What happens if a strike affects my flights?

Strikes have been in the news a lot lately. So it’s worth knowing what to do if a strike affects your travel plans, and how your travel insurance can help.

If you have an InsureandGo policy, cover applies as long as your flight and insurance were arranged before the strike was announced.

• If your journey is delayed by 12 hours or more because of the strike, you can claim a fixed amount for each full 12-hour period of delay. Remember that we only cover a delay to your departure, not your arrival at your destination. (We call this cover ‘delayed departure’ in our policy wording.)
• If your journey from the UK is delayed for more than 24 hours because of the strike 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, you should ask your tour operator or travel agent first to try to move the dates or get a refund. (We call this cover ‘abandoning your trip’ in our policy wording.)
• If you can’t reach the airport because of a strike on the train network, and this causes you to miss your flight, you might be able to claim. Missed departure cover (available on our Silver, Gold and Black level travel insurance) will cover you for the extra costs incurred in continuing your trip. For example, a new flight or overnight accommodation.

You need to be aware of the following.

• 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 strike became public knowledge. If you purchased your policy or booked your trip afterwards (when the strike became publicly known in the news), we won’t be able to cover you.

What to do if you need to make a claim.

If you’re stuck overseas and 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, instead of abandoning your trip, we can transfer your policy to cover the new journey 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, take a look at our make a claim page. If you’ve got any other questions, please get in touch.