BANGALORE — When Ayushman Pandita, founder of the marketing startup Growth Rocket, opted to purchase a ₹249 travel insurance add-on during a routine flight booking from Bangalore to Delhi, he never expected that a three-hour delay would become a three-week ordeal. What began as a seemingly minor inconvenience soon exposed a larger pattern of bureaucratic hurdles, digital dead ends, and customer fatigue that critics say is endemic to the Indian travel insurance industry.
The flight delay itself was ordinary. The aftermath, however, was anything but.
As Pandita detailed in a now-viral LinkedIn post, his attempts to file a claim worth ₹3,000 led him into a labyrinth of third-party platforms, customer care calls, vague email instructions, app downloads, and WhatsApp documentation requests—all without resolution. “It felt like a game of digital snakes and ladders,” he later said in an interview. “Except there were no ladders.”
The App Trap: When Insurers Rely on Complexity to Discourage Claims
The post-purchase process intended to be frictionless quickly unraveled. The insurance, Pandita discovered, was not managed by the airline or the booking site but outsourced to a third-party insurer. An initial 20-minute phone call merely yielded the advice to “check your email.” That email offered little clarity beyond an evasive suggestion to “contact support.”
From there, Pandita says, the user experience resembled a shell game: a web portal that led to an app download, followed by an account creation process that yielded no claim options. Another call to customer service required Pandita to recite obscure codes and policy references from his inbox. When he finally reached WhatsApp-based support, he was asked to re-submit already shared documentation.
Three weeks and six customer agents later, his claim remains unresolved.
“The entire system is designed to fatigue the user into giving up,” Pandita said. “It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.”
Micro Claims, Macro Profits: Is the Industry Banking on Your Frustration?
Pandita’s experience has since struck a nerve with Indian travelers online, many of whom shared similar stories of minor claims turning into protracted battles. Industry experts suggest this phenomenon—commonly referred to as “claims attrition”—is neither accidental nor uncommon.
“Insurers make a considerable chunk of their profit from unclaimed small-value policies,” said Vishal Shah, an independent insurance consultant. “They rely on the fact that most people won’t chase a few thousand rupees through a six-step digital relay race.”
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) mandates claim transparency and ease of access, but consumer protection groups argue that enforcement remains weak, particularly with third-party digital platforms.
“There’s a need for better UI standards and centralized regulation,” said Anika Ghosh, legal counsel at Consumer Matters India. “If a ₹3,000 claim takes 21 days and six apps to even register, then the system is clearly broken or rigged.”
What’s at Stake?
While ₹3,000 may seem inconsequential, the incident raises larger concerns about digital accountability and consumer rights in India’s fast-growing insure-tech sector. Travel insurance is often sold as a peace-of-mind product, with the promise of financial relief in moments of disruption. But for many like Pandita, it becomes a source of new anxiety.
“Ultimately, I didn’t want the money,” he concluded. “I wanted the peace of mind I paid for. And that’s exactly what the system is designed to deny.”