Has anyone here had to cancel a holiday due to the covid19 shielding process ?
I have a holiday booked in early October to Spain, however I have been shielding for the last 3 months, presumably it's still not advisable to get on a plane because of the impossible social distancing measures, so I am thinking of just cancelling and making a claim on the holiday insurance, the problem is when I booked the holiday I hadn't been diagnosed with Bronchiectasis so obviously didn't include it. So you know how insurance companies do anything to avoid paying out, I'm thinking if I get a doctor's letter explaining when I had my diagnosis and advising me not to fly and I give it to the insurance company all will be well, although I'm not holding my breath (pardon the pun 😁) has anyone had or does have a similar situation and if so, how did you handle it.
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TG58
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I cancelled 2 holiday bookings in advance, the first was TUi easy enough as government had locked down, the second one in Sept I changed as I know holiday insurance would wriggle out of, they always do. I also had my diagnose after I had taken out holiday insurance. I think easiest thing is to try and transfer holiday till next year. I manage to change mine to next April. They wouldn't cancel and give money back. Hope this helps
Did they actually did the insurance actually refuse your claim and if so on what basis ? the only thing about cancelling till next year is unless a vaccination is found we are still in the same position, i.e. venerable and being in a very enclosed space on a plane, and to be honest trying to change it would be a nightmare, as I booked with Love Holidays and they have a horrendous reputation at the moment, basically fobbing customers off not replying to emails etc etc etc, to long to go into here, but all online, I have already had to do a chargeback on my bank card with them for a holiday they cancelled a couple of months ago, which they never refunded me for, so I don't really want to have to change with them.
I would be interested to hear why your insurance company refused to pay out, if you had a very valid reason concerning a medical issue, as for warned is for armed
Sorry, hubby read our holiday insurance terms and conditions and it only covered pre existing medical conditions and didnt cover new illness. So we didnt even try. Sorry no help to you is it.
Yes and I think I your case the best thing is to have a chat with your insurance company. A few years ago I was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and was waiting for surgery, I had booked to go to Greece for 3 weeks. My cardiologist said I could go on holiday as I wouldn't have surgery for at least 2 months and he felt that the condition wouldn't worsen in that time. All insurers wouldn't cover me for that condition but would cover me for the other pre existing conditions. My Dr said go as would do me good. I went and had no problem. It's all about whether you take the risk. I certainly wouldn't fly this year as all doctors say not to. As you travel company seems rogue, I would suggest you try insurance route. Good luck. You must let us know what happens
I have booked an 8 day tour to South Puglia and my friend and I are flying in 2nd September. I have a bit of scarring on my lungs as a result of chemo and radiotherapy. Had a CT Scan in 2018 when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer and apparently I just found out that I had minimal scarring then and I had another CT Scan in May of this year after a chest infection as my GO did not want to take any risk in case there was something more sinister in the lungs like lung cancer. Fortunately it was not cancer but there is a little more scarring now due to the the chemo and radiotherapy. I have been discharged already and there won't be any follow up with the IKD as I believe it is not serious and progressive in my case. I am just wondering whether U can get away with taking a normal travel insurance as mine will be really expensive after cancer. I have travelled to Mauritius in September and I do not suffer from any breathing problems . It is a 12 hour flight too. Am I taking a big risk if I decide to take a normal travel insurance as it is a short holiday only. Will definitely not risk it with a longer tour or a longer holiday. I have a list of at least 14 companies for people who have had cancer in the past and they will definitely be cheaper too. Take care❣️
Bevvy, I would have to disagree, mainly because even if things do change it won't be significant enough for vunerable people, i.e. if you have a progressive lung condition you still don't want to be sitting on a plane breathing in recycled air, and possibly in very close proximity to someone who has the virus.
Could you change it until next year ? I personally wouldn’t chance anything this year. I had a weekend booked for this month in U.K. and have managed to change it to next June.
Under normal circumstances I would agree, but because Love Holidays are possibly the worst travel company in the UK at the moment, it would be very difficult, I sat on the phone last week for 1.5 hours, when I eventually got through I was told by the person on the phone they couldn't help me and I would have to go on live chat to talk to them, now I know for a fact that people have been on their live chat for anything up to 5 hours ( I know very hard to believe but true) and then been cut off, and when I said to the chap I can't do that because I am at work, he suggested I take the day off to sort it out, you couldn't make it up, horrendous company to deal with, so I know I don't have that sort of patience so I really need to cancel, and try and get my money back
I'm seriously not exaggerating, their is a group page on Facebook called love holiday refunds, it has nearly 9000 members including myself, some of the members stories are horrendous, families been sent to destination's and when they get there no transfers for them to get to their hotel, so they get taxis to the hotel only to find that when they get there they are not open, sometimes quite late at night and they have children with them, just left stranded, and no numbers to contact love holidays. Honestly the sooner this company is shut down the better.
Your insurance is unlikely to pay out as, if you are diagnosed with any condition between taking out the insurance and going on holiday you have to let your insurers know.
You should maybe do that now and then nearer the time of your holiday you could see about cancelling it or transferring it to next year.
Trouble is with the insurance . You were diagnosed 5 month? ago and didn’t add it to your health list. Perhaps you could read up re cancellation on info from the travel company and insurance policy. My mum and her friend got their money back last year through their insurance as my mum got ill the week before and sent a doctors letter to the insurance company.
Sorry to have to say this but I don't think your travel insurance will cover this. From experience when I have taken holidays since my diagnosis you have to disclose your condition to be covered for it. I did consider just taking out normal insurance as I always take my inhalers and antibiotics with me but the thought only lasted a couple of minutes when I researched it and realised that being someone who always spends the first few days of their holidays with an upper airway infection from the air con on the flight it was not such a good plan. Health insurance to cover this condition is quite a bit more than normal which is understandable.
