Travel insurance/ refundable flights

Annwithoutane

I’m looking at booking a trip to Costa Rica with a company called Females Flying Solo. It is a tour but international flights I would need to book myself. I would like to cover myself for all circumstances, so for example, if the tour should be cancelled, then it would be preferable to have refundable flights. Is this possible without paying premium class prices? I’d also be looking for top class insurance to cover any issues on the trip or should the company cease to exist. I guess I’m just anxious it’s not a big well known operator. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. 

eskbanker

Refundable flights, even in economy, are likely to be prohibitively expensive, so it would be better to avoid needing them - is there any possibility of booking both flights and the trip with an agent, thereby forming a package, with associated regulatory protection?  Does the company have any suggestions as to how to achieve that protection?

It may be possible to find an insurance policy that refunds cancellation of the whole trip caused by one element being unavailable, but you'd need to check the small print carefully....

MyRealNameToo

Annwithoutane said:

I’m looking at booking a trip to Costa Rica with a company called Females Flying Solo. It is a tour but international flights I would need to book myself. I would like to cover myself for all circumstances, so for example, if the tour should be cancelled, then it would be preferable to have refundable flights. Is this possible without paying premium class prices? I’d also be looking for top class insurance to cover any issues on the trip or should the company cease to exist. I guess I’m just anxious it’s not a big well known operator. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. 

You can buy flexible economy seats but to have full flex including cancelling is very expensive and can be more expensive than simply forgoing the flights and booking alternatives. 

Generally insurance won't cover you for the reason for going ceasing, so whilst a good policy would payout for the prebooked tour were they to go bust they wouldnt then cover the flights as you would still be able to fly. This is where booking it as one thing helps massively if they are UK based as you get extra protections but can still be more helpful from a breach of contract perspective even if they are outside of the UK. 

Mands

Annwithoutane said:

I’m looking at booking a trip to Costa Rica with a company called Females Flying Solo. It is a tour but international flights I would need to book myself. I would like to cover myself for all circumstances, so for example, if the tour should be cancelled, then it would be preferable to have refundable flights. Is this possible without paying premium class prices? I’d also be looking for top class insurance to cover any issues on the trip or should the company cease to exist. I guess I’m just anxious it’s not a big well known operator. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. 

I just priced up a 2 week trip with BA. Direct flight out of Gatwick, into San Jose. I used random dates in November. 

The cheapest non-flexible economy return pair, with bags, was about 380 gbp. Fully flex, on the same flights, was 1260 gbp. 

You would be paying a huge premium for the ability to cancel. If you can find another solution that is going to be better for you. 

Annwithoutane

Mands said:

Annwithoutane said:

I’m looking at booking a trip to Costa Rica with a company called Females Flying Solo. It is a tour but international flights I would need to book myself. I would like to cover myself for all circumstances, so for example, if the tour should be cancelled, then it would be preferable to have refundable flights. Is this possible without paying premium class prices? I’d also be looking for top class insurance to cover any issues on the trip or should the company cease to exist. I guess I’m just anxious it’s not a big well known operator. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. 

I just priced up a 2 week trip with BA. Direct flight out of Gatwick, into San Jose. I used random dates in November. 

The cheapest non-flexible economy return pair, with bags, was about 380 gbp. Fully flex, on the same flights, was 1260 gbp. 

You would be paying a huge premium for the ability to cancel. If you can find another solution that is going to be better for you. 

Thanks for doing that. It does seem that refundable flights are not going to be an option. 

Annwithoutane

Thanks for the advice. So it seems refundable flights are out of the picture. As pointed out, unlikely that any insurance policy will cover the cost of flights if the tour were to be cancelled. If I were to book flights and tour through an agent, would this eventuality then be covered? If so, any ideas how I’d find an agent who may be able to do this. Thanks for your help and advice, it’s really appreciated. 

BFBW

Annwithoutane said:

Thanks for the advice. So it seems refundable flights are out of the picture. As pointed out, unlikely that any insurance policy will cover the cost of flights if the tour were to be cancelled. If I were to book flights and tour through an agent, would this eventuality then be covered? If so, any ideas how I’d find an agent who may be able to do this. Thanks for your help and advice, it’s really appreciated. 

