Can’t bloody believe insurance won’t cover if FCO restricts flights!

[ChoccyJules]

We have the holiday of a lifetime booked at Easter, costing more than our honeymoon did, no idea why but this year we decided after lots of caravan type hols to push the boat out.

Obviously we got insurance the day we booked everything, used the same place we always do because it covers pre-existing medical conditions.

We are starting to assume that flights may not go in April. We checked the policy and were quite shocked to see FCO advice not to travel is not covered. I‘m reeling, actually, yes we were lucky to have that money to spend but it was a first and last time and we may end up losing it all. Gutted.

That email suggests they won't cover but did you make it clear that it is an existing policy? They may not be offering cover to new policies taken out currently, which is fair enough.

I am confused about ours too. It says we are covered if FCO advise against travel to our destination (we are booked for Italy but not until July, so advice may have changed by then anyway). However there is a list of exclusions and it says none of the policy applies in the event of a pandemic so I assume that now invalidates the whole policy? Which seems very unfair, I feel like they should at least be refunding what I paid for the policy if it is now worthless?

We are with legal and general.

Some will cover you and some won’t.

My insurance won’t cover me if the FCO says you can’t travel so if I was going to Italy because the FCO says no travel my insurance won’t pay out for my flight and hotel cost .
And if I did go they won’t cover me for any
medical problems either
So If yours is like my travel insurance you would be covered if you broke a leg / illness delay at airport and couldn’t go before the trip went but not if airline went bust or FCO Advises against travelling
It’s quite a standard clause because if the FCO say you can’t go then the airlines have to refund you under ATOL ABTA
But that’s only if you booked as either a package like Tui or Virgin or dynamic package like a holiday with on BA where you get a choice of flight times and choice of hotels is a dynamic package and covered
But if you booked the flight and then a hotel or villa separately you would only get the flight bit back under ATOL /ABTA
You wouldn’t get the villa / hotel cost back You would claim on insurance if you can
Lots of insurance now are cancelling / stopping pandemic cover

Mine says
cover is only provided if cancellation is NOT because of the failure of your travel agent, tour operator or due to the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth
However cover is provided if
your flight is booked independently of your accommodation and you have not been offered an alternative/refund from any other agent.

So if you have done separate flights / hotels you say be able to claim under that bit if you have it

Op post a copy of your policy. The email doesn't make sense. It's a general policy they won't be able to id you.

Where are you going?

I think You’re understanding it wrong - it is saying it won’t cover you if you travel anyway when the advise is not to from FCO

if the flights cancelled you get money back from airline. Then you’d claim insurance for accommodation.

But they still wouldn’t cover a hotel / villa flight if the FCO said you can’t go there

Only if the airline stops trading and lots of reasons
Lots of people are going to get stung by this

This is the exclusions bit in mine, does yours have this bit OP?

We will not cover you for any claim arising from, or relating to,
the following:

Any epidemic or pandemic.

Fairly confident you are just not reading correctly - once you booked the insurance before this all started you should be fine
This link is helpful -
www.travelinsuranceexplained.co.uk/news/medical/everything-travellers-need-to-know-about-coronavirus

How did you book the holiday?

If you booked the hotel and flights yourself, did you check the sites were ATOL protected? If so, you get the refund through that, rather than insurance.

If you didn’t book through ATOL protected sites, if you used a credit card they may be able to help you with a refund.

If your flights are cancelled the carrier should refund the money. For the hotel then you might be able to get something back through credit card though I'm not certain on that.

Took out a policy last night - fully covered under FCO advice but from midnight, just 4 hours later, no longer covers this if it is CV related....phew!
Assuming company doesn't go bust?

Even if the OP booked the holiday before all of this happened if her policy states it won’t pay out because of FCO warnings then they won’t pay out if she needs to cancel They will expect her to get it back off the airlines

@Lazydaisydaydream axa are including cover for FCO disruption until 30th April even if it wasn’t in your original policy? Let me find the link

I’ve just taken out holiday insurance and then read the news where it says the country we’re supposed to be going to has declared a state of emergency for the next 30 days, banning all foreigners from the affected countries. We’re not going till June so fingers crossed.

Has the insurer not got a faq page for coronavirus. Most do now.

I checked my policy few weeks ago and was shocked to find the same! Took out a new policy which includes travel disruption cover but I think they have stopped offering that now.

@Lazydaisydaydream they’ve changed their web page! I only looked at this the other day, This was a screenshot from Sunday

I have had to double insure for this reason. My usual insurer will cover my pre existing but not FCO cancellation. I have found an insurer who rejects my preexisting conditions but does at least cover travel disruption. . Like a ppl, it's worth the extra cost as the hols are expensive

There is a good reason the insurer cannot and will not cover this. They will go bust if they try to pay out everyone who has holidays booked. Insurance is meant to cover individuals who have an unexpected problem, that's how it works financially. They cannot pay out to everyone, because they don't have the money. I would not pursue the insurer any more at this stage as really, it's a lost cause.

Depending on who you have booked with, they should be offering rebooking at a later date. Virgin is doing this for sure. I don't know if you booked bits individually or what but the airlines ought to accomodate a date change. You should probably look into each thing individually and see how you can minimise the loss.

I am also losing money, but it was a very cheap school trip abroad, only 200. I think a lot of people will lose money.

And also I believe insurers do not pay out until you have exhausted refund options. That's even if they do cover the problem in the first place.

We had to pay an extra £75 for trip disruption/ FCO cancellation. Without this add on the policy specifically stated that we were not covered for FCO cancellation.

You're reading it correctly

Did you book through a tour operator?

Just read mine there and it says if FCO amens travel advice to any country after a trip has been booked and such change of advice results in trip being cancelled as a consequence of the FCO advice, we shall pay up to the amount stated for any irrecoverable pre paid costs of the trip

Are you reading the full big document rather than the short version (should be about 25 pages long)

However OP if you were to self isolate get a doctors note they might pay out 😂 Check your small print
Not that I’m advising you to do that of course