Balance payment

seasick_sailor · 21 March 2020 at 7:38AM

I have booked and paid a deposit for a holiday to Israel and Jordan in July. I am due to pay the remaining balance next week which is just over £5,500. My holiday insurance through CSP (Lloyd’s policy ) has invoked a exclusion for a pandemic and basically will not pay out for any reason. The holiday was booked through Hays and the staff tell me to pay the full holiday cost and if cancelled it will be covered for a refund but I don’t have anything in writing or know who will actually refund. Flights are with BA and at this time neither flights nor holiday itself have been cancelled. Do I cancel and lose a substantial deposit or pay and wait it out

WishYouWereHere · 21 March 2020 at 5:33PM

I am in a similar position. In my opinion the travel agent and travel companies will encourage us to pay the balance so that they get their money, and will inevitably pass us on to our insurance company to claim the money back from them (the holiday company then gets all the money, which they wont pay out to their suppliers as often they don't pay this until the last minute or even after the holiday). In effect they will get a massive cash injection! Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure that insurance companies will find a way not to pay out, since we have decided to pay the balance knowing that the holiday probably wont go ahead. Either way, we lose. If we cancel now, we lose deposits etc, for me that's over £1700 at the moment.