The industry ombudsman has backed AIG Australia after it rejected a claim from travellers who were refused boarding because their flight booking did not include their middle names.

The policyholder and a co-insured were unable to complete an online check-in for their flight between two overseas destinations and were told at the airport they could not board and needed to buy new tickets at a cost of $1950.

The insured said the airline did not provide reasonable assistance or an alternative to buying new tickets.

She argued the loss arose from the airline’s refusal to help, rather than simply the booking error.

But AIG declined the claim, citing policy terms that covered additional transport expenses only when a traveller had started their trip and was stranded or had missed a connection due to something unexpected and outside their control.

In a dispute ruling, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority says the claim did not meet those requirements, because the loss occurred before the travellers’ scheduled flight departed.

It also found the operative cause of the loss was the omission of the middle names from the booking.

The complainant argued the matter was more complicated than a simple booking mistake, because part of the online check-in process worked and the airline had not offered an alternative.

But AFCA rejects this argument, finding these issues were consequences of the booking error, rather than its cause.

And even if the complainant established a claimable loss, AIG could rely on a policy exclusion for “any error or omission in your booking arrangement made by you”.

See the full ruling here.