I wish is was better news and I will keep my fingers crossed for you but I think you have to be realistic. Good luck
The thing is though I never had the condition when I booked the holiday, well I wasn't diagnosed with it anyway, so their was nothing to disclose, I took out a yearly insurance as I had 3 holidays booked and it was all before the covid19 broke out in this country.
I do understand what you are saying but you are wanting to claim for a condition you don't have insurance for. The insurance company will say the same thing, I know you don't think that's fair but its fact. Insurance companies are difficult to deal with at the best of times but I really don't think you have a case here.
So if I was going on holiday and the day before I went I broke my leg or another limb and couldn't fly I wouldn't be covered, I thought the whole point of insurance was to cover unforseen circumstances.
A broken leg is different under insurance policies it is classed as an accident, not all mind, which your insurance will cover. You are wanting the insurance to cover you for a recent diagnosis and your decision not to go kn the holiday. Sadly the insurance company will take the view that there is no reason for you not to go. The only way to find out for sure is ask.
I have medical conditions on my annual insurance and it says to let them know when there’s a change ie new condition or one to be removed. I also think it depends how bad you are with your condition before cancelling If travel gets suspended again you will be covered for cancellation. My son has rescheduled his holiday to next year as his wife is pregnant and has had a few miscarriages so they don’t want to go abroad at the mo. I think the Martin lewis link Chriskho has put on will offer the best information
I cancelled a holiday in November. This was not because of a lung problem but because of severe vertigo attacks due to Menieres Disease.
I had not notified the insurance company that I had MD because at the time it was 'in remission' and I simply forgot about it when I booked the insurance. I thought I wouldn't get anywhere with my claim but it was accepted.
My GP completed a form for them which, among other things, asked if it could have been anticipated that I would be ill at the time of booking the holiday and taking out the insurance. My GP said that as I had been vertigo free for many months there was no reason to anticipate I would be ill. This was accepted and the money was in my bank account a few days later.
The booking was for a short break in the UK and so was a lot less money than your holiday must be which could make a difference. I just wanted to let you know that not all insurance companies are bad!
It would be worth checking your policy and speaking with someone from the insurance company to see where you stand.
Hi TG58, we have had to cancel two holidays. In March when lockdown struck we had booked a flight to Tenerife. Obviously we could not go so we claimed the fare back through our insurance. We got the fare back minus 2 x £75 excess. The second time we had paid the deposit but the bulk of the holiday was due to be paid. We knew if we cancelled we would lose the deposit so we paid in full and just waited. Jet2 got in touch with us in April to say as we could not travel in June did we want to rebook or have our money back. We took our money and were delighted when in was back in our bank account with 48 hours. After reading your blog I feel you should not cancel as you stand losing what you have paid todate. Insurance Companies do ask if you or anyone else on the policy is awaiting or receiving any medical help/results. I take it you did not declare you were being tested for Bronch. If so I would definitely ring your insurers and have a conversation with them. Whatever you decide to do ask them to confirm the conversation in writing either by email or letter. Good luck and I hope you get your money back or enjoy a lovely holiday. Hopefully by October all will be well and you will feel better about flying to Spain. I know I am hoping to travel around that time. Take Care, Maximonkey
We were due to go to Costa del sol at the end of September and Tui cancelled it on Wednesday
A bit late to the party, but I wanted to reply because there are two separate issues here, I think, and that doesn’t seem to have been raised by anyone else.
With regards to the holiday itself, my understanding is that most holiday insurance isn’t going to pay out if you choose to cancel a holiday as a result of the pandemic, regardless of shielding status or clinical vulnerabilities. As long as the holiday and travel remain available (e.g. they haven’t cancelled on you), it’s classed as a disinclination to travel and not a valid justification on a claim. Most will only pay out if government guidance via the FCO is such that it prohibits travel to your destination at the actual time of travel, although after a quick look, it may be slightly more nuanced than that depending on when you booked both the holiday and the insurance and a few other things. I find Martin Lewis (moneysavingexpert.com) to usually be one of the best sources of advice for this kind of thing, and the link to his most current travel insurance/holiday cancellation advice is: moneysavingexpert.com/news/.... Spain is currently classed as a ‘safe’ destination by the FCO, and therefore travel isn’t restricted. That could of course change again before October.
With regards to your health: at the point you were diagnosed, you ‘should’ have notified the insurers who would then have carried out a medical screening and, depending on the outcome of that, most likely added a premium to your insurance policy to cover the new diagnosis. With respiratory conditions, one of the things they tend to be most interested in is whether you’ve had any admissions in the last 12 months and if you use oxygen: if you haven’t been hospitalised unexpectedly, the pre-existing condition premium is usually fairly modest. It may not be relevant to your own particular circumstances, but insurers would probably argue that if you had symptoms and were undergoing or awaiting tests at the time of taking out the policy then you should have declared it and then adjusted the policy if/when you had an outcome. Problem with that is that you often get quoted a premium 10 times more expensive than it would be with the diagnosis in place, so most people don’t do that. You could try and adjust the policy now, and I would actually advise doing so: even if you can’t claim for voluntarily cancelling the holiday, there’s nothing to say that you’ll be well in October. Nothing to say you won’t be, either, but if you don’t alter the policy and can’t travel in October because of your chest, it’ll be a much harder prospect to get a refund if they argue you didn’t appropriately declare the condition.
I guess it depends what insurance you took out, but unless you requested insurance for you yourself cancelling the holiday I don't think you'll get a refund. I had to wait for all my flights to be cancelled rather than me cancelling and rebooking. Over four Months later I'm still waiting for the refund. Also I read somewhere on the BBC that insurances won't cover coronavirus related problems 🤔
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