Travel Insurance – are you covered?

October 8, 2019

We were recently contacted by one of our clients about flights she has booked for a holiday to China; she is due to fly in November. However, she has recently and happily discovered that she is pregnant with her first child, after trying for a baby for the last three years. She hadn’t had the vaccines for the trip and didn’t want to risk both the holiday and flight for the sake of her unborn and much wanted child.

In her own words, our client is “one of those who get insurance a few days before I go” and of course, herein lies the issue. When buying travel insurance you will be asked about pre-existing medical conditions and even if this doesn’t happen, the policy wording will include something to say that conditions prior to the start of insurance contract are not covered.

Our client’s flights amount to £800 and she naturally doesn’t want to loose this money. She had contacted the company to ask if they would refund, but they refused, saying that she could change the name and destination, but not get her money back.

Under normal circumstances our advice is to either buy your insurance well in advance of your trip or by far the most practical approach is to buy annual worldwide travel insurance. Generally if you have two or more holidays a year it is the cheapest and certainly the best option in terms of being properly covered.

We don’t want to frighten people into buying insurance, but it is there to protect you financially when things go wrong – or go very right, as in this case!

This short story is further complicated by the fact that our client’s flights are booked with Thomas Cook. ABTA’s advice is that “flights booked directly with Thomas Cook airlines are not covered by ATOL or ABTA so customers will need to contact their card issuer.” It might be that this dreadful situation that is causing terrible problems for people already abroad or about to go on holiday, may in fact work in her favour; such is the nature of risk.

Flint works with a number of quality travel insurers to provide cost effective insurance, backed up with our best advice for cover, so call Mark Tuck on 0208 309 5000.