Can the AA justify a 300% jump in travel insurance prices in under five years?

It’s not often that Pricewatch starts a reader query with our own experience, but we feel like we have no choice this week.That is because what has just happened to us closely mirrors what has happened to several of our readers. We also have to highlight our story first, because the experiences that correspondents shared with us have just saved this page hundreds of euro.Regular readers will know that we are big fans of travel insurance. Well, truth be told, “fans” might be a stretch, but we have certainly highlighted the importance of travel insurance on many, many occasions and have always said it represents great value for money.READ MOREThis is not, it has emerged, always the case, however. In 2022, Pricewatch took out a multi-trip family travel insurance policy with AA Travel and paid what we considered to be a very reasonable €141.97 for cover for five people. Luckily, we did not have to make any claims on the policy over the following 12 months, and when the auto-renewal time came round in October 2023 we stuck with the same company.We did not notice that the cost of the same premium had climbed to €175.10, a jump of 23 per cent, but to be honest even if we had we are not sure we would have paid all that much attention to it. Decent cover for five people for a year for under 200 quid would have seemed like okay value for money. Another 12 months passed, and again none of those on the policy had to make any claims – and again we let the auto-renewal do its thing. [ Man paid about €400 on Booking.com for hotel that turned out to be closedOpens in new window ]We are not proud to admit that we did not read the documentation when it was sent weeks in advance of the renewal kicking in, and as a result we did not know that the price of the same cover jumped this time to €265.54, an increase of 52 per cent on 12 months earlier. In 2025, auto-renewal time rolled around again, and again we failed to go through the documentation that was sent to us. Yes, we are aware this displays a striking lack of Pricewatchiness (it is a word, look it up). For that, we can only apologise. What we did notice was the money leaving our account. And how much was it this time? It was €374.83. Now, bear in mind that in October 2022 the cost of the annual family policy with the AA was €141.97, so that was a hike of 164 per cent between October 2022 and October 2025. We are familiar with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on us all, but even in such a context that increase seemed excessive. Believe it or not, AA Travel were only getting started – but when renewal came around this year, we were ready. [ Visitors arrive ‘almost daily’ at my house expecting to stay in tourist accommodationOpens in new window ]We were ready, not just because of the €374 that left our account unexpectedly last year, but because of the experiences of readers – and we will get to them shortly. Last week, the renewal notification came in again. And this time we did not ignore it. The mail arrived on Monday with the “Travel renewal invite” in the subject field. We immediately opened it. “As your annual AA Travel Insurance renewal date approaches, we’re here to remind you the peace of mind that comes with being protected wherever you go,” it began. “Whether it’s a spontaneous trip or a well-planned holiday, AA Travel Insurance has you covered with benefits designed to help you feel safe and secure at every step of your journey. Below is a summary of the comprehensive coverage your policy offers, giving you the confidence to travel with ease.”‘I never intended to renew. The only notification went to a spam filter, so I only realised more than two weeks later when the money left my account’— Pricewatch reader TomIn case you are wondering, the cover we were paying for included “as an extra treat ... access to an English-speaking GP abroad with the AA Virtual Doctor”. We also had cancellation or curtailment cover up to €6,000 and medical expenses up to an impressive-sounding €10 million. All of this information and more was in the mail. But there was something missing. We read through it carefully and could find no mention of the cost. We opened the attachment that was sent along with the invite, and there it was.The cost of the policy for the next 12 months had jumped to €581.20. Now, to save you doing the maths, that is a year-on-year increase of 55 per cent, and a jump of 309 per cent in just four years.Obviously we rang the AA immediately.When we made it through to a human being, we said we wanted to talk about our travel insurance and he immediately assumed we were looking to cancel. We think it is interesting that he was the first of us to mention the “c” word – and it suggests to us that such calls are not uncommon.We talked about the mental – our word – jump in price, and explained that there was absolutely no way we could accept a rate of inflation of in excess of 300 per cent. There was no pushback, and the entirely pleasant call centre operative agreed to cancel the policy from the renewal date at the end of this month. He suggested that we might want to consider some single-trip policies in the short term. [ ‘I assumed Complete Savings