Insurers paying for "fit to fly" Covid tests

bradders1983

I am off to the Canaries (as it stands) in February and as of this coming Monday, you need to have a negative test within 72 hours in order to go.

Not in a rush to see if my travel insurer would cover the eye watering cost of these tests (upwards of £125 each, seen one for £185 just now),  and would begrudgingly pay if I had to, but does anyone out there have any first hand experience of asking their insurer if they could claim the cost back minus excess and what the reply was?

silvercar

Not a chance. Are you also going to ask your insurers if they will pay for your passport?

Having researched the price of these tests (and assuming you mean a PCR test, not one of the quicker tests) some branches of Boots have started to offer them for £120; maybe more branches by February. The most expensive I’ve seen is £495.

bradders1983

silvercar said:

Not a chance. Are you also going to ask your insurers if they will pay for your passport?

Well no. My thinking was this is an out of pocket expense that didnt exist when I booked the holiday in Feb 2020 (had continuous cover on an annual travel insurance policy since). Was just wondering if anyone had asked the question, I accept its probably a cheeky request!

Browntoa

I would hope by February that competition in the market , and between holiday companies , will have driven the price down to a more reasonable level.

epm-84

The Spanish government were in talks with the politicians in the Canaries about introducing mandatory PCR tests for visitors before the UK government lifted the restriction on travel to the Canaries.  Therefore, even if an insurance policy did cover it (very unlikely), the insurer could argue it's not an 'unknown event' unless the holiday was booked prior to mid-March 2020.

eskbanker

bradders1983 said:

silvercar said:

Not a chance. Are you also going to ask your insurers if they will pay for your passport?

Well no. My thinking was this is an out of pocket expense that didnt exist when I booked the holiday in Feb 2020 (had continuous cover on an annual travel insurance policy since). Was just wondering if anyone had asked the question, I accept its probably a cheeky request!

Does your policy have a section offering reimbursement of such unexpected out of pocket expenses?  It would be expected for specific scenarios (medical, curtailment, etc) but I'd be surprised if there was a heading under which you could claim for this....

bradders1983

eskbanker said:

bradders1983 said:

silvercar said:

Not a chance. Are you also going to ask your insurers if they will pay for your passport?

Well no. My thinking was this is an out of pocket expense that didnt exist when I booked the holiday in Feb 2020 (had continuous cover on an annual travel insurance policy since). Was just wondering if anyone had asked the question, I accept its probably a cheeky request!

Does your policy have a section offering reimbursement of such unexpected out of pocket expenses?  It would be expected for specific scenarios (medical, curtailment, etc) but I'd be surprised if there was a heading under which you could claim for this....

I havent looked yet, just wondered if anyone had first hand experience of their own policy.

The_Fat_Controller

Are you 'avin a laarf ?

bradders1983

Possibly

bagand96

It never hurts to ask the question on these things I guess.

Whilst you're asking, see if they'll send you a pack of re-useable facemasks, and a few bottles of hand sanitiser too!

bradders1983

bagand96 said:

It never hurts to ask the question on these things I guess.

Whilst you're asking, see if they'll send you a pack of re-useable facemasks, and a few bottles of hand sanitiser too!

Good point! This is a money saving site after all