Holiday insurance

chrisjbentley

I have a holiday booked to Florida in late August and have travel insurance taken out with Atlas which commenced 24 April 2009 for 12 months. I am now told that the insurance does not cover me and my family against Swine Flu as this is now a pandemic and that the country / state that we are visiting is listed on the FCO website. When we took out the insurance and the holiday there was no outbreak of the swine flu and both the holiday and insurance were purchased in good faith. I have asked the travel agents and they state that even their own insurance will not cover us, so how can we now go on holiday and how can we cancel and get our money back.....we do not want to cancel but seemingly have no option. Has anyone got any advice on this matter. The holiday was booked with Thomson and up until today when we questioned the matter, they did not even know that their insurance would not cover their clients.....so it seems that anyone booking a holiday with them has been sold insurance thinking that they would be covered, and they are not !!!!

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You're kidding, right?

gordikin

Quote wrote: »

You\'re kidding, right?

Exactly my thoughts....but I suspect not!

chrisjbentley

I certainly am not kidding.....but my predicament is do I take the risk and travel as if I do go and I catch Swine Flu while I am away I will not be insured and thus, if quarantined in the country that I am visiting, then the whole cost is down to me....this could bring financial ruin......has anyone any advice?

dacouch

Who has advised you that Swine Flu is not covered and that Florida is on the Foreign Office Website as they have totally miss advised you.

Here is the FOC website http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/north-central-america/?action=noTravelAll#noTravelAll

Note that the U.S.A is not on the list at the moment so you are fine, if the government change their advice then you might need to reassess things.

Travel Insurance includes cover for Medical Costs / Repatriation for medical conditions, they may exclude any Existing COnditions you have not declared to them, but not Swine Flu. If you were travelling against the FOC advice then medical costs / repatriation are often excluded.

There is a good chance your policy may not cover if you have to cancel due to Swine Flu.

In the future its not always a good idea to take advice about Insurance from a Travel Agent as they often do not know much about Travel Insurance.

If you look on the website for your Travel Insurer, it probably has a page that explains what implications Swine Flu has

FH_Brit

Chris - I am ex Brit living in Florida working in the travel Medical/Insurance business (see my posts below). Here in central Florida (Orlando area) we have had 3 cases and only (I don't want to trivialize by saying only) 1 death and they were all Mexicans who visited Florida or Mex/FL residents who had just visited Mexico.

Considering Florida is as big as England - you are more at risk in the UK brining it to us! ! ! You probably are risking your health more breathing the traffic fumes on the M25 going to catch your plane at Gatwick!!!

The answer - find a company that covers the swine flu (if it will put you at ease) and either cancell the one you bought (if you are within the cooling off period, or keep it as a secondary insurance for any other ills or accidents. Considering how cheap the UK travel insurance can be it won't be too much of a waste of money.

See my other thread that has some useful Travel Insurance info:
Click Here for must-read information: Medical & Travel Insurance

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1011487&highlight=florida+travel+insurance%27

Alfrescodave

Best not to risk it. Stay inside, seal the doors and windows and hide under the duvet until the all clear sounds !!!

dacouch

If you catch Swine Flu you can cure it with oinkment

FH_Brit

DA - Pleeeeaseee NO MORE(so called) Jokes!!!!

Chris - Alfrescodave has summed it up - better still buy yourself one of those bubbles to walk round in then you wont catch anything!

lisyloo

Chris - we have swine flu here in Bath.
Don't think you'll be at too much risk going to Florida.

gordikin

You could try wearing the masks that MJ used to wear?