emails were junk but €18 a month was going out of my account’Opens in new window ]Then, for devilment, we went on to the AA website again and gave all the same details for the five people who are currently insured with the company, but supplied a different email address and intimated that we were a new rather than existing customer. And how much do you think Pricewatch was quoted for a new multi-trip policy that includes cancellation and curtailment cover? It was €148.29, or more than €400 less than they wanted to charge us as an existing customer who had made no claims at all over the past four years.The reason why we were so on top of this business when the renewal mail landed is because of dear readers who got in touch with us to share strikingly similar stories. “I am writing to flag an issue with AA Ireland travel insurance that I think may be of wider public interest,” begins the mail from Tom. “My annual travel insurance policy was auto-renewed at €170, up from €117 last year – a 45 per cent increase for the same one-person cover,” he says.“I never intended to renew. The only notification went to a spam filter, so I only realised more than two weeks later when the money left my account.” He contacted the company to query the charge and was “told the 14-day cooling-off period had passed and there would be no refund. In other words: unless you proactively cancel, they can quietly hike your premium by almost 50 per cent and keep the money.”He suggests that “€170 for a single-person annual policy is absurdly off-market – it’s not even close to what competitors charge. I suspect this practice could be affecting thousands of policyholders, many of whom will never spot it.”[ ‘At my wits’ end’: Currys customer’s new fridge-freezer stopped working within daysOpens in new window ]And then there is Karl, who has a story that started a full decade ago when he took out a AA multi-trip annual travel insurance policy for his stepson for his 21st birthday.Way back then, he paid the €40 or so that the policy cost on his credit card. “I have the full details of the amounts deducted for the last nine years from my credit card with no policy changes to the original policy,” he says.‘The increases arising from this control issue were not consistent with AA Ireland’s intended pricing approach and the company has put in place additional controls to ensure that this error will not be repeated’— AA Ireland statementNow, bearing in mind how much the policy cost a decade ago, how much do you think this year’s policy ended up costing Karl?He says the AA came looking for €516. That amounts to a hike of more than 1,100 per cent in 10 years. Like Pricewatch, Karl decided to price the policy as a new customer looking for the same benefits. “It has come in at €80.76,” he says. “In my opinion, this raises a number of consumer issues. How does a 10-year loyal AA customer get charged circa 500 per cent more than a new customer for the same cover? “How does AA justify a 1,000 per cent increase over 10 years for a policy that has no requested cover changes?”Now, Karl acknowledges that his stepson “did not read the renewal emails sent out by the AA every year. He puts this down to the email subject ‘renewal invite’ and thought it was just an invitation and not automatic renewal”. He also says that he “did not spot the charges on my credit card for a number of reasons. I was a member of the AA and did have car insurance policies over the years. I only identified the charges and investigated after I retired and had the time. When I spotted this earlier this year I did make contact with the AA customer service, but due to the policy being in my stepson’s name with the charge going to my credit card, they were not interested in our queries, relying on the fact that they send out renewal emails every year. They would not respond to any of our queries.” He says he has not been able to prove or disprove “whether we ticked a box saying automatic renewal, due to the length of time since the original policy was taken out and information available online. AA would not provide confirmation.”We contacted the AA in connection with this episode, and received a statement that is so remarkable that we shall carry it in full. “AA Ireland is aware of an internal pricing control issue affecting the renewal of travel insurance for some customers and is working to rectify it.“During the renewal process, 213 customers were inadvertently overcharged.“This resulted in those customers receiving renewal premiums that were higher, or in some cases significantly higher, than they should have been.“AA Ireland has completed a comprehensive review and has identified the impacted customers. We are in the process of contacting those customers, who renewed at an incorrect premium, and we have started the process to refund them automatically.“Impacted customers will be notified directly, and no action will be required on the customer’s part.“The increases arising from this control issue were not consistent with AA Ireland’s intended pricing approach and the company has put in place additional controls to ensure that this error will not be repeated.“AA Ireland would like to again apologise and will always fully investigate any cases brought to its attention.”