Refund protection for planned future holiday to Greece

Steveng1970

Hi,  I would like to book a holiday to Greece in September this year.   

The FCO and Greece state that non essential travel is now allowed to Greece.  

 I am looking to book flights and a villa independently for travel in September and will use a credit card for all the purchases. 

 I have an annual world wide travel insurance policy taken out last year.  The terms have not changed since the Covid outbreak and has sections covering cancellation due to illness and extended cancellation/curtailment due to FCO or local authority issuing a directive not to travel.
    Would my credit card cover us if we were unable to travel due to self isolation or testing positive for Covid prior to leaving and therefore cancelling the holiday?

Thanks 
Steve

bradders1983

If the flights operate and the hotel is open and available, and for whatever reason you do not go, the fact you paid on a credit card is irrelevant and any chargeback would rightly fail.

blindman

Steveng1970 said:

Hi,  I would like to book a holiday to Greece in September this year.   

The FCO and Greece state that non essential travel is now allowed to Greece.  

 I am looking to book flights and a villa independently for travel in September and will use a credit card for all the purchases. 

 I have an annual world wide travel insurance policy taken out last year.  The terms have not changed since the Covid outbreak and has sections covering cancellation due to illness and extended cancellation/curtailment due to FCO or local authority issuing a directive not to travel.
    Would my credit card cover us if we were unable to travel due to self isolation or testing positive for Covid prior to leaving and therefore cancelling the holiday?

Thanks 
Steve

No.

Your insurance would have to do that.

bagand96

Credit card would not cover you for FCO travel advice or your own sickness/isolation.  Section 75 or chargeback only provides protection for the circumstances in which the retailer/supplier should refund. It's a protection against the merchant not meeting their obligations.

Your insurance may. But double check - even though the policy may still have cover for Coronavirus related problems you would need to check if that cover would extend to new bookings. Most policies have exclusions for issues known at the time of booking. 

Steveng1970

Thanks for the advice re credit cards.  The insurance company has just confirmed that I'm covered for covid before and during travel.  

sue1976

Would you not have a problem if just one of the hotel or flight is cancelled? I know several others on here thought their insurance would cover them but because they hadn’t booked a package they ended up losing out (their insurance wouldn’t pay out for this reason).

blindman

sue1976 said:

Would you not have a problem if just one of the hotel or flight is cancelled? I know several others on here thought their insurance would cover them but because they hadn’t booked a package they ended up losing out (their insurance wouldn’t pay out for this reason).

I think you need to reread the OP question.