FCO Advice for Australia and New Zealand - Insurance implications

ColinPC

Australia and New Zealand are on the new list of countries where our Government says it's OK to return from without quarantine.  However, the situation is different going the other way: Currently, New Zealand won't allow any non-nationals into their country, and Australia are putting (essential) visitors into 14 day quarantine.  Because the FCO' s advice on travel to these destinations has now changed, I'm unsure where we stand with our insurance.  Anyone have a clear picture on this situation?

Caz3121

when are you due to travel? many insurers will look at the position within 28 days of travel

ColinPC

Beyond 28 days.  Nevertheless, I was after some general advice and insights into the implications of what the Government has announced and the change in the FCO's advice.

lady1964

I’m interested in this as we have a trip to Australia booked for mid September, we’ve got 2 internal flights booked too. Singapore Airlines advice when I spoke to them on Friday was to wait until the end of August to contact them about moving dates. Currently we’d have to pay to move dates because we booked last year so we’re not covered under their travel waiver policy and we’re not sure if our insurance will help, that might be a call to make tomorrow.

Nebulous2

There’s not a lot anyone can tell you. Australia and New Zealand are likely to be different. If you’re going to both, you’ll have twice as many barriers to negotiate. New Zealand in particular have a fortress, team New Zealand approach, which envisages keeping everyone else out until there is a vaccine. 

Lifting FCO advice simply means it will be more difficult to claim on insurance as that takes away a common clause that is grounds for a claim. 

blindman

lady1964 said:

I’m interested in this as we have a trip to Australia booked for mid September, we’ve got 2 internal flights booked too. Singapore Airlines advice when I spoke to them on Friday was to wait until the end of August to contact them about moving dates. Currently we’d have to pay to move dates because we booked last year so we’re not covered under their travel waiver policy and we’re not sure if our insurance will help, that might be a call to make tomorrow.

Australia is not allowing tourists in at the moment and I doubt that will change even by September.
If you booked before Covid19 was declared then your travel insurance should pay for any changes to travel I would have thought

blindman

ColinPC said:

Beyond 28 days.  Nevertheless, I was after some general advice and insights into the implications of what the Government has announced and the change in the FCO's advice.

New Zealand will not be letting tourists in until 2021 at the earliest (apart from the South Pacific bubble) so I hope your intended trip is next year.
If not then your you wll have to look to your travel insurance to cover you for not being allowed in despite flights being available and the FCO advise having changed to "it's now Ok to go."
Hope you did get travel insurance when you booked this trip

ColinPC

Thanks for the input folks.  I will discuss this with my insurance company once the dust has settled ... I did get insurance before planning the trip, which does include both Australia and  NZ, and before Coronavirus became 'a thing'.  The one thing I am sure of is that there's no way I will be able to visit these places even if I wanted to ... their governments are much more proactive and precautionary than European governments appear to be.

lady1964

blindman said:

lady1964 said:

I’m interested in this as we have a trip to Australia booked for mid September, we’ve got 2 internal flights booked too. Singapore Airlines advice when I spoke to them on Friday was to wait until the end of August to contact them about moving dates. Currently we’d have to pay to move dates because we booked last year so we’re not covered under their travel waiver policy and we’re not sure if our insurance will help, that might be a call to make tomorrow.

Australia is not allowing tourists in at the moment and I doubt that will change even by September.
If you booked before Covid19 was declared then your travel insurance should pay for any changes to travel I would have thought

Thanks, I agree with you in that it’s very unlikely to change before we’re due to go. I’m going to call our insurers tomorrow but reading our policy, it does cover pandemic. 

sheramber

As FCO advice has changed you have no claim under that. You need to look for  ‘travel disruption ‘ which may have been an additional option.  You may have  an exclusion for ‘government decisions’
You need to read your policy document carefully.

R3dders

May be worth speaking to Airline first.  We are getting full reimbursement from Cathay Pacific for flights cancelled due to go 31/08/2020.  I monitored their website which initially only cancelling flights till 31/07/2020 then we received cancellation email.