New Travel Insurance discussion area

seputus

Leigh-Anne_60 wrote: »

Having duplicate insurance should cause you no issues whatsover - Insurance companies are used to this and have agreements in place when this happens. Basically IC A would deal with & pay your claim. They would then write to IC B and ask for a contribution.

Absolutely no point in witholding information from them :silenced:

Although im surprised that they are covering at all - General consensus within the industry (& by the ABI) is that no cover as most insurance policies are cause specific.............And as yet no policies have a specific cause of 'Ash clouds'................ Nothing to do with 'Acts of God'

Hi, are you sure about that? I have a concern as many do, as I'm scheduled to fly out on Monday. My travel insurance policy states the following - pasted below.


What is covered

If departure of the public transport on which you are booked to travel is delayed at the final departure point from or to your home area for at least 12 hours from the scheduled time of departure due to:
a. strike or
b. industrial action or
c. adverse weather conditions or
d. mechanical breakdown of, or a technical fault occurring in, the public
transport on which you are booked to travel

We will pay you:
1. £20 for the first completed 12 hours delay and £10 for each full 12 hours
delay after that, up to a maximum of £300 (which is meant to help you pay
for telephone calls made and meals and refreshments purchased during the
delay) provided you eventually travel, or
2. Up to £5,000 for any irrecoverable unused travel and accommodation costs
and other pre-paid charges which you have paid or are contracted to pay if,
after a delay of at least 12 hours, you choose to cancel your trip before
departure from your home area.




General exclusions applicable to all sections of the policy

War risks, civil commotion, terrorism, (except under Section B – Emergency
medical and other expenses, Section C – Hospital benefit and Section D –
Personal accident unless caused by nuclear, chemical or biological attack), sonic bangs, radioactive contamination

Exclusions under Section H – Delayed departure

Strike, industrial action or air traffic control delay existing or being publicly
announced by the date you purchased this insurance or at the time of booking any trip.



Exclusions under Section I – Missed departure

Strike or industrial action existing or being publicly announced by the date you
purchased this insurance or at the time of booking any trip.



Exclusions under Section J – UK departure assistance and missed UK connection

Strike or industrial action existing or being publicly announced by the date you
purchased this insurance or at the time of booking any trip.

Leigh-Anne_60

Hiya

You point out the travel delay section of your policy - So meaning when you are delayed. Upto now all flights have been cancelled - So travel delay doesnt come into effect. You need to be looking at the cancellation section

Even if it was delay, point a,b.c or d doesnt cover cover what is going on at the moment

You would need to check with your own insurance - As they may be taking a different stance

Official Line from the ABI is as follows

• Thursday, 15 April 2010 Ref: 30/10

Travel disruption due to Volcanic dust cloud – advice from the ABI


People travelling to or from a UK airport are having their travel plans disrupted due to an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ABI advises customers who may be affected that:
• Volcanic eruptions are not always covered by travel insurance for cancellation and delay. However, some policies will cover this, so you should contact your travel insurance company to check what your policy covers.
• If your flight is cancelled, most airlines will offer you either a full refund or an alternative flight.
• If your flight is cancelled and you do not travel, most travel insurers will refund your premium if you took out a single trip policy.
• If you accept an alternative flight at a later date, most travel insurers will amend your policy to cover your new travel arrangements and dates.
• Insurance only covers events that happen after the policy is taken out so customers taking out travel insurance from today onwards will not be covered for this event.
• Deciding that you no longer wish to travel will not be covered by your travel insurance policy.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, said:
“Travel insurance policies will differ in this situation; there is no standard set of conditions which applies to a situation of this kind. Therefore customers should check their travel insurance policy, and speak to their travel insurer to understand what their individual policy covers them for in this situation.”

malc_b

Hmm, I can well imagine that the travel insurance companies would like to avoid paying out. Don't they always.

But I can't see that the airline "cancelling" a flight does not make a delayed departure for the customer. Airlines often cancel flights due to various reasons, such as a part breaking on the plane. They then transfer the passengers to another flight. Hence if you your argument that cancelled flights are outside delayed departure cover this insurance would hardly ever pay out. This would have caused an outcry before now.

The question in my mind is the adverse weather conditions. Is volcanic dust adverse weather? The fact that the wind is in the wrong direction is adverse, that's for sure. It wouldn't surprise me to see a class action on this if insurance companies try to get out of it.

And I certainly wouldn't be booking holidays or travel insurance at the moment. And insurance booked after something is known automatically does not cover that fact - so there would be no cover for certain for volcanic ash. Unless you can get the insurers to put in writing that they will cover it (hark is that a flying pig I hear).

katies_mum

We are looking for insurance for travel to USA, needs to cover booking each bit of the holiday independantly and offer decent cover. Any ideas where to start looking? I`ve heard that AA and Post office may be worth looking at. also want to make sure we are covered for as much as possible especially with what is happening to the poor holiday makers at the moment with the volcanic ash!

