Travel insurance / covid help

[PaulAllen]

Hello all, hoping for some advice as I’m sure people on this forum know more about travel insurance than myself – I currently have covid and at a loss as to what to do in my slightly delerious state. Any advice appreciated.

I’m scheduled to fly to the US via an Avios rewards booking on Tuesday 6th in the morning. The return, later in August, is a cash ticket. Unfortunately today I’ve tested positive for covid. Spoken to my insurer, which is via HSBC premier (apparently very good, although I’ve never claimed), who told me that any cancellation / rebooking liability is limited to the maximum cost of the outbound booking – they don’t count avios as a cost, and as I’m staying with family whilst there, the total cost of the holiday and max liability is circa £1,000 – they supposedly wouldn’t cover rebooking cost above this.

My first question – does this sound correct re the maximum liability? If I had not booked with avios, the cost of short notice rebooking would still be much more than the cost of an outbound ticket, so wouldn’t cover it, which doesn’t make sense to me?

Second question – any advice on taking this forward – I’m hoping I feel better by Tuesday, given my symptoms were around since earlier in the week. However, if I don’t recover by Tuesday, I’ve booked a backup avios flight (cancellable), for a cash cost of £800. Should this typically be covered, assuming I need to cancel my flight on Tuesday due to continuing to test positive?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[ChrisBCN]

Firstly, I hope you get less delirious in the coming days!

I can’t help you on the insurance position, but have you tried calling the airline to see if they are willing to move the flights for free (or a small admin charge) for you? If you explain that you have tested positive you may find a little flexibility there. And if it doesn’t work on the first call, try a second time.

Then you won’t need to worry about insurance. Good luck!

[NorthernLass]

The terms will be whatever is stated in your policy, so it’s impossible to comment on that. Avios flights can be cancelled for £35 per booking up to 24 hours before departure so it’s not such a big deal that avios aren’t classed as a cost.

You could probably also look into how long you’ll actually be infectious for, I’m pretty sure plenty of people are travelling while testing positive these days (or would be if they actually tested)!

[JDB]

@PaulAllen – I think that what HSBC is telling you is broadly correct. The sum you report they will cover of c.£1,000 is specific to your trip as the policy will actually cover up to £7,500 per person for the cancellation. The policy only pays out the unrecoverable costs of cancellation but won’t pay any extra costs that might be incurred by postponing or rebooking a trip at a higher price than the original. [Amex Plat is one of very few policies that will cover such additional costs. This plays weak cover eg on missed connects where HSBC wins].

I don’t think your backup flight would be covered at all since you have booked it in the knowledge of your illness.

There is a much broader issue about Aviva, the insurers behind HSBC and now Nationwide not covering the cost of Avios – probably an unfair contract term, but that shouldn’t impact you because you can cancel, get your Avios back from BA and claim the cancellation fee.

[Froggee]

@NorthernLass makes the key point which is DO NOT WAIT UNTIL TUESDAY TO CANCEL.

You need to take a view on Monday (at least 24 hours before your flight) if you are fit to travel, and ideally not very infectious.

If you’re not feeling it then cancel the Avios booking and take the backup flight. The cancellation cost is only £35 which is below HSBC’s £50 excess anyway. Once you are within 24 hours of the flight it is basically tough luck.

I recently had similar with Virgin Atlantic and they turned out to have a “communicable diseases policy” which saw them move a flight for free only 12 hours prior. British Airways may have similar as it is clearly irresponsible for an airline to knowingly take a passenger with an infectious disease. So be very clear about this with British Airways when calling.

[SamG]

Lots of good advice here – we are lucky to have such knowledgable contributers. Some of the crap I read elsewhere could cause major financial losses!

HSBC is only responsible for the unrecoverable costs of cancellation at the point it is known you can’t travel. At this point that is £35 BA fee and your inbound ticket. So that sounds about right. As @JDB says they will not cover the increased costs of rescheduling.

BA has a similar illness policy to Virgin (as it’s of no interest to their staff or passengers to have infectious ill people onboard!) and will push your flight out until later this week if you call them. They may need a Dr note which can be bought online for ~50 quid or so.

But if there is Avios availability (which it sounds like there is as you’ve booked already) then most simple route is probably to cancel more than 24hrs prior and rebook when you’re ready

That said last two times I’ve had COVID I’ve felt better quite quickly and nowadays I feel no particular need to isolate for X number of days etc once my symptoms have passed just the same as I don’t with any other illness

[PaulAllen]

Thank you all so much for the valuable and prompt advice! To echo SamG I knew I could rely on this forum 👍

Luckily the covid stayed very mild and I am all but recovered today so will be flying as planned, just masking up to be sure, and cancelling the back up flight.

All great to know for future reference – especially on the extent of travel insurance coverage on rescheduling & airline policies on contagious illnesses…