Whether you’re due to travel soon or you’re abroad already, here’s how your travel insurance can help:
- If you’ve been injured and need medical assistance because of the hurricane, call our 24-hour emergency medical team as soon as possible – we’ll tell you what to do.
- If your journey is delayed by 12 hours or more because of the hurricane, we’ll pay a fixed amount for each full 12-hour period of delay. Bear in mind that we only cover a delay to your departure, not your arrival at your destination. If the hurricane is a category three or above, we can only cover you for this if you added natural disaster cover to your policy. (We call this cover ‘delayed departure’ – or ‘extended delayed departure cover’ for hurricanes of category three or above – in our policy wording.)
- If your journey from the UK is delayed for more than 24 hours because of the hurricane and you decide not to go, we’ll pay you for your unused travel and accommodation costs which you can’t get back from elsewhere. If you booked your holiday as a package, then you should ask your tour operator or travel agent first to try to move the dates or get a refund. If the hurricane is a category three or above, we can only cover you for this if you added natural disaster cover to your policy. (We call this cover ‘abandoning your trip’ – or ‘extended delayed departure cover’ for hurricanes of category three or above – in our policy wording.)
- If you can’t reach or can’t stay in your accommodation because of the hurricane, we’ll pay you to book new accommodation to continue your trip and reasonable travel costs to help you get there. We can’t cover the cost of an upgrade – you should use the same level as your original booking (for example, if you were originally staying in a three-star hotel, we won’t pay the cost of a four-star hotel – if you did claim for this, we’d work out the cost of a three-star hotel and pay this instead). If the hurricane is a category three or above, we can only cover you for this if you added natural disaster cover to your policy. (We call this ‘accommodation cover’ – or ‘extended accommodation cover’ for hurricanes of category three or above – in our policy wording.)
- If you can’t get to your return departure point in time because the hurricane causes public transport to fail, we’ll pay you the extra reasonable costs of travel and accommodation you need to continue your trip. This applies to any part of your outward or final return journey which is supposed to depart within 36 hours of the start of your outward or return journey. If the hurricane is a category three or above, we can only cover you for this if you added natural disaster cover to your policy. (We call this cover ‘missed departure’ – or ‘extended missed departure cover’ for hurricanes of category three or above – in our policy wording.)
- If your personal belongings are damaged or go missing because of the hurricane, you can claim for these when you return home. Make sure you report any losses to the police (and hotel management if your baggage goes missing from your hotel). (We call this cover ‘personal belongings and baggage’ in our policy wording.)
Bear in mind
- You’ll need to check your policy terms and conditions to see exactly what cover your policy provides and how much you can claim for, as different policies vary.
- We can only cover you for the scenarios above if you bought your policy or booked your trip before the hurricane became public knowledge. If you bought your policy or booked your trip afterwards (when the hurricane became publicly known in the news), we won’t be able to cover you.
What to do
- If you’re stuck overseas and you’re unable to return to the UK, your existing policy will automatically extend in line with the terms and conditions for up to 30 days to cover you until you’re reasonably able to return home.
- If you’re still in the UK and you haven’t travelled yet, the following rules apply:
- Where you can, you should try to get a full refund from your tour operator or travel agent. We’ll only consider non-refundable expenses on your travel insurance policy.
- If you want to rearrange your trip dates, and provided you’re not making a claim for abandoning your trip, we can transfer your policy to cover the new trip as long as it’s within three months of your original departure date, is for the same or no longer duration, and is to the same geographical area.
If you need to make a claim, you can do so via our make a claim page. For any other questions, please get in touch.