subject: Check your insurance carefully after frustrating time for flight passengers [print this page] Check your insurance carefully after frustrating time for flight passengers
The start of 2010 has been a frustrating period for holidaymakers and travellers, with snow in January forcing the cancellation of flights, coupled with the ash cloud crisis that left many with travel insurance unable to make a claim.
The majority of simple insurance policies will not have covered flight cancellations, so checking to make sure this is included has been advised by many experts.
Chief executive of the Irish Brokers Association, Ciaran Phelan said, "While insurers may well review the terms and conditions in their travel insurance policies, consumers should not rely on them to do so".
Diarmund Kelly, Chief Executive of The Professional Insurance Brokers Association said, "Unfortunately many will find that their policies don't cover claims arising from adverse weather conditions, a typical exclusion would be an act of God. Claims are generally not covered for the withdrawal from service of aircraft by order or recommendation of the regulatory authority in any country."
Mr Kelly called upon the Financial Regulator to act as an external body to look at the use of act of God' to identify whether this is a justifiable reason to rule out some claims.
If you are looking to buy travel insurance, there are things that should be considered first.
If a trip was cancelled due to illness, the policy might not cover you for a pre-existing illness that was not disclosed beforehand.
If the policy is set to start on the date of travel and the holiday is cancelled a month earlier, you are unlikely to be covered, as the policy will not have started yet.
If you were to lose your job due to redundancy, some policies will cover you, but only if you were not aware that your job was under threat when the policy was bought.
When travelling and a connecting flight, train or cruise is missed, not all policies will cover this. If it does, it may need a certain length of time between connections to have been left.
You will generally not be covered if you suffer an injury whilst drunk and if you have cover under your private health insurance, it will not be necessary to buy this again.
If you lose your luggage and make a claim for the missing contents, receipts or credit card statements could be requested by the insurance company. Some policies put a cap on the amount per item and might exclude expensive things like jewellery and cameras.
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