Which? used data from comparison site Moneysupermarket.com to establish that older travellers have seen much higher price rises for these services since the pandemic.

For a single trip insurance policy for a week in Spain, travellers aged 25 to 54 would have paid an average of £7.98 in July 2019, which rose by 33% to £10.65 this summer. 

However, those aged 85-plus have seen prices rise by 169% from £40.15 in 2019 to £107.99 this year, while those in the 75-84 age group saw their insurance premiums shoot up by 60% over the same timeframe.

Which? also found that most travel insurance policies (95%) set a maximum age threshold for new customers.

The consumer group added that car rental was another area where older customers were “likely to be short-changed, with many companies burying age restrictions in their terms and conditions documents”.

Big names in the sector, including Avis, Budget, Enterprise and Hertz, only asked customers to confirm whether they were aged over 30 when booking online, which meant “drivers could be at the desk before discovering prohibitive age restrictions apply”. 

Age restrictions for renting a car can also vary between locations, even when using the same company. Older drivers also faced “often exorbitant” rental fees.

Guy Hobbs, editor of Which? Travel, said: “Legally, companies are often within their rights to adjust their prices and policies on the basis of age, if they have a justifiable reason, but we’re increasingly seeing cases where the outcomes for older customers seem disproportionate and unfair.”