Travel Insurance Discussion Area

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CheroDave wrote: »

I shall shortly be booking a fairly expensive Virgin Holiday using Tesco Clubcard vouchers. Tesco advise to insure with them since their cover recognises the full value of the clubcard deal tokens used to pay. However, we can't buy Tesco travel insurance online (where it's a reasonable price) since one of the party has a minor pre-existing medical condition. Is there another "value" insurance company that will reconise the full value for Clubcard Holiday deals? Dave

Welcome to MSE Dave

Some companies, when it comes to customers using airmiles, points or vouchers, in the event of cancellation, may only refund the monetary value or equivalency of the vouchers. ie if the voucher in tesco terms is woth £25, on the voucher it should give you the real money value (usually something like 00002p or £00.0002p) and this it what you'll be paid out.

Wressledene

That is certainly a difficult one. I don't know whether 'Cover My Travels' can help you. However, they were brilliant when it came to covering my partner and me for a trip to New Zealand planned for early next year. I am almost 63 and have a complex medical history. Earlier in the year it cost me alone almost £500 for 15 days' cover for the USA with another insurer.
To start with, a freely available freephone number to contact' Cover My Travels' was a pleasant change. 'Nick' took all our details then said he would have to speak with (the underwriter) and would get back to me in 5 minutes. He told me the standard cost, which would be just under £200 for the 2 of us for the single 31 day trip.
As good as his word, 5 minutes later I had excellent news from him. Because the age bands are organised differently, and we are both under 65, we could have worldwide annual cover including the USA, again for the 2 of us, for under £100! There was no loading on the standard premium at all.
I would recommend anyone to give 'Cover My Travels' a try - and many thanks to Martin:money: as I had never heard of the company before.
Good luck.

daljure

Please some ideas:

I bought a year travel insurance cover for my family from Marks & Spencer, essentially to cover for our summer holiday trip to South America. In order to get there we had to make a connecting flight in Atlanta (USA), however our flight out of London was delayed 3 hours (bad weather) and, therefore we missed our flight out of Atlanta. In the end we had to spend 4 nights in Atlanta before they could get us seats to our final destination.
On our return to the UK I made the claim for the expenses for those 4 nights to Marks & Spencer but they declined it because the initial delay had been less than 12 hours & because they don't cover missed connection flights (not outside the UK anyway).
I personally think that the idea of getting travel insurance is to cover for all these unexpected events, but again, it seems that the big players get their way by means of interpretation of the small print.

That said, firstly, I'd be very thankful if anybody can tell me whether I have any basis to make a claim anywhere.
And, secondly, if there is an insurance provider that does not exclude these events, so I can get it in the future.

P.S: Delta Airlines, our carrier eschewed liability (i.e. didn't offer any compensation at all) because the reason of the delay -bad weather- was out of their hands.

Thanks

D

gradd

had similar situation & was refused totally........... :rolleyes:

malc_b

May I add a warning to this discussion. Most travel insurance does not cover up for missed departure where you drive to the airport and you are not the one in the accident. So when the lorry driver up ahead falls asleep and blocks the motorway and you're stuck in a 4 mile tail back on the motorway you are NOT covered.

I don't know about everyone else but I always drive to the airport and that is always on motorways. This actually happened to some friends. Their options: abandon the holiday or buy new tickets for all the family. Their insurance didn't cover them. Luckily (!) it was only spain so ~£1000, USA would have cost over double that.

The only 3 insurances with this cover I have found are Direct Travel, Columbus and M&S. So buyer beware and read the small print. The cheapest is not always the best. It seems like these days (I live near the M4) there are frequent accidents on motorways and these cause many hours of delay each time.

roddydogs

Thanks i use Direct travel and always wondered about this.
Ps its not only motorways that get blocked!

wkt54

I have spoken to 2 different travel insurance companies.

They asked if I had spent at least 6 months out of the last 12 in the UK, and I said no - I had spent 8 months in Europe.

They said that was ok though - as long as I was a UK resident - and I could still take out a policy.

Has anyone else taken out an insurance policy even though they haven't spent 6 out of the last 12 months in the UK, like what they ask?

malc_b

roddydogs wrote: »

Thanks i use Direct travel and always wondered about this.
Ps its not only motorways that get blocked!

From the insurer's point of view they need to be sure you didn't just oversleep, that's a reason for limiting it to motorways (some include dual carriageways too). Big hold ups on those are reported and thus verifiable, and you also can't just turn round and find another route as you can on A or B roads. You can see their point. On A & B roads an accident will delay you but the traffic is less so the delay should be less so if you have allowed some spare time you should still make it. When a motorway has to all fit down an A road you get grid-lock.

ronald208

Hi I am going away on holiday to the Canaries in November this year, told I have to take 2 weeks holiday before December, not booked yet, so I applied for the Capital One Cashback: 4% for three months, 1% after; plus free travel insurance. card and will use it to pay for my holiday when the card appears. I just wonder if the Travel Insurance will be sufficient as there is just my wife and I, i.e is it the same as applying to one of the travel insurance web sites. Thanks Ron

Steve_xx

ronald208 wrote: »

Hi I am going away on holiday to the Canaries in November this year, told I have to take 2 weeks holiday before December, not booked yet, so I applied for the Capital One Cashback: 4% for three months, 1% after; plus free travel insurance. card and will use it to pay for my holiday when the card appears. I just wonder if the Travel Insurance will be sufficient as there is just my wife and I, i.e is it the same as applying to one of the travel insurance web sites. Thanks Ron

I don't think that you actually need to pay for the holiday with the credit card in order to be covered by the travel insurance, do you?