VHI u-turn on paying out on cancelled holidays
One of the country's largest travel insurers has done a u-turn and will now pay out to customers whose holidays were cancelled due to the coronavirus.
VHI has "established a fund" to support its travel insurance customers, many of whom were set to be out of pocket due to cancelled holidays.
It will be a welcome relief for many, with holidaymakers still struggling to get refunds from airlines months after trips were first cancelled.
VHI's MultiTrip is the most popular travel insurance in the country.
On March 19, when holidaymakers all over Ireland were cancelling their travel plans due to the coronavirus outbreak and the travel restrictions imposed, the insurer added "a general exclusion" to their terms and conditions for any claims caused by or related to Covid-19.
"This was necessary at the time given the general uncertainty around travel but did cause some difficulties for our customers," a spokesperson for VHI said.
The insurer has now performed a u-turn on this policy. The changes include:
- All renewing customers will be covered for trips cancelled due to Covid-19 for any planned trips in 2020 provided they were booked prior to March 19th 2020;
- Emergency medical cover abroad will not be subject to the Covid-19 exclusion provided you are not travelling against government travel advice;
- For staycation travellers, the domestic trip cancellation benefit is being enhanced to cover all overnight pre-booked trips;
- The cooling-off period is being extended to 28 days at this time.
A spokesperson for VHI said they are seeing "increasing volumes of cancellation claims for pre-booked trips", including for customers who are currently travelling abroad.
Earlier this week, Ryanair, which also sells travel insurance, rejected reports that it was selling travel insurance which didn't cover non-essential travel. A clause in the travel insurance policy states that cover would not be offered for a claim "arising directly or indirectly from you travelling against Foreign Office (or any government body) advice or where it is deemed unsafe for you to travel". Government advice is to avoid non-essential journeys overseas.
A Ryanair spokesperson dismissed as "rubbish" the report that claims would be rejected and said the advisory not to travel "is likely to be withdrawn over the coming days".
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil it is "far too soon" to open up travel and the advice will be reviewed in the coming weeks.
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