UPDATE: Annual Travel Insurance taken out on 3rd March; but policy started 1st April

blindman

ptdommi said:

Hi Sheramber, my start date on the policy is 19/01/2020. BA cancelled because of coronavirus and the USA have denied EU & UK citizens entry, so we can't get to the accommodation even if we wanted to. Thought claims could be made on the credit card under Section 75!

In this case you need to claim on your travel insurance if they cover you for FCO advice against travel.

SpreadableToast

ptdommi said:

Hi Sheramber, my start date on the policy is 19/01/2020. BA cancelled because of coronavirus and the USA have denied EU & UK citizens entry, so we can't get to the accommodation even if we wanted to. Thought claims could be made on the credit card under Section 75!

They haven't denied EU and UK citizens entry, they've denied entry to all non-US citizens who have been in certain countries in the past 14 days, a very big difference.

sheramber

Your credit card would only cover you if th service- accommodation- was not available. If it is, the fact you cannot get there  is not relevant. 
You need to establish if your insurance company covered unable to travel du to FCO advice when policies were issued in January.  Not all policies did provide such cover. 
If they did then you need to go back to them and point out that your policy  is dated January - before the covid  restriction was made.
If you are still unhappy with their decision then follow the complaint procedure which will be detailed in your policy document. This will allow you take your complaint to the Ombudsman. 

Goobles

UPDATE:
A couple of months later and I'm pleased to say this has been refunded through a chargeback on the credit card.
To cut a long story short:

• I had to request a chargeback before the travel insurance company would consider the claim.
• I then had to make clear before I initiated the chargeback that I had tried to contact the provider (Booking.com) and the hotel to reach a solution.
• Both stated that although I wasn't entitled to a refund, I was able to change the dates of the booking. Seeing an uphill battle with the travel insurance, we decided to accept.
• However, both Booking.com and the hotel then went back on their earlier claims and stated that we couldn't - after all - change the dates. They marked us as a no-show and kept the money. 
• Given that they had earlier put in writing that we could change the dates, the chargeback won. 

Thank you MSE forum for all of your help and advice below - and PLEASE as I was advised earlier, take out travel insurance the moment you book your holiday.