Travel insurance

For complaints about Covid-19, you will need to provide us with:

• policy schedule
• policy certificate
• full policy terms 
• IPID
• If the customer claimed a refund from their airline, tour operator or hotel or claimed under section 75 of the CCA or requested a chargeback
• when the holiday, trip or flight was booked
• what type of holiday it was (for example package holiday, flight only or flight and hotel)
• how the complainant paid for it (for example credit card, BACS or debit card)
• when the insurance policy was taken out
• what type of policy the customer had (annual or single trip)
• the intended date of travel

You will need to provide us with:

• the base premium
• any additional premiums for declared medical conditions
• IPID
• a breakdown of how the refund has been calculated
• the proportion of the premium which covers pre-travel issues and post-travel issues
• confirmation of whether an excess waiver premium was paid and has been refunded (please explain why it has/hasn’t been refunded)
• the relevant policy terms relied upon to calculate the refund

The things we’ll look at in particular, include the following:

• We’ll always consider individual circumstances including the relevant policy terms, when bookings were made and when the policy was taken out.
• We’ll take into account whether consumers have already been able to recover financial losses from their airline, tour operator, bank or credit card company.
• We’ll consider foreign and domestic government information about travel restrictions in the same way as the FCDO advice, taking account of policy terms.
• We’ll consider self-isolation and cancellations due to sickness in the same way as we do with ‘travelling against medical advice’.
• We expect insurers to take a pragmatic view of decisions not to travel or to curtail a trip. We’ll bear in mind factors such as the purpose of travel, the rapid pace of changing advice and the ability of consumers to contact their insurer at the relevant time.
• We recognise the challenges of validating some claims. However, we expect consumers to be treated fairly, and we encourage insurers to consider carefully the available evidence including credible consumer testimony.

• We recognise that some consumers may have taken the difficult decision to cancel their trips earlier than insurers might usually expect. But insurers should consider whether a later claim would have been accepted – for example, if travel advice or restrictions would have meant the consumer would have ultimately had to cancel before departure date.