requested to obtain confirmation from the carrier that the line is on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Q. What evidence of lost spectacles do you require?
A. Your optician should have retained details of your previous order and so where you do not have the original receipt, to support any claims for lost spectacles or prescription sunglasses we would ask you to have your optician provide you with confirmation of the original purchase.

Q. How do I support my claim for damaged items?
A. You are usually required under the terms of the policy to retain all damaged items. When you submit a claim you will need to have taken these to an official repairer and obtained confirmation of the cost of repair or proof that the item is beyond economical repair. This will need to be confirmed in writing and sent to us.

Q. I did not get a Police report after items were lost/ stolen.
A. Most insurance policies require you to obtain a Police report within 24 hours of the incident occurring, to show how the incident occurred and the value of items lost/ stolen. It also proves that the claim arose during the period of insurance. Without it, we may not be able to settle your claim. If you reported the incident to someone else, they may be able to provide you with a report. If you did not get a report, please tell us why and we will review your claim.

Q. I don’t have receipts for every item. What else can be accepted? Is there any point submitting my claim?
A. We understand that you may not have receipts for every single item you are claiming for. You might have a bank or credit card statement which shows the purchase, or perhaps an instruction manual or guarantee for valuable items.

Whilst we do need receipts, each claim is looked at on case by case basis. We may still be able to pay your claim, either in full or in part, so send in whatever you can and we will see if we can do anything to help you.

Q. What is a P.I.R.?
A. A P.I.R. (Property Irregularity Report) is a document which the Airline issues if your bag is lost, damaged or stolen whilst in their care. Without this document, your claim may not be covered. You should report any loss or damage to the Airline as soon as it is noticed and at this point they will provide you with a P.I.R. If you did not obtain one, still notify us of the claim and tell us why you did not get this document. If we are able to help you, we will.

Q. If you obtain a recovery through my household insurers will it affect my no claims discount?
A. Where two insurers cover the same loss, upon settlement, the insurer who paid the claim can seek a contribution from the other insurer. In most instances this will not affect your premiums or no claims discount.

Q. Who are Rightpath Claims?
A. Rightpath are an independent company that specialise in claims management. We are not the insurer but are appointed by insurers to handle claims on their behalf.

Q. How do I submit my claim?
A. The claims process differs dependent on the nature and complexity of your case. For some instances claims can be submitted online, whereas for others we will look to assess your claim over the phone. In some circumstances we will send you a claims form.

Click here to go to the Claim section of the website, select the section you wish to claim under and you will see your options for how to submit a claim to us.

Q. I have an option to submit my claim online – how does this work?
A. Once you click on the link within the Claim section you will be directed to an online form. This will provide us with the information required to set up your claim and to assess your claim.

Once you submit the form you will be sent an email confirming your claim reference and detailing the documents you need to send into us to complete your submission.

Upon receipt of the papers your claim should be assessed within 5 working days and we will send you an email confirming the claims decision.

Q. I have an option to call you to submit a claim – what is the process from there?
A. When you call, one of our customer service agents will collect details about your claim and set you up a claim. This will also allow them to make a provisional decision on your claim and on the basis of there being cover in place you will be told what documents you need to submit to us.

We would suggest you have all relevant documentation to hand when calling us. We may need to collect information contained in these documents when you notify us of your claim.

We would ask you to appreciate that in all instances our decisions are provisional until your claim has been fully finalised.

Q. What rate of exchange do you use?
A. We want to be able to put you back in the same financial position you were in before you suffered your loss and so our preference is to go by the rate of exchange you obtained when you travelled. Therefore, please forward any confirmation of exchange rates you might have to allow us to try and base calculations on that rate.

In the absence of such documentation, we will look to establish the published rate of exchange for that date and use that instead.

Q. Why do you need proof of travel?
A fundamental requirement for a travel insurance claim is that the loss occurred on a trip (or in relation to a trip). Confirmation of your travel arrangements is therefore a standard requirement for claims assessments.

