Flight missed on purpose due to Corona virus - Insurance cover

liu

Hi,

I'm hoping you can give me some ideas.

We missed our flight out to Albanian from the UK on 12.03.20 on purpose, understanding that the Coronavirus issue was stepping up. Our return flight to london was due to come back on the 17.03.20.

As anticipated the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) issued an advisory on the 14.03.20 advising against all but essential travel to Albania. Followed by a ban on all flights to and from Albanian on 16.03.20.

We reasoned that if we travelled we would have been quarantined and incurred additional hotel costs and possible medical bills if we had fallen ill.

We submitted a claim to our insurers Axa for the flights and they refused to pay out stating that we were not covered for "Disinclination" to travel.

bradders1983

Did Albania have quarantine measures in airports on the 12th March?

Browntoa

You were a "no show" for the flight , they are correct

Mrsn

Your flight was before the key dates announced and you chose not to travel. Your insurance are correct 

GibbsRule_No3.

I am almost in the same position but decided I would rather put up with the loss rather than possibly get stuck in the USA. The event I was due to attend in LA was postponed on the eve of my flight, so I contacted Air New Zealand and my hotel  right away.  Hotel went above and beyond, as I was more than happy if they had told me they would charge for the first night, they refunded everything very quickly. ANZ have offered a voucher for when the event takes place, so I might be able to take them up on that offer, not sure though as they are not due to fly from LHR to LA anymore fairly soon.  StubHub are the real problem, they say the event was postponed not cancelled so will not refund and if I cannot make the event should it be rescheduled I would have to resell the tickets myself, rather odd as Ticketmaster have refunded the seats I got for the same event.

lisyloo

You should have called your travel insurer and asked them what they wanted you to do.
they might have said don’t go as it’s cheaper and covered you in which case you want a reference and to get that in email, but you cannot just make your own decision.

liu

bradders1983 said:

Did Albania have quarantine measures in airports on the 12th March?

So some good points here. Thanks everyone.

Bradders1983 - The Albanian Ministry of Health issued a statement on 11 March that everyone traveling from a region of Identified epidemiological risk according to the World Health Organisation would need to be quarantined 14 days upon entering the country. The WHO situation report 50 from this link states the Global Risk as "Very High". https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports

We were only due to stay 5 days. So my point would be that immediately upon landing we would have been incurring additional costs.

liu

lisyloo said:

You should have called your travel insurer and asked them what they wanted you to do.
they might have said don’t go as it’s cheaper and covered you in which case you want a reference and to get that in email, but you cannot just make your own decision.

That would have been ideal but the Insurers had a notice saying along the lines of 'Unfortunately we currently cannot accept telephone queries'.

Life__Goes__On

Some insurance companies are saying as WHO declared a Pandemic on the 11th March,they are turning down claims for people traveling after this date as it was a "known event"

It seems some insurance companies want it both ways,  if you refuse to travel on the 12th Match,  you're not covered as you didn't travel,  and if you do travel you're not insured because it's a "known event"

For that reason I would challenge that decision and if they still refuse to pay out, leave it to the Ombudsman to decide if it was "fair" for you to travel with an pandemic declared.

Streaky_Bacon

Life__Goes__On said:

Some insurance companies are saying as WHO declared a Pandemic on the 11th March,they are turning down claims for people traveling after this date as it was a "known event"

It seems some insurance companies want it both ways,  if you refuse to travel on the 12th Match,  you're not covered as you didn't travel,  and if you do travel you're not insured because it's a "known event"

For that reason I would challenge that decision and if they still refuse to pay out, leave it to the Ombudsman to decide if it was "fair" for you to travel with an pandemic declared.

Completely agree with this, but also that you were minimising your loss by doing so, which is something that you would be expected to do when making an insurance claim. This is compounded by the fact that the insurer was no available to speak with. You were put in a situation where you had to decide how to minimise the potential loss to you and the insurer.

The insurer's defence would be that you should have gone, and then incurred them greater losses. Not a strong defence!

liu said:

Bradders1983 - The Albanian Ministry of Health issued a statement on 11 March that everyone traveling from a region of Identified epidemiological risk according to the World Health Organisation would need to be quarantined 14 days upon entering the country. The WHO situation report 50 from this link states the Global Risk as "Very High". https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports

We were only due to stay 5 days. So my point would be that immediately upon landing we would have been incurring additional costs.

Your other angle with this is to claim that the contract was frustrated as the outcome of the contract would have been "radically different from that contemplated at the time ".

In that case the contract would be voided and you would be entitled to a full refund. Definitely something that could be argued, but certainly no guarantees.