Insurance, a situation to avoid

[Selbourne]

In response to the useful prompts on this thread, I have just renewed our annual travel insurance policy. Although we have a worldwide annual policy (inc winter sports) through our premier bank account, they wanted a chunk of money to add my wife’s medical condition, so we have a separate stand alone annual travel policy with a different provider which includes it. I hadn’t appreciated that it was Europe only until this thread suggested checking, but it does cover us for ALL cruise eventaulities, including helicopter lifts, ship diversions and repatriation, up to £10m. Europe only hasn’t been an issue previously but we are doing a USA & Canada Cruise later this year and they have now increased us to Worldwide cover (no exclusions) with full cover for my wife’s medical condition for just £47 more, which I thought was very reasonable. Many thanks to those who flagged these issues, which I might have overlooked otherwise.

[jeanlyon]

and don't mistake "Covered for a cruise" with "cruise cover". The first simply means it includes you going on a cruise. The second means things like being confined to your cabin with illness etc.

 

Also, Cruise cover is nothing to do with repatriation. If cruises are covered then repatriation is just like from anywhere else.

[john watson]

A point to note for people booking more than twelve months ahead, you cannot get cover for single trip or annual insurance at the time of booking generally. You need to wait with single trip policies until you are within twelve months of travel completion date and for annual policies, renew twice or start anew as per single trip date plan. Your main risk this far out is cancellation and loss of deposit. Then the risk is length of time period during which a notifiable change in health occurs.

 

Regards John

[tring]

I think if your policy says "worldwide" with no qualification on the headline page, then that's what it means - no exclusions (apart from the obvious countries where the Foreign Office advises you not to go). If they want to exclude anywhere, they have to say something like "Worldwide (excluding USA, Canada and Thailand".

 

I'm not sure what Thailand has done, but it was one of the potential exclusions on my last worldwide policy.

 

No current problem with the vast majority of Thailand on the FCO site, but I see there is a small area to the south (which I do not think is a regular tourist area), that is marked as "advise against all but essential travel" so would not be covered by any UK travel insurance for travel purposes as I understand it. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand

 

It is normal for the FCO to mark up certain areas with different travel advice and those areas are currently showing as orange on the maps of the various countries. Always worth checking before you travel as these areas can change. A UK cruise or holiday company would have to cancel a venue if FCO advises against travel.