Travel Insurance Query

Cargsy

Hi, 
My wife and I were due to travel from Dublin to Paphos with Ryanair on 17th August until 24th August. It was booked in December 2019. We had accommodation booked in Kyrenia, in the North of Cyprus.  The FCO were advising against all but essential travel but this was lifted on 1st August providing you could show a negative test taken at least 3 days before travelling.

We booked travel insurance with Alpha Travel Insurance at the beginning of March, a few days before policies were changed due to the pandemic. Not surprisingly, they are refusing to pay out as the FCO guidance was lifted on the 1st August.

My question is at the time of travelling, there was still a border block in place between the South and North of Cyprus, meaning we wouldn't have been able to get to our accommodation. I have screenshots of official government guidance stating this.

I appreciate I may be fighting a losing battle here but just wanted to check if I had any chance of getting even some of my money back. 

Thanks for any advice anyone could give.

NoodleDoodleMan

I'm not sure the FCO advice is all that relevant.

You did not fly from the UK - and the closure of the internal Cypriot border is not a matter the British government has any control over.

Just an uneducated observation !!!

Cargsy

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I'm not sure the FCO advice is all that relevant.

You did not fly from the UK - and the closure of the internal Cypriot border is not a matter the British government has any control over.

Just an uneducated observation !!!

Thanks for your reply, I understand what you are saying.
 
But if the border was open at the time of booking and closed as a result of the pandemic, would this not be an unforeseen circumstance?

The only airports we can fly direct to from here are Larnaca and Paphos which are both in the South so we had to rely on the border being open to get to our pre-booked accommodation. As I said, I'm maybe fighting a losing battle, just wanted to explore my options before giving up completely.

NoodleDoodleMan

"But if the border was open at the time of booking and closed as a result of the pandemic, would this not be an unforeseen circumstance?"

No doubt you'll have made that point to Alpha Travel Insurance - what was their response ?

The border no go appears to be the key issue, as previous restrictions had been significantly reduced  prior to Covid after Cyprus joined the EU, despite the continuing political tensions.

Cargsy

NoodleDoodleMan said:

"But if the border was open at the time of booking and closed as a result of the pandemic, would this not be an unforeseen circumstance?"

No doubt you'll have made that point to Alpha Travel Insurance - what was their response ?

The border no go appears to be the key issue, as previous restrictions had been significantly reduced  prior to Covid after Cyprus joined the EU, despite the continuing political tensions.

Thanks again for getting back to me.

They told me that the FCO would have no control over the borders within the country and it's an issue which wouldn't be directly covered by the policy. They've told me I can appeal the claim decision however, so I'll use the border issue as my basis for that. As of today still, the border isn't open for visitors to the country but we will see what happens.  It was definitely open at the time of booking, so that was something that we didn't foresee, that would have stopped our holiday taking place. So you'd like to think that's what travel insurance is there for.

NoodleDoodleMan

"So you'd like to think that's what travel insurance is there for."

Exactly.

Have you read the small print exclusions of the travel policy ? I'm assuming the border was closed due to Covid scenario - and not because Greece and Turkey are involved in a serious dispute in the Eastern Med ?

There is  a dispute option here.

https://complaint.resolver.co.uk/users/sign_in

There is also the Insurance section of the Financial Ombudsman.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance

Are you citizens of the Republic of Ireland ? That might be an issue approaching UK bodies for help ?

I didn't realise the border closure was a unilateral decision.

https://www.trtworld.com/video/featured/dispute-over-border-crossing-closure-in-cyprus/5e6a7be96c3540001591fd89

Sandtree

Cargsy said:

 The FCO were advising against all but essential travel but this was lifted on 1st August providing you could show a negative test taken at least 3 days before travelling.

This isn't correct.

The FCO set the advise on if it is safe to travel to a country or not, or a part of a country in some cases, and this is what travel insurers are interested in. They copy/paste countries entry requirements for ease of use but something like needing a negative covid test will be entry requirements set by the Cyprian/Turkish governments not by the FCO. 

Where do you live? You say you are flying from Ireland but discussing the UK government website and seems you were staying in one country but chose to fly to another?

Have you actually logged a claim? What was their official reason for declining the claim if you have? What were you able to get back from RyanAir etc - insurance only covers what you cannot otherwise get back?

Insurance, including travel, is often not the blanket policy that people think it is, they cover explicit circumstances and holidays involving multiple country visits (4 it appears in your case) can make things complicated. Giving advice will be much easier once a) the reason for decline has been given and then b) considered in conjunction with the policy wording.