Anyone know about covid19 claims on travel insurance?

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

Has anyone managed to claim holiday cancellation costs via their travel insurance at the moment?

Booked a trip to Europe via train this Easter. I’m trying first of all to get refunds direct from hotels etc but a number are only offering vouchers/rebooking.

Our travel insurance explicitly includes cover in event of FCO advising against all but essential travel. Advice on their website is somewhat opaque and they are suggesting they won’t cover claims related to covid19 but maybe they’re just trying to discourage claims?

If i think I’ll be able to claim costs for hotels and travel via my insurance then I won’t accept vouchers/rebooking - but if I can’t then a voucher is better than nothing.

I’m really confused about how to proceed.

We had to add travel disruption cover to our policy for the COVID situation to be covered.

Our holiday isn't until August but our insurance only pays out if FCO advice to that country is avoid all but essential travel / don't travel 48 hours before travel. You are supposed to seek refunds from everywhere else first, it's currently saying if you are offered a voucher they won't pay out which is annoying as some vouchers are worthless / can't use. I'm not sure at what point you are supposed to try and cancel - within 48 hours seems too short. Ours has a statement on its website though some things aren't clear.

We paid the extra £50 for travel disruption which was more than our initial policy at the start of the outbreak however we have now moved our holiday to 2021 but our insurer states we cannot move the policy so we have had to cancel it and lost the original purchase price plus the extra £50 we paid. Feel a bit aggrieved