What to do about future travel?

[PrettyMuchDone]

We have a holiday booked in Croatia for the middle of July. It's very likely we will have to cancel, but not definite yet. I have 70 days left whereby I can cancel and only lose the deposit, after that I am increasingly liable for greater percentages of the total balance. I have travel insurance which runs out on the 31st of this month. I would like to hold off as long as I can just incase things will be OK (I know it's unlikely). Do I buy more travel insurance now just to insure that I am completely covered in the event of cancellation, or would that just be a waste of money? Would it even be valid in the event of cancellation given that COVID 19 is a pre existing event at this point?

You need to check if (a) you can get travel insurance that will cover Covid-19 and (b) how much it would cost. I imagine that even if you can get insurance, the cost will be prohibitively high.

You won't be able to get insurance

New travel insurance won’t cover you for disruptions due to Coronavirus.
Or if you find one (Lloyd’s register...??? Making this up now) it’s likely to be very expensive.
Cancel the holiday, cut your losses. It’s only the deposit you’d be loosing. You’re giving up on a couple of weeks away and a few hundred pounds - in the great scheme of things that’s nothing.
If, by some miracle, you get some protection (pay by credit card, new insurance etc), you most certainly won’t be covered for all your loses. And what if the new insurance company goes bust? There’d be none to claim the money back through.
My Teenage DD had 2 holidays booked for the summer (one would have been very special, once in a lifetime opportunity) both now cancelled and I think we lost about £800, but hopefully getting back around £1500 - still not clear exactly how much.
It’s Croatia, not the moon. Croatia will still be there in the future, you might need the holiday money you’d otherwise loose if things get really tight. We have a solid financial situation and I’m very aware we could be eating home made bread and drinking water by the end of the year if inflation goes through the roof, we loose our jobs and so on. Property and investment wouldn’t be worth much if the value deteriorates greatly or if there are no buyers.
Keep every penny you can for now.

Is this an annual travel policy that you have at the moment and does it have cover for pandemics? If so the insurable incident ( the booking and paying for the holiday then the onset of the pandemic) has occurred within the validity of that policy and it should cover you. To make claiming straightforward I would renew that policy when it expires to ensure continuity up to the date when it becomes clear that you will not be able to travel.

I am not an insurance professional but have had some complex buildings insurance claims involving long periods spanning several policy years.

Be aware that your insurance company may tell you that you can't claim even if you legally can. This has been my experience in the past. If you have legal expenses cover, commonly offered with buildings and contents household insurance, you can use this to get legal advice on disputing their decision and bringing action against them if necessary.

Have you looked into postponing the holiday to next year instead? Some holiday providers are allowing people to do this without losing the deposit.

But also be aware that if you renew your annual travel insurance (if this is indeed an annual policy) the renewal conditions will, very likely, be different and not cover for this pandemic situation. Essentially you’d be buying a new policy, most new policies don’t cover this.

If the holiday is cancelled by the company are they not required to refund you or offer an alternative?

Almost certainly no travel insurance will cover you for CoViD-19 anyway.

I was due to come to the UK at the start of April, but when I tried to look at travel insurance in Feb, they already were saying that they wouldn't cover anything to do with CoViD-19, regardless of when you had taken out the insurance.

Luckily for me, BA were offering vouchers for the full cost of flights etc. booked for up to 31st May (so I was covered). I would imagine they will extend this, as it's really no one's fault that this situation is ongoing. The vouchers are valid for a year from date of travel.

Check with your travel company before you cancel - BA were very clear that if people had cancelled before they tried to collect the vouchers, then they would not be able to collect them; I expect other carriers are similar.

I would look at moving the date, rather than cancelling. This is what we will be doing if things still don’t look great nearer our booking abroad.

I definitely still want the holiday after all this calms down, even if it’s a while off personally. For me it’s something to look forward to in these crazy times

We were due to go away tomorrow. Instead of losing the deposit we contacted the hotel and they agreed to move the date to the end of October. The airline we were flying with are giving vouchers for anyone wishing to cancel/change flights up to the end of September so we have done that. Contact your hotel/airline/tour operator and see what your options are. Many are being more flexible than they would normally be.