Coronavirus and travel

You should first ask your airline or travel provider to postpone your trip or arrange a refund, this applies for both trips abroad and in the UK. Once you have done this please log your claim online for any unrecovered costs. The advice is currently in place for any trips due to depart on or before 17^th April 2020, therefore we will consider those claims.

There is no cover to cancel a trip due to the event which you were due to attend no longer going ahead, unless there is new FCO advice preventing you from travelling and there was no FCO advice prior to purchasing your policy and/or trip.

If your transport provider or tour operator moves your trip destination or dates due to the outbreak, then we will class your original booking date as your booking date, therefore the exclusion for new trips booked will not apply. You will need to amend your insurance to reflect your new dates and there may be an additional premium due for doing this. If your trip is cancelled and you book a new/alternative trip, then your policy will not cover cancellation relating to Coronavirus. Also remember that the general rules regarding FCO advice and travel restrictions will continue to apply.

You should first ask your airline or travel provider to postpone your trip or arrange a refund. Once you have done this please log your claim online for any unrecovered costs.

Please follow the FCO advice above and first check if there are commercial routes available by contacting your airline or tour operator and checking the FCO travel advice pages for the country you are in and the local British embassy social media.

If you have travel disruption cover, you may be able to claim on your travel insurance to recover some of the costs you incur (for instance, if you need to extend your accommodation to your new departure date), but your cover will depend on your policy, its limits, and the refund from your providers. The government announced on 30^th March a new partnership with the airline industry to help British people travelling abroad to return to the UK. Where commercial routes remain feasible airlines will be responsible for getting their passengers with pre-booked tickets home.

Where commercial routes do not exist, government will provide up to £75 million to enable special charter flights to priority countries to bring back UK residents. To see if you are eligible, and to find out how to book and sign up to email alerts, see the ‘Return to the UK’ section of the Government’s travel advice page of the country that you are in. When special return flights become available, these will be advertised by the embassy and British nationals on Travel Advice Pages and Embassy social media and those who have registered for updates will be contacted via email.

If you are in real need, you can contact the FCOs consular assistance helpline on 020 7008 1500.

If you become ill while on holiday, your travel insurance covers your medical expenses abroad – unless you travelled to a location the FCO advised against.

If you are confined to your hotel under doctor’s orders for at least 48 hours, we will pay for the room, up to the policy limit. And if you paid in advance for excursions or activities that you can’t do because of your quarantine, we will cover that, up to a certain amount.

If your airline or travel provider cannot book you on a later flight, we will cover an alternate flight.

Our customer service and claims colleagues are experiencing higher volumes than usual. We recommend you read our ‘Making a claim’ section below so we can assist you more quickly.

If you purchase a new policy now, it will not cover any trip cancellation or disruption in relation to Coronavirus.

If you already have an annual multi-trip policy and you book a new trip now, you may not be covered to cancel that trip, or for any disruption you experience.

The coronavirus exclusion only applies to cancellation or disruption claims.

We will continue to cover medical costs if customers become ill in a country or region the FCO hasn’t advised against visiting.

It is often recommended that you buy your policy when you book your trip. If you purchase insurance in the knowledge you will need to claim, the policy will not pay for that scenario.

It is the responsibility of your tour operator to provide refunds on trips they have cancelled.

If the transport provider cancelled your travel arrangement, they have an obligation to refund your costs. You must seek a refund of all costs.

For your claim to be dealt with as quickly as possible, you need to contact your travel provider or tour operator first. They may be able to move your trip to different dates or provide you with a refund. By doing this first, it will speed up the processing of your claim should you have any out of pocket expenses.

Only once you have exhausted all options can you make a claim online.

You can register your claim online once you have contacted all providers for any refunds or options available to you via tour operators or flight/accommodation providers.

We strongly recommend using the online form as our colleagues in the contact centres are receiving a high volume of calls.

Registering online is quick and easy, and this will enable our staff to manage your claim as efficiently as possible.

We are experiencing an unprecedented number of calls at this time. We are doing all that we can to minimise the impact to our customers as well as look after our employee’s well-being at this uncertain time.

For new claims, please read our instructions on how to do this online.

Our teams are working hard to deal with your claim, but please note that we are receiving an unprecedented volume of calls. One of our team will contact you as soon as they have assessed your existing claim.

The time it takes for us to resolve your claim will depend on the nature of the claim and the information we require to process it.

Our team are working extremely hard to be available for our customers and resolve claims in a timely fashion, but please bear with us as the volume of claims being made is unprecedented.

We are currently working to a 15 working day service level.

Please ensure you read our required documents laid out in your claim pack to help evidence your claim. Sending these in together will help us to reduce requests for further documentation. Requests for further documentation could result in a delay to your claim.