I`ll be grateful for any advice you can offer

Doc_N

On today's Money Box (Radio 4) Paul Lewis came out with the wonderful line:

"John Lewis (Greenbee) - never knowingly overinsured"

after it became clear that Greenbee and Virgin Money are taking a much more restrictive line on 'volcano' claims than other travel insurers. I'd have expected better from John Lewis!

dacouch

Doc_N wrote: »

On today's Money Box (Radio 4) Paul Lewis came out with the wonderful line:

"John Lewis (Greenbee) - never knowingly overinsured"

after it became clear that Greenbee and Virgin Money are taking a much more restrictive line on 'volcano' claims than other travel insurers. I'd have expected better from John Lewis!

John Lewis have very little input in the matter, like a lot of policies now days they simply add their brand name to an Insurer (Axa in this case who are not the greatest Insurer to start with) and then coin in the money.

Some of these brands may find adding their brands names to gain business from their customer base loses them a lot of customers for their main businesses

seputus

Leigh-Anne_60 wrote: »

Hiya

You point out the travel delay section of your policy - So meaning when you are delayed. Upto now all flights have been cancelled - So travel delay doesnt come into effect. You need to be looking at the cancellation section

Even if it was delay, point a,b.c or d doesnt cover cover what is going on at the moment

You would need to check with your own insurance - As they may be taking a different stance

Official Line from the ABI is as follows

• Thursday, 15 April 2010 Ref: 30/10

Travel disruption due to Volcanic dust cloud – advice from the ABI


People travelling to or from a UK airport are having their travel plans disrupted due to an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ABI advises customers who may be affected that:
• Volcanic eruptions are not always covered by travel insurance for cancellation and delay. However, some policies will cover this, so you should contact your travel insurance company to check what your policy covers.
• If your flight is cancelled, most airlines will offer you either a full refund or an alternative flight.
• If your flight is cancelled and you do not travel, most travel insurers will refund your premium if you took out a single trip policy.
• If you accept an alternative flight at a later date, most travel insurers will amend your policy to cover your new travel arrangements and dates.
• Insurance only covers events that happen after the policy is taken out so customers taking out travel insurance from today onwards will not be covered for this event.
• Deciding that you no longer wish to travel will not be covered by your travel insurance policy.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, said:
“Travel insurance policies will differ in this situation; there is no standard set of conditions which applies to a situation of this kind. Therefore customers should check their travel insurance policy, and speak to their travel insurer to understand what their individual policy covers them for in this situation.”

Okay okay.. I didn't want to paste everything, but maybe I chose the wrong section. So wouldn't this part of it cover me?

What is covered

We will pay you up to £5,000 (Silver cover - £1,000) for any irrecoverable
unused travel and accommodation costs (including excursions up to £250) and
other pre-paid charges which you have paid or are contracted to pay, together with any reasonable additional travel expenses incurred if:
a. cancellation of the trip is necessary and unavoidable

It goes on to list a whole slew of exclusions, including mental illness/anxiety, ensuring I notify my hotel provider ASAP, etc. so this would seem to cover it, no?

The forum won't let me post links, but if you want to see the full wording, type "flexicover policy wording 2010" (without quotes) into Google and it's the first result.

I have the GOLD cover. I paid £63 for worldwide annual insurance for two of us, so it seems like a bargain and I really bloody well hope they can't squirm out from under the volcano cloud! lol

Doc_N

Doc_N wrote: »

On today's Money Box (Radio 4) Paul Lewis came out with the wonderful line:

"John Lewis (Greenbee) - never knowingly overinsured"

after it became clear that Greenbee and Virgin Money are taking a much more restrictive line on 'volcano' claims than other travel insurers. I'd have expected better from John Lewis!

dacouch wrote: »

John Lewis have very little input in the matter, like a lot of policies now days they simply add their brand name to an Insurer (Axa in this case who are not the greatest Insurer to start with) and then coin in the money.

Some of these brands may find adding their brands names to gain business from their customer base loses them a lot of customers for their main businesses

You make a good point. This sort of attitude from the linked insurer can only harm the main brand - particularly as people buying Greenbee policies are probably expecting a better than average policy, and not one which is decidedly worse than average!

My money's on a change of attitude shortly, following pressure from John Lewis.

Leigh-Anne_60

Hiya

Is that your canc section wording? As it is not for 'specific' incidents ie Redundancy, Illness, Volcanic Ash(:p) - you should be ok - Unless there is something in the general exclusions that would exclude it.

Best thing is to give them a call & check

seputus

Sure enough, they're stating they do not cover it, because they're classifying it as a NATURAL DISASTER.

The only paragraph in my policy that mentions natural disasters is:

EXCLUSION:
A government directive prohibiting all travel to, or recommending evacuation
from, the country or area you were planning to visit or were staying in, as a
result of natural disasters (such as earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, landslides,
floods, hurricanes or epidemic(s) / pandemic(s).

However my argument is that this paragraph does not apply. There is no government directive prohibiting travel to or recommending evacuation of ISRAEL (where I will still hopefully be flying!)

Should I fight, if my flight is indeed cancelled Monday?

(Note: I can probably get my flight refunded, but the apartment I had rented has a 100% cancellation fee if cancelled less than 7 days before arrival, so this is a huge cost ..)