New insurance terms - not covering border restrictions

rjr2016

Hi all,
Currently stranded in Malaysia after they banned all their citizens from leaving until 31st March. I am here with my Malaysian wife and son (my son and I can technically leave as we have British passports but no chance we are separating from my wife).

We left UK on 7th March before the Covid-19 virus caused anywhere near the current level of disruption. 

The plan was to be mainly based in Malaysia but because her parent's house is much nearer to Singapore than Kuala Lumpur, we had a couple of local trips planned which flew from Singapore (like we always do when we visit her family).

We entered Singapore just before our flight to Taiwan on 12th March with no issues. We planned to return to Singapore on 16th March before driving straight back into Malaysia.
Problem 1 - on 13th March Singapore banned any visitors that had been in various countries (including Spain) in the last 14 days.
Impact: I was in Spain with work until 4th March so rebooked our flight so that it returned to Singapore on 19th March. TOTAL COST = £315 (flight change fee + hotel for 3 extra nights in Taiwan)
Problem 2 - on 15th March UK FCO recommends against all but essential international travel. On the same day Malaysia say that no foreigners are allowed in from 18th March. We had to enter Malaysia at some point before our return flight from Singapore to UK on 27th March because all of our stuff (including my UK car key, cash and essential baby supplies) were there as we only planned to be in Taiwan a few days. Therefore, this was essential travel as without it we couldn't fly back to UK. In the meantime, Singapore forces any visitors to various countries (including UK and Malaysia) into 14 day isolation, meaning even if we went straight to Singapore we'd still miss our flight back to UK.
Impact: booked new flights fron Taiwan straight to Malaysia for 17th March. TOTAL COST: £322 (flight plus over night hotel at KL airport)
Problem 3 - we had a trip to Laos planned 21-26 March but the airline cancelled the flight (which we couldn't have entered Singapore for anyway!). I have had no joy getting refunds from Scoot for the flight cancellation or Expedia for the hotels. TOTAL COST = £660
Problem 4 - returning to UK. Singapore have now banned all visitors completely so I cancelled our original return flight with Qatar and got a measly £292 back, but better than nothing. I have since booked a one-way flight for the three of us for 1st April with Malaysia Airlines for £1200.

I plan to claim for all the items above minus the partial refund I got from Qatar, which totals about £2,200.

Key questions/help needed:
- I am fully comfortable that our reason to travel to Malaysia was essential travel. Do you think I will have any problems with this when making a claim?
- Sainsburys Bank (my insurer) have released new guidance on their website saying customers are not covered when border restrictions disrupt travel. This is definitely new on their Covid-19 FAQ section and seems very unfair. My original policy does not include any wording at all about border restrictions causing travel disruption. I'm concerned that I will only get back the Laos part of the claim (see (3) above). Is there anything I can do to fight this?

Apologies for the essay - no easy way to explain it all. Very stressful times with being stranded in Malaysia and having financial worries too doesn't help matters.

Thanks in advance for any help,
R