Travel Insurance - annual multi trip policy World Wide

Helldog

Hello All
I have a World Wide annual multi trip travel insurance policy which also covers various minor medical conditions for myself husband and two children aged 20 and 18.  In light of the recent news coverage surrounding the Corona Virus and travel restrictions announced by the FCO I thought it prudent to check the small print of our policy.  In the policy schedule Exclusions section it states that if the holiday is cancelled as a result of FCO travel advice then the cover will NOT apply.  I contacted the Insurer who have advised that this is quite a standard exclusion and that in the first instance we eould need to contact whoever we made bookings with.  Like many people now, we book all aspects of our holiday separately (therefore we are not ATOL covered) so can anyone advise whether we are likely to get recompensed by the suppliers for the following:
1.  Flights - booked via Ebookers
2. Hotels booked using a third party like booking.com, airbnb, etc
3.  Airport car parking
4.  Hire car in the destination country
5.  Theme park tickets booked using a third party supplier like travel republic.
6.  What happens if we are forced to stay in our destination country due to quarantine regarding an outbreak of the Corona Virus as we are not covered by ATOL? Do we pay or can we make any claims from anyone?
We made all of the above purchases using our credit card.
Any advice on all or any of the above points would be appreciated.

mgdavid

Flights will depend on what type of ticket you bought, some are cancellable but cheap ones usually aren't.

Hotels - depends on the booking conditions of the individual hotels you have booked with.

A/port parking - you almost certainly won't get anything back

Foreign car hire - again, depends on the booking conditions of the company you booked with.

Theme park tickets - I doubt you'll get anything back

The time to have checked the cancellation details of all the above was at the time of purchase, not now unfortunately. Also it would have been more prudent to have read the small print of your travel insurance policy before you bought it.

Credit card cover won't help as you won't have been denied any of the services purchased by the supplier themselves.

If the country you travel to is not on the FCO 'don't travel' list but an outbreak happens while you are there and you are quarantined, that's a specific question to ask your travel insurer (but I expect all costs will be down to you judging by the clause on FCO advice.

cubegame

Are you sure that the clause states that cover doesn't just exclude travel booked to a country which the FCO advices against travel to, where the advice is in place at the time of booking?

ie. It WOULD cover travel booked to a country if the advice changed AFTER booking.

Alan_Bowen

The usual insurance term states they won't provide cover if you travel to a destination that already has FCO advice not to travel to, but you wouldn't anyway. If the advice changes whilst you are there, then there is cover and would usually cover the cost of returning early. Look specifically for cover in the case of pandemics as I have certainly heard of a complete denial of liability in some policies. No policy will cover your decision  not to travel if there is no FCO advice against doing so, a 'disinclination' to travel will be at your own expense

Helldog

cubegame said:

Are you sure that the clause states that cover doesn't just exclude travel booked to a country which the FCO advices against travel to, where the advice is in place at the time of booking?

ie. It WOULD cover travel booked to a country if the advice changed AFTER booking.

Hello Cubegame
Yes I checked the small print in the Exclusions section and it does say the following " unless agreed with us there will be no cover if the FCO advise against travel to your destination".  I was surprised at this as I deliberately purchased what a thought was a good travel insurance policy - it is platinum standard policy.

cubegame

Helldog said:

cubegame said:

Are you sure that the clause states that cover doesn't just exclude travel booked to a country which the FCO advices against travel to, where the advice is in place at the time of booking?

ie. It WOULD cover travel booked to a country if the advice changed AFTER booking.

Hello Cubegame
Yes I checked the small print in the Exclusions section and it does say the following " unless agreed with us there will be no cover if the FCO advise against travel to your destination".  I was surprised at this as I deliberately purchased what a thought was a good travel insurance policy - it is platinum standard policy.

That sounds to me like they are saying you will not have cover if you go....ie. for illness etc.
But you should have cancellation cover.

SandC

Agree with cubegame, that sounds right.  I've checked mine and it's all fine, in fact there is a link to a coronavirus FAQ section right as soon as you go on the website.  Basically, if you booked the trip and took insurance out before the FCO advised against all but essential travel' I am covered.  I would have thought this was fairly standard.  I've advised my boyfriend who is travelling with me in August to Greece to sort his insurance out now so that he has peace of mind if anything should change.  

AlexMac

WHICH has a helpful article,
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/03/coronavirus-what-it-means-for-your-travel-insurance/
This much reasured me as I  get travel insurance with my bank account with AVIVA, who are taking a generous approach; and as they say
"Aviva said it would cover customers even if they travelled to areas that the FCO has warned against visiting. This includes the ‘all but essential travel’ warning. It said, ‘We would urge customers to follow the advice as outlined by the FCO/local authorities and not place themselves at additional risk. However, they would still be covered by Aviva UK travel insurance if they did choose to travel. ’
So the message is- get a decent insurer