Summer flight cancelled, safe to rebook flights and retain covid-19 "holiday" coverage with insurer?

ic

We have a holiday booked at the end of July to Canada - the flights, hotels, train, cattery, etc all booked separately.  Air Canada have now cancelled the full years schedule at Manchester, and have rebooked us on to flights flying out of Heathrow - this is frankly useless to us and I know I'm able to cancel the flights for a refund.  However that leaves us with everything else in place, and I expect probably difficult to cancel for a refund so far in advance. 

We'd like to go if we can, and its possible some normality might be returning in late July - I know our insurer (Nationwide Flexplus) have confirmed they cover "holidays" booked before mid-March against Coronavirus cancellations.  However what are people's thoughts on rebooking elements of a holiday booked prior to mid-March where the holiday is DIY.  Would the flights and holiday continue to be covered for Coronavirus?  Or, because our airline is unable to provide the flights we've booked, is the whole holiday effectively cancelled?

I'd call Nationwide - but they don't want to hear from anybody except when they're two days away from their holiday.

ic

Seems with the latest news I may as well just hold tight for now.  Seems there's no requirement for me to accept the change, so I guess I can sit on the changed flights and cancel later.  I imagine the situation will extend, and hotels and trains will extend their current offers to cancel.

aoh101

I am in a similar situation. Air Canada first changed and now cancelled my flight for early May. And my insurance is also nationwide flexplus. Air Canada is not giving refunds, only vouchers ... Fairly useless to me . As you say, nationwide don't take calls unless 48 hours from departure. But their website states that you can't claim if you are offered vouchers. That seems quite wrong. This should be a clear case for cancellation due to pandemic. 
And where would we stand with regards to voucher and insurance next year, if it is still not safe to travel (foreign office advice or not). This throws up many more questions.

ic

I've just rung Air Canada for the first time and had it confirmed they're unable to place me on any code-share flights out of Manchester, and that the only options are to accept the flight from Heathrow, or take a credit voucher valid for two years.  They did however offer to refund the seat selections we'd paid for without even asking, so those refunds are on their way.

I think I'm going to sit tight for a while, and will probably turn to American Express to see about a chargeback/section 75 claim.  Hopefully Nationwide will get in a better position where they'd be willing to talk about holidays further away than two days.