Travel Insurance Renewal and Future Travel already booked

Sea_Shell

dcook said:

Sea_Shell said:

I would expect all renewals to now exclude Covid19.  It's basically a new annual contract each time, so terms can and will change.

This is going to further cripple the tourism industry, if you cannot get insurance.

That is exactly my point. Nobody will travel if Covid is still around but travel restrictions are lifted.
I cant believe Insurance companies are allowed to do this as its the whole idea of insurance.
What would happen if somebody was hospitalised whist on holiday due to common Flu, would they say we are not insured. This is what they are doing with Covid.

I believe one of two things might happen...

We'll end up with a government backed "re" insurance, like for flood/terrorism.

Or

Insurers will include Covid19, but at a hugely inflated price.

Insurers are private businesses and they can't be forced to offer cover, AFAIK.

Sea_Shell

Actually, I've just thought of a third way.. 

Travel companies will negotiate a scheme for their customers, which will be compulsory to include at booking.

Unlikely to be "cheap" however it shakes out.

Browntoa

Or Europe as a whole decides to pick up covid costs while you are in another country to kick start everybody's tourism .

Your travel insurance covers everything else like normal and at a more sensible cost

Life__Goes__On

"

Browntoa said:

Or Europe as a whole decides to pick up covid costs while you are in another country to kick start everybody's tourism .

Your travel insurance covers everything else like normal and at a more sensible cost

I think that will be hard
I doubt countries without much tourism will want to foot the bill for countries with large tourism.

Thrugelmir

Browntoa said:

Or Europe as a whole decides to pick up covid costs while you are in another country to kick start everybody's tourism .

Your travel insurance covers everything else like normal and at a more sensible cost

"Europe" appears to wish to overturn it's own law on granting cash refunds. This matter is going to rumble on and leave a bad taste in many peoples mouths. Trust is going to take a very long time to rebuild in the international tourism and travel industries. Bad publicity may eventutally send badly managed businessess to the wall. 
Insurance is priced on risk. Insurance may become more country/area specific. With a high level of standard cover mandatory. Within this there should be a Government levy that build a pot towards repatriation flights. Cheap travel insurance may be a thing of the past. If higher levels of solvency are imposed as there are in other parts of the insurance industry. 

oligopoly

Followed Martin's advice to book cover as soon as you book a holiday. Our cruise due in July has been cancelled and we've rebooked a different one for May 2021.
Our travel insurance company, Coverwise have confirmed that they will not refund our policy or even move it to next May and that "If the new holiday is after 2020 then a separate policy would need to be booked". I think this is quite unfair as they're getting that money for nothing - they haven't covered any risk... but that's a whole different story.
My question is at what point do we buy travel insurance cover for the newly booked holiday? And do we go for an underwriter that has refunded people's policies at the moment?

Life__Goes__On

It might seem unfair but you was covered for the trip once you booked, and you could have no doubt claimed if you hadn't rebooked.
The trouble now is no one will be covered for COVID-19 once they rebook

RichieB2

dcook said:

Thanks for the reply. I get nobody will currently cover for Covid.
But, If restrictions are lifted and I choose not to travel due to not wanting to take the Covid risk, then I will loose all my money for a flight booked well before there was any Covid issue.
So will everybody else who have future trips (well in advance) booked.
I am only asking about if somebody gets Covid when abroad and has travelled when no restrictions are in place.
Basically people will lose all money for holidays booked well in the future if they don't travel.

This does indeed seem unfair. Many people have rolling annual travel policies and when you booked Covid was not an issue so to make it a specific exclusion at renewal now is unfair. I see why they want to make it a specific exclusion (they are a business) . The issue for me should be was it a known event at the time of booking your trip ? In your case it was not a known event so should be covered onwards at renewal. Trips booked once Covid was a known event could then potentially have different terms from renewal. Without this annual cover no longer works as the whole point is to be able to book multiple trips over a rolling period of time.