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Travel Insurance conundrum

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eventide
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Travel Insurance conundrum

#374220

Postby eventide » January 7th, 2021, 10:44 am

Situation:

15 Jan 2020: Annual travel insurance policy renewed to 14 Jan 2021

30 Jan 2020 (pre Covid): Booking made and large non refundable deposit on holiday accommodation made for trip *in July 2021* (ie 18m later)

Today: Trip must be cancelled for Covid reasons (cant get into country)

15 Jan 2021: Annual travel insurance renewal is due (but presently unneeded so ideally prefer to defer renewal or rebuy for 3,6 or 9m


Question:

1) Is the cancellation for the 2021 trip covered under the policy in force at the time of booking even though it expires before trip is scheduled?

2) If not, would it be if cancellation made today but a renewal is made on schedule on 15 Jan 2021 (for cover for additional 12 months)

3) If also not (2) , would it make sense to renew on schedule and cancel soon after. Makes no sense to me if I were an insurance company it would be obvious that policyholder knew trip was to be cancelled.


Any bright ideas??

swill453
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Re: Travel Insurance conundrum

#374227

Postby swill453 » January 7th, 2021, 10:50 am

eventide wrote:... trip *in July 2021* (ie 18m later)

Today: Trip must be cancelled for Covid reasons (cant get into country)

Are you absolutely sure that the trip needs to be cancelled now? To the point where you're sure your travel insurance company would agree and pay out to you?

Seems to me July 21 is quite a way away, and not many people could predict what the rules will be then.

Scott.

eventide
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Re: Travel Insurance conundrum

#374235

Postby eventide » January 7th, 2021, 11:01 am

I agree that it is unpredictable. But you can't get into the country now (both FCO and the other country rules) and the insurance expires in a week. So not cancelling now and gambling that the trip can go ahead seens certain to leave the deposit uninsured if, indeed, the trip cannot ultimately go ahead, unless (1) it is covered by the Jan 2020 annual policy (seems unlikely), (2) covered by a jan 2021 renewal made in the full knowledge that a cancellation is extremely likely.

I guess its more a question of how annual insurance works, date of booking, date of cancellation, date of trip etc etc

swill453
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Re: Travel Insurance conundrum

#374241

Postby swill453 » January 7th, 2021, 11:06 am

Seems to me it would be crazy to do anything without speaking to the insurance company. If you cancel now they may refuse the claim, whether you renew the policy or not.

Scott.

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Re: Travel Insurance conundrum

#374282

Postby dealtn » January 7th, 2021, 12:22 pm

eventide wrote:I agree that it is unpredictable. But you can't get into the country now (both FCO and the other country rules) and the insurance expires in a week. So not cancelling now and gambling that the trip can go ahead seens certain to leave the deposit uninsured if, indeed, the trip cannot ultimately go ahead, unless (1) it is covered by the Jan 2020 annual policy (seems unlikely), (2) covered by a jan 2021 renewal made in the full knowledge that a cancellation is extremely likely.

I guess its more a question of how annual insurance works, date of booking, date of cancellation, date of trip etc etc


What does your policy document say?

Therein lies the detail. If you don't have it, or can't be bothered to read it, phone the insurer.

eventide
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Re: Travel Insurance conundrum

#376234

Postby eventide » January 12th, 2021, 1:26 pm

On further investigation, continuous cover must be maintained from the booking date to the departure date for the pre-covid protections to remain in place. If that is done, if it is FCO advice not to travel on or near the departure date, and because the booking was made predating covid itself, any costs of cancellation are fully insured.

So the annual policy must be renewed on its renewal date rather than arranging a deliberate gap in cover for the period where no one's going anywhere presently.


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