Find out how travel insurance can help with travel plans during the Covid-19 outbreak and what cover you’ll need for any future trips you have planned.
Find out the latest on travel during coronavirus – and on buying the right insurance policy to cover you.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) regularly updates its advice about travelling. It continues to advise that you're only able to travel abroad or within the UK if you have a legally permitted reason to. You can find a list of travel and entry requirements for all countries here.
If you do choose to go abroad, it’s going to be a bit different. And buying travel insurance will be a little different too. That's not to say that you can't find insurance right now, but you won't have as many insurers to choose from – and each insurer will have its own exclusions around Covid-19. Your travel insurance won't cover you if you travel against FCDO advice.
Make sure you know what you'll be covered for before you buy a policy. If you’re unsure whether you’re getting the right cover, call your insurer first.
Check the latest FCDO advice regularly before you travel.
You can now compare travel insurance with us again. but if you travel against FCDO advice, you won’t be insured.
Make sure you know exactly what you’re covered for and read all the policy information. Every insurer has different levels of protection so you need to find the one that's right for you.
Look out for cover that:
Finding insurance to cover these will be difficult as there are still so many restrictions in place, but it’s not impossible. Read policy documents and call insurers if you need to so that you know exactly what is and isn’t covered.
Remember, if you travel against FCDO advice you won’t be covered by any travel insurance.
Make sure you know what you'll be covered for before you buy a policy. If you need to check you’re getting the right cover, call the insurer first.
If you've already got travel insurance, and you bought it in advance of any FCDO advice and the WHO declaring Covid-19 a pandemic, you can find more information below.
No. If you travel against FCDO advice you won’t be covered by any travel insurance.
If your airline or holiday company cancels your trip, you have cancellation cover, and you booked your trip before the FCDO issued its travel advice, then yes, you should be covered.
However, travel insurance won’t cover you for cancellation if you booked your trip after the FCDO advised against travelling, or if you cancel it yourself because you decide you don’t want to go.
Get in touch with your tour operator or travel agent first. Your holiday should be either ATOL or ABTA protected, and they should be your first port of call for recovering money for things like cancelled accommodation, flights or excursions. Any costs that aren’t covered by them, might be covered by your travel insurance.
They’ll probably be receiving more requests than normal though, and so will be dealing with the most urgent first, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer than usual.
If you booked the different parts of your holiday for yourself, you won’t have any protection from associations like ATOL. If you need to cancel, or your flight or accommodation provider cancels, you’ll have to try and recover your costs from each of them separately.
That’s why travel disruption and cancellation cover with travel insurance is important. If you can’t get your money back from the providers, you can claim on your travel insurance instead.
Your travel agent may offer to re-book your trip for a later date, instead of giving you a cash refund. If your re-arranged trip has to be cancelled too, you should still have some financial protection.
Your insurer might be able to transfer your policy to cover a new destination if you’ve had to make alternative plans. Get in touch with them before you travel to make sure you’re covered.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has more guidance on how coronavirus could affect your travel insurance.
Alternatively, you could be offered holiday vouchers instead of money but beware – a holiday voucher has no financial protection so you could lose your money if the travel company later fails. What you’d ideally want is a Refund Credit Note;
You can use an RCN to pay in full or for part of a future holiday. If your original booking was ABTA or ATOL protected then your RCN will be too, so you’d be reimbursed if the travel company failed.
Some companies are offering additional incentives if you take an RCN, but this incentive won’t be financially protected.
According to ABTA, an RCN should include:
It shouldn’t have any other amounts or incentives – this should be documented separately.
Keep all of your original booking confirmations, ATOL certificate and proof of payment, just in case.
Most airlines are having to cancel flights due to travel restrictions.
Speak to your airline. You should be able to get a refund, or your flight transferred.
Even with the changes to FCDO advice, it's really important to get in touch with your insurer to check cover and restrictions before you consider travelling. They'll be able to give you specific advice relating to your policy.Sally Jaques, GoCompare Travel Insurance
Your travel insurance might be able to help if it includes end-supplier failure cover.
If you paid for part or all of your trip with a credit card, you may have some financial protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
If you have Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance (SAFI) as part of your travel cover you should be able to claim back the costs up to your cover limit. As above, you may also have protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 if you booked using a credit card.
To be protected under Section 75, the total cost of your purchase must be between £100 and £30,000 and paid for by credit card.
Even if you only paid a £50 deposit for a £5,000 holiday on your credit card and paid the rest by cheque or transfer from your current account, you can still claim a refund for the total cost from your card issuer.
You can also claim refunds from the holiday company/airline and your credit card issuer at the same time, but you can’t receive pay outs from both. It does mean that you can start your claim with your credit card issuer if you feel you’re getting nowhere with the holiday company. If your holiday company does pay-up you can stop the claim with your credit card issuer.
First of all, check the situation with ABTA - if the holiday company was a member of ABTA. A package holiday should be covered by the ATOL protection scheme which is Government backed.
Insurers don’t consider holidays ‘essential travel’ even if the FCDO leaves that definition to you. That means your travel insurance won’t cover any trips to destinations the FFCO advises against.
If you’re already in a restricted area, and are trying to leave, you should be covered by your insurance. Assuming you didn’t travel against FCFO advice, and you have travel disruption cover.
You’ll need to get medical treatment before coming back to the UK, and you’ll probably have to delay travelling home until you recover.
Your travel insurance should cover your medical costs and help you get home when you’re well again - assuming you didn't travel against FCFO advice and you had the right cover.
The most important thing to do is speak to your insurer before you go on holiday. They’ll be able to tell you whether you have a decent amount of cover for any eventuality that might happen.
It’s impossible to predict what will happen next. But if you’re considering booking a holiday for the future, and want insurance, the kind of cover you need depends on whether you’ve booked a package holiday or have booked your flights and accommodation separately.
That’s because, if you book a package holiday, you should have ATOL or ABTA protection and your travel agent should refund you. If you are considering booking a holiday now, speak to your travel agent and make sure you’re comfortable that they’ll let you cancel, or reschedule, if needs be.
If your trip hasn’t already been cancelled, talk to the holiday company or airline. If you miss a payment or cancel the trip yourself, you may forfeit your deposit and any other payments you’ve made, and you’d probably not be entitled to a refund.
If your package holiday included flights from a scheduled airline, you might be expected to settle the cost of those flights with the airline directly, on top of any payments you’ve made to the holiday company.
So long as you plan to travel to a country that’s exempt from the ongoing advice, you should be able to buy travel insurance. You’ll have some cover for things like accidents, illnesses and for your baggage and belongings.
But expect cover levels to vary between insurers for claims to do with coronavirus. Look out for cover and exclusions around cancellation, medical expenses, repatriation and extending your stay
Medical treatment for Covid-19 may be covered, but you’d need to check with the insurer and there’s likely to be exclusions.
Talk to your travel company to see if you can change your plans. If you can’t, check the company’s cancellation policy and/or talk to your travel insurer to see if your covered.
No, you won’t be covered if you don’t want to travel and your country is now on the exempt list. Talk to your holiday provider to see if you can delay your trip or if you can choose a different holiday. They’re not obligated to though, but they may be sympathetic to your request.