Apologies, but it appears that you are being misled by just about everyone who posted. The difference between non-refundable and refundable is between approx. 15% to 30%.
There are no BA flights to SJO in November that are anywhere near £380 return. Expect to pay around £700 return for a non refundable, but date changeable flight or around £900 for a fully refundable ticket(before using ticket). Alternatively, you could choose Semi-Flex for less than £800, which allows you to refund the ticket for £25. The only other difference from Flex, is that with Flex you can select your seats at the time of booking. With Semi-Flex, only 24 hours prior to departure.
As a single person, I don't think that you need to choose your seat immediately. So Semi-Flex seems the most cost effective safe option.
Sadly, this is the second case of quite misleading and inaccurate info that I have seen posted on the forum today. I think people need to be more careful to research what they post, as to a certain extent, people depend on what is written here.

Annwithoutane

BFBW said:

Annwithoutane said:

Thanks for the advice. So it seems refundable flights are out of the picture. As pointed out, unlikely that any insurance policy will cover the cost of flights if the tour were to be cancelled. If I were to book flights and tour through an agent, would this eventuality then be covered? If so, any ideas how I’d find an agent who may be able to do this. Thanks for your help and advice, it’s really appreciated. 

Apologies, but it appears that you are being misled by just about everyone who posted. The difference between non-refundable and refundable is between approx. 15% to 30%.
There are no BA flights to SJO in November that are anywhere near £380 return. Expect to pay around £700 return for a non refundable, but date changeable flight or around £900 for a fully refundable ticket(before using ticket). Alternatively, you could choose Semi-Flex for less than £800, which allows you to refund the ticket for £25. The only other difference from Flex, is that with Flex you can select your seats at the time of booking. With Semi-Flex, only 24 hours prior to departure.
As a single person, I don't think that you need to choose your seat immediately. So Semi-Flex seems the most cost effective safe option.
Sadly, this is the second case of quite misleading and inaccurate info that I have seen posted on the forum today. I think people need to be more careful to research what they post, as to a certain extent, people depend on what is written here.

Thank you for this information. How do I go about looking at /booking semi flex fares? I’ve looked at BA and can not see these listed or a filter to bring these up. Thanks again for your help. 

Caz3121

Annwithoutane said:

 How do I go about looking at /booking semi flex fares? I’ve looked at BA and can not see these listed or a filter to bring these up. 

when you select economy for a flight on the BA website it will then show the 5 different economy types to choose from and the different rules for each

saajan_12

Indeed, refundable isn't the norm here and so is more expensive than the base level fares, but that doesn't mean its as ridiculous as suggested in this thread. 
For example I looked at Virgin Atlantic, which had a Flex option for an extra £120 (for the random dates I chose, it was in the region of £530 for standard -> £650 for flex) 

still up to you whether that's worth it considering the % risk that the company will actually cancel, plus you may want to fly out anyway and book another tour company when you arrive. 

The point is you do have options. 

Mands

Mands said:

Annwithoutane said:

I’m looking at booking a trip to Costa Rica with a company called Females Flying Solo. It is a tour but international flights I would need to book myself. I would like to cover myself for all circumstances, so for example, if the tour should be cancelled, then it would be preferable to have refundable flights. Is this possible without paying premium class prices? I’d also be looking for top class insurance to cover any issues on the trip or should the company cease to exist. I guess I’m just anxious it’s not a big well known operator. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. 

I just priced up a 2 week trip with BA. Direct flight out of Gatwick, into San Jose. I used random dates in November. 

The cheapest non-flexible economy return pair, with bags, was about 380 gbp. Fully flex, on the same flights, was 1260 gbp. 

You would be paying a huge premium for the ability to cancel. If you can find another solution that is going to be better for you. 

Apolgies, herein lies the danger of rushing to post while heading out the door

380 was the outbound price only, inbound was slightly cheaper on the dates I checked. From memory on or around 11/11 to 25/11. 

The differential between non-flex and fully-flex is absolutely correct. If a semi-flex option gets you what you need then fantastic.