Puzzled by Travel Cancellation and Travel Disruption cover.

Jack407

Hoping somebody has some positive comment on following so that I can either better tackle the insurance company or just shut up and accept their decision. Around November 2019 I took out annual cover for my wife and self with Staysure and opted for the so called fully comp policy which included cancellation cover. There was some good press about Staysure especially for the older traveler and we are both 76.

We were due to travel two weeks after the FCO advised no travel, Jet2 cancelled the flight and refunded but it was too late to get a refund on the apartment we had booked. I checked the Staysure policy and it stated cancellation cover for up to £5k and as the week for the apartment was only £975 we must be covered, ..right!.

I phoned Staysure and was told to submit a claim for all incurred expenses and everything would be considered. I only needed to claim for the apartment rental as Jet2 refunded flight so I submitted the claim.

That was mid March and as I had heard nothing for over four weeks which was well over the longer than usual 14 days Staysure say it is taking due to CV-19. I tied to phone their claims number but after holding for an hour I was still number 173 in the queue.  Since then I have phoned and emailed every email address and telephone number I could find. All fobbed me off with a number or email to a different department. Eventually I was given a direct dial for the department I needed and spoke with a gent who then tells me my claim has been rejected because CV-19 is 'Travel Disruption' which is an extra to the fully comp policy I have with 'Travel Cancellation' cover. I told him you can't get much more disrupted travel than the whole thing being cancelled including flights. His reply was there is an email on your account explaining it all which he said was sent to me sometime in April. I never received that email so he said he would send again but that was well over a week ago. (how long does it take to click send)

In anticipation of eventually receiving the email I was hoping to better understand Travel Cancellation-v-Disruption as I had always thought travel disruption was travel already embarked on being curtailed by some unforeseen event which had cut short the planned travel/holiday and incurred unexpected costs. Any opinions/advise gratefully received.  

Life__Goes__On

Does your policy state anywhere about FCO advice?

Streaky_Bacon

It really comes down to the policy wording. Cancellation us on page 15, disruption is on page 30.
https://www.staysure.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Staysure-Travel-Insurance_PD_NOV19_8-WEB_inc-errata_compressed-1.pdf
Your situation looks like it would definitely fall under disruption but arguably not cancellation (as defined by the policy). 

Jack407

Hmm!  I see what you mean, I had read the policy but only got as far as the page 15 entry stupidly not looking any further as thought that was their sole reference/entry relating to cancellations as I would have expected all references to cancellations to be in one place. Seems a bit naughty to slip another one in on page 30 which is 15 pages away from the initial entry.  They also seem to be selective in their own definition of 'Disruption' later referring to it as 'extended cancellation' in the explanation.

Thanks anyway for taking the trouble to look.

Life__Goes__On

I had a look as well, and I don't feel your covered either ,  they do have FCO advice but not for a pandemic.

[Deleted User]

Sympathise Jack.  I also took out holiday insurance long before Coronavirus came into our lives and thought I would be covered but nope...in the print somewhere it specifically excludes "pandemics".   Never gave a 'pandemic' a thought at the time as was just looking for other reasons for cancellations.   You live and learn though eh?   Actually as I've said before I will definitely be more clued up in future when booking a holiday 

Life__Goes__On

Tedber said:

Sympathise Jack.  I also took out holiday insurance long before Coronavirus came into our lives and thought I would be covered but nope...in the print somewhere it specifically excludes "pandemics".   Never gave a 'pandemic' a thought at the time as was just looking for other reasons for cancellations.   You live and learn though eh?   Actually as I've said before I will definitely be more clued up in future when booking a holiday 

I never gave "pandemics" a thought either,  but I was lucky I am covered.
As I only go to the Canary Islands these days I would have gave "pandemics" somewhere below being abducted by aliens. 

Jack407

As an a side to my tail of whoa. It's funny you should mention the Canaries we go to Lanzargrotte quite a bit and have been doing for last 40 years or so (although this apartment wasn't in Lanz.) We had two weeks at a villa in Lanz. late November. After a few day we contracted something really bad so much so took local advise and we ended up at a small local hospital/clinic type place. Saw 3 doctors they said it was a virus of some sort but said as we had no serious chest infection to just take paracetamol to ease the symptoms. It ruined rest of stay as we couldn't do much except sit around the pool. (there is of course quite a large Chinese pop. and shops on Lanz.) Never gave that a thought at the time of course. We came home completely unaware of any passing it on risk. Our Doc at home said it had been a virus of some kind and we were now in need of antibiotics as an infection was setting in. We were laid up all over December through Christmas and it lingered into the new year. Not felt that bad for a very long time but now reading the various types of symptoms CV-19 produces sounds very much like we felt. We are both quite fit for 76 year olds so maybe we could shake something off like that more easily than those less fortunate. Reports are now saying that it is suspected CV-19 has been around since November so we have to wonder and will be interested to get a stab at this anti-body test if/when available to the gen. public. We are never the less self isolating of course and being as careful as is possible seeing that it kills 4 out of every 5 over the age of 75 who contract it which aren't good odds to play around with.