Planning ahead - in case the volcano continues

richardw

This week's MSE e mail is the perfect opportunity for a reminder about cancellation and curtailment cover, it is something that just gets overlooked.

pretzelnut

we are gonna spend the next few days looking at an altenative UK based mini holiday.

We have a hotel booked at glasgow airport for the night of our intended return which we would rather use than loose, plus the kids are expecting a holiday. When i became a parent i made 1 promise to my kids to never promise them anything and then let them down (which is basically what happened to me most of my life).

So even though it might be out of my control, i still have a promise to Keep. So a few nights around edinburgh and glasgow might keep them quiet, and theres loads to do in edinburgh for the kids.

We'll just have to hope we have some great weather, to go with it so we can wear our holiday clothes to.

I was just worried that we'd loose all the money we paid, which i think if that was the case i'd have cried myself to sleep for a month.

poorandindenial

Incapuppy wrote: »

Given the problems that an awful lot of posters are currently facing I find this question in very poor taste.

Errr, it wasn't a question, more a (a slightly jovially put) statement of what I am thinking of doing. I also don't think it is in bad taste, the more of us who do this when flights are jam packed and people are queuing the quicker the delayed people can get home which can only be a good thing, we will just get moved onto flights that aren't yet full a week or so later. If I can get the airline and hotel to do it then I am helping out, if I get an upgrade on one or the other then so much the better.

I put 'altruistic' like that because it wasn't completely selfless but I would be more than willing to do it.

Maybe think and read twice before you go for outrage.

Incapuppy

princesswoo wrote: »

It has never ever crossed my mind beforehand, but i learn something new every day and i promise never to not book insurance till the last minute ever again.

Well hopefully you are one of the lucky ones that will not have to learn this the hard way on this occasion. Please don't think I'm 'having a go' because I'm not - so many people are unaware of the need for having travel insurance in place from the time that travel is booked.

shellsuit wrote: »

If one of the travelling party fell seriously ill, the holiday would be the furthest thing from our minds.

I think you misunderstand the intention of my post. Of course your priority would be the person who was ill but if you have travel insurance in place you do not have the additional worry of losing perhaps thousands of pounds for a holiday you are unable to go on.

richardw wrote: »

This week's MSE e mail is the perfect opportunity for a reminder about cancellation and curtailment cover, it is something that just gets overlooked.

Indeed.

I have thought many times about starting a thread on the main board and asking for it to be stickied just to try and draw people's attention to the implications of not taking out travel insurance at the same time as booking travel.

The current situation aside, I would say not a week goes by without someone posting a query re: something happening before they got around to taking out travel insurance and having to learn the lesson the hard way.

pretzelnut

@ incapuppy, i didnt think you were having a go at all.

It seems that for the vast majority - travel insurance wont cover whats happening now, but it has educated me on what is covered for future holidays.

shellsuit

Incapuppy wrote: »

I think you misunderstand the intention of my post. Of course your priority would be the person who was ill but if you have travel insurance in place you do not have the additional worry of losing perhaps thousands of pounds for a holiday you are unable to go on.


.

I didn't misunderstand your post. A holiday and any money lost wouldn't even enter our minds if one of us took seriously ill

vodkachick68

foxy-roxy wrote: »

I am going to Dominican Republic end of July and thought about this too as we still have £1000 left to pay, but cancelling it will be the worst thing to do as you will lose all your money that you have paid.
If the airline cancels the flights you will be entitled to a refund so don't cancel whatever you do.
I go my insurance about a month ago thank god, was going to leave it longer but Thomas Cook were badgering me for a copy of the certificate.

Thanks for that. So what you are saying is that even tho i hadn't got insurance which incidentally i purchased today,if the situation is still going on when we are due to fly we will be able to get a refund?
If we go abroad in the future i will make sure the first thing i do after booking the holiday is to purchase insurance!!!

pretzelnut

vodkachick68 wrote: »

Thanks for that. So what you are saying is that even tho i hadn't got insurance which incidentally i purchased today,if the situation is still going on when we are due to fly we will be able to get a refund?
If we go abroad in the future i will make sure the first thing i do after booking the holiday is to purchase insurance!!!

From what i understand if you have booked a package holiday and insurance, the insurance wont cover you for cancellation as they are classing it as an act of god,
However, if its a package holiday that gets cancelled by your tour operator before you depart on your outbound flight then you are entitled to a full refund.

So keep paying the balance off, DONT CANCEL NOW as you will loose your deposits, wait for the tour operator to cancel first, then you will get a full refund.

meandmaboy

poorandindenial wrote: »

I am going to the States in a week and a half, I am pondering whether I might be able to negotiate with the hotel/airline to change the dates so that (if flights are running again) to help them get the stranded people home/accomodate them and use my 'altruism' to see if I can wangle an upgrade (in the same wasy that they sometimes ask for volunteers at the airport to elect to go on the next flight instead of the one they are booked on in exchange for a better seat.

I don't think there was anything wrong with what was said by 'poorindenial' they only just said 'aloud; what other folks might be thinking ! yes it is a very difficult situation & there may well be people more in need of ' poorindenial ' flight & he/she wouldn't be doing anything that the airline wouldn't have already thought of.
My flight has been cancelled for Tuesday by the time we had checked in online (we were numbers 50/51) return part of flight had 130 people check in online in front of us, so obviously our destination has folks stranded out there !!!!!!!!!!!!

vix2000

princesswoo wrote: »

From what i understand if you have booked a package holiday and insurance, the insurance wont cover you for cancellation as they are classing it as an act of god,

From what I believe some of the main insurance companies ARE covering you if you held insurance before last thursday. Please check your company. Mine is Halifax, and they are, as are post office, m&s and John Lewis, I believe.