For cancellation claims, a booking invoice is also required to confirm how much was paid for the trip and the date the trip was booked.

Also, if you have an annual multi-trip policy there are most likely to be restrictions based on what is considered a ‘trip’ and this will include the trip length. Confirmation is therefore required to confirm the date you travelled from and to your home.

Q. What is a policy excess? And how much is it?
The policy excess is the first amount of every claim for which you are responsible and helps to keep insurance premiums affordable. You act as a self-insurer for this part of your claim and the benefit is that it releases the insurers from the burden of having to price the premium to cover the large number of small value claims.

The amount varies between policies and you will need to check your wording or call our claims handlers to get confirmation.

Q. Why has more than one excess been applied to my claim?
However, you should be confident that any decision we make is correct and so if you feel we have not explained this decision properly please contact us to let us know and we can provide some further explanation.

In the meantime, here are some of the reasons why multiple excesses may have been applied:

Per Person
The cover listed in most policies (e.g. sums insured, policy limits and excesses) are applicable per person. Therefore, just as we would not look to limit two people’s claim to the value of one limit or sum insured, we cannot apply only one excess.

Per Section
Your policy is a composite of various types of cover all rolled up and packaged as one product: your travel insurance policy. However, these sections tend to all cover distinctly different risks and so often insurers set excesses to apply individually to any claim under each section.

Per Claim
Each claim represents a separate insured event and all limits and excesses apply separately.

Q. What is an insurance Schedule and where do I get it from?
A. Different companies confirm that you have bought insurance in different ways. You may have received an e-mail which shows your policy number, how much you paid and who is insured. If not, this information may be included in your holiday booking invoice, or you may have received a separate document which shows who you are insured with. Without this information, we will not know which insurance policy you bought and will not be able to deal with your claim. If you are unsure, please contact the company you bought insurance from. If you don’t know who you bought your insurance from, please feel free to e-mail or call us for advice.

Q. Why are you asking for my insurance details? Don't you have this information already?
A. Rightpath are an independent claims handling company that specialise in claims management. As a third party we may not have details of your insurance and so to expedite the claim assessment process we may ask you to provide us with a copy of your policy schedule.

Q. Is there a time limit to when I need to send in my documents?
A. Yes. You must notify us as soon as possible about your claim and your policy should stipulate the time period (usually 30 days). If it takes longer than this to notify us of your claim, you will need to explain why this has happened. If the delay does not prejudice the handling of your claim, we may still be able to assist you. Once you have notified us of your claim you can submit the papers as and when you are able (but within 6 years).

Q. What address do I send my documents to?
Papers should be sent to:

Rightpath Claims,
PO Box 6430,
BASILDON,
SS14 0QT,
UK
UK

Please make sure that you clearly mark your claim reference number on the first page of your papers.

You should also ensure that you pay adequate postage costs on the envelope, particularly if you are sending a large envelope.

You should always take copies for safekeeping and ideally send them recorded/registered delivery.

Q. How long does it take for the claim to be handled?
A. Your claim should be looked at within 5 working days of receipt.

For emails, we count the day of receipt as anything received up to 9 a.m. that day.

Q. Why haven't I received an acknowledgement to my email/letter?
A. As we aim to look at your correspondence within 5 working days, we do not acknowledge post/emails separately.

Q. How will you settle my claim?
A. We will make a bank transfer to your account. Once we confirm settlement, this should appear in your bank account within 5-7 working days.

Q. I am an overseas customer can you pay into my overseas account?
A. This will depend on the instructions provided to us by the insurers, and if the policy was taken out in the UK, for a UK resident, this is unlikely to be agreed as there are considerably higher costs in making overseas payments.

Q. Will my claim affect my future premiums?
A. Currently, no policy we deal with adjusts future premiums based on claims history.

Q. What happens to my documents once I send them in?
A. Your documents will be kept for a period of 6 months and will then be destroyed. If you requested your documents to be returned to you these should be received within 14 days. If you have not received your documents back after this period we ask you to get back in contact with us.

