A recent ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main has determined that travel cancellation insurance is not obligated to cover additional expenses incurred when a passenger misses a flight due to a road closure. The court’s decision, released on Wednesday, centered on the concept of reasonable planning for unforeseen delays.
The case involved a woman who departed from Kiel at 4:00 AM in the summer of 2023, using a rental car to reach Hamburg Airport for a flight to Hawaii scheduled to depart at 6:45 AM. A traffic accident resulted in a two-hour closure of a section of the route, causing the woman to arrive at the airport at 6:30 AM and subsequently miss her flight. She sought approximately €9,000 in reimbursement from her travel insurance company to cover the resulting expenses.
The court’s judgement stated that the timing of the woman’s departure was not “unavoidable” as defined within the terms of her insurance policy. Judges indicated that a “minimal buffer of 15 minutes” would likely have been sufficient to avoid the traffic obstruction and reach the airport on time. Following a preliminary ruling from the court, the claimant ultimately withdrew her appeal. The verdict highlights the importance of factoring in potential delays when planning travel itineraries and underscores the interpretation of “unavoidable circumstances” in insurance coverage.
