Let me assure you I won’t give up on travel insurance - Fiona Duff

The other week I went to see friends in Italy for a bit of a break in the sun. It was a lovely holiday with delicious food and lots of tasty inexpensive wine. I mean what else could you want?

There was always the worry in the week leading up to our departure that the flight could have been cancelled.

However, packed to the gunnels the plane left Edinburgh pretty much on time.

Our flight home was a different matter. Scheduled for 8.05pm local time we arrived nice and early at the airport.

Edinburgh Airport was a breeze – the journey back, not so much

Once through security we could see that it was already delayed for half an hour. We shrugged our shoulders, settled down on a chair and started to read.

Each time we looked up the time got later. Almost three and a half hours later we took off.

In mid-air I suddenly remembered that when checking in I had, for the first time ever, bought travel insurance on the RyanAir website. Mainly because I thought that we were getting to that age where if we fell somewhere we might not be able to get up again.

However, I realised that as the plane was more than two hours late we should be able to get compensation easily

How wrong I was. I filled in the form, attached the note from RyanAir detailing the exact lateness of the arrival and then rubbed my hands together while working out where we could go next with the dosh that was coming our way.

Well, dear readers, the computer said ‘no’. When I queried this I was told it was because ‘as the incident was caused by an event described in your policy wording as not eligible for reimbursement’.

Well, anyone who knows me will know that I wasn’t going to accept this. Apparently the delay was caused by ‘Airspace/ATC slot restrictions’ which are not covered by the insurance.

I pointed out that the only caveats to not paying are bad weather or a strike, of which there was neither. Ryanair haven’t responded to that.

Don’t worry – I ain’t going to give up.