Q. Are calls recorded?
A. All calls are recorded for training and quality control.

Q. How are my bank details protected?
A. Your account number and sort code are stored within two fields that are encrypted with 128-bit master keys and use the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm. Once saved these two fields are masked and can only be viewed by select members of the Accounts Team responsible for making claim payments.

Q. The claimant has died who do you pay?
A. We are not positioned to be able to establish legal entitlement and so we will only be able to raise a cheque made payable to the ‘Executors of Estate for [DECEASED’S NAME].

Q. Can I email you scanned documents?
A. Yes. However, there are a couple of important notes:

Size
We do not advise sending any emails greater than 2MB in size as these may not be received.
If the size of your attachments is larger than this, try breaking them down into smaller sized attachments sent across by several emails.
The size of the attachments is often determined by the resolution settings of the scanner. Black and white at 200dpi should be sufficient.

Format
For security reasons, we are only able to accept the following file extensions:

.pdf
.jpg

Also, we cannot accept compressed/zipped files.

Q. How long do I have to submit my claim?
A. All claims should be submitted as soon as possible. Most policies state that you must notify us that you need to claim within 30 days of the incident. If you are trying to obtain all the information/ proof you need to submit your claim. Still let us know that you need to claim so we can set a claim up for you and give you any advice and help you might need. If you wait too long to tell us you need to claim, we may not be able to get all the information we need to make a decision. If this is the case, we won’t be able to help you with your claim.

Q. What is a Recoveries Form?
As well as calculate how much the insurers need to pay you in settlement of your claim, we also have to identify if there is anyone else that may cover the loss. The Recovery Form is designed to collect all the information needed to make this part of the assessment. Therefore, it is essential we have this information before we can proceed toward settlement.

This information may be either collected from you over the phone, via an online form or by sending you a form to complete.

Q. Where can I get a Recoveries Form?
If we have requested a Recoveries Form the claims handler should have provided you with a form to complete, however, these can also be downloaded:

Click here if your claim is for cancellation
Click here if your claim is for personal possessions
Click here if your claim is for medical expenses
Click here if your claim is not any of the above

Q. Why does it matter what other insurance I have in place?
It is a well established principle of insurance that when two insurers cover the same loss the insurer who settles the claim is entitled to approach the other for a contribution toward their outlay. In most cases this will not affect your no-claims discount or premiums.

Q. Why do you need my credit card details?
It is a well established principle of insurance that when two insurers cover the same loss the insurer who settles the claim is entitled to approach the other for a contribution toward their outlay. Some credit cards now provide a number of benefits which can include travel insurance. For this reason, as part of our assessment, we need to know who you have credit cards through and the level of cards held.

Q. Why do you need to know who I bank with?
It is a well established principle of insurance that when two insurers cover the same loss the insurer who settles the claim is entitled to approach the other for a contribution toward their outlay. An increasing number of bank accounts provide a number of benefits which can include travel insurance. For this reason, as part of our assessment, we need to know what bank your main current account is with and the level of account held.

Q. I just have a standard bank account can I just put that down?
A. We have to make an independent assessment of your claim and we will need to know the exact level of account held in order to identify if travel insurance is also held under this account. If you do not know this information, and are unable to find it on your bank statements or online, please contact your bank and ask for their clarification.

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Telephone: 020 8667 1600 / + 44 (0) 20 8667 1600 Email: enquiries@rpclaims.com Address: Rightpath Claims, PO Box 6430, BASILDON, SS14 0QT
Rightpath Claims is a trading style of Rightpath Insurance Solutions Ltd. © 2012 Rightpath Insurance Solutions Ltd.
Rightpath Insurance Solutions Ltd; registered in England and Wales. Company registration number: 6411430. Registered address: Suite 1, Market Square Chambers, 4 West Street, Rochford, Essex, SS4 1AL.
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