Axa Assistance? .... a misnomer if there ever was one!

We were caught up in the Eurostar delays over the 2009 Christmas period and had to abandon our trip. We had travel insurance via Axa Assistance through our friendly bank and as this was absolutely no fault of ours and lay solely in the hands of Eurostar (who, incidentally, handled the situation abysmally)expected the compensation claim to go through without incident.

Wrong! Axa have refused to pay us a penny. They say that "you must check in according to the itinerary supplied to you" ... err, Axa? Are you the only insurance company on the planet who didn't hear the international news that Eurostar had five trains stuck in the channel tunnel on 19th and 20th December 2009? Or that St Pancras was closed as no trains were running? When trains began running again, on a very limited basis, we couldn't get a seat, but according to Axa "lack of seat availability is not a listed reason for abandonment". Oh really? Thanks for that, Axa. Now we can save some money by asking Eurostar to strap us onto the roof!