Why you should tell travel insurers about every little cough As I have pointed out to Axa, why on earth would I have booked a £4,766 holiday if I thought I was going to have to cancel? HB, south of England You had paid for additional benefits on the card, which included this travel insurance. You had a dry persistent cough and were prescribed an inhaler and sent for chest X-rays and various other tests to investigate asthma and irritable airways. Just over a week later you booked a holiday to Vietnam but did not mention the cough to the insurer. Further investigations revealed that your heart was slightly enlarged. Meanwhile, you paid the full cost of the holiday. A scan of the heart was recommended while your symptoms deteriorated. Then you began to develop swelling of your legs and breathlessness. Just under two weeks after that you saw a cardiologist who diagnosed heart failure and sent you for further tests and recommended that you cancel your holiday. You did this four days later and phoned the insurer for a claim form, which you completed. This cancellation was nearly six weeks before the holiday was due to start. The holiday company refunded 50pc of the holiday costs. The rest you were trying to recoup from the insurer which was confusing to deal with and took time over its responses. Then your claim was rejected on the grounds that your first consultation with the doctor had been before you booked the holiday. However, after that someone rang from the insurer and said the claim would be settled and took your bank details. Afterwards though you were told again the claim had been rejected. Further to my involvement Axa Insurance concluded that the original decision to decline this claim had been correct and in accordance with the terms and conditions of the policy which state that medical conditions which are under investigation at the time of booking a trip are not covered. It now says that it is aware that you experienced some service issues which it says have now been addressed with the relevant teams. Due to the confusion and delay it says it is happy to settle the claim on an ex gratia basis. The £2,233 shortfall in the cost of the trip has been reimbursed to you. The telephone number you gave me didn't work and I didn't hear from you. I feared you might not be at all well and held back waiting to hear from you. In the end I did manage to contact your husband who said that the treatment was working, you had both had a lot to deal with and had been on holiday to Europe since this happened. He still believes it was a bona fide claim in that, he states, you should not have to cite every cough you visit a doctor about to an insurer. Many others will feel that way but the fact is that this is indeed what is demanded particularly where medication is prescribed and/or investigations are underway and not to comply with such terms and conditions is to do so at your peril.