After weeks of disruption and chaos, it seems that finally the Icelandic volcano is calming down. Although scientists can’t yet say that the eruption is over, there seems to be little activity in the thing that no-one can pronounce, Eyjafjallajökull.

So what does that mean for your travel insurance? To be honest, nothing. That may sound flippant but one thing that this whole episode has highlighted for me is the absolute usefulness of travel insurance. A lot of people got caught out because they thought insurance only covered things like breaking legs, getting ill and lost baggage. Consequently, they bought it at the last minute and weren’t covered because their flight had been cancelled. I don’t want to sound like a moralising, “I told you so” ninny, but buying your travel insurance when you buy your holiday really is a good idea.

In other news, the British Airways strike is on again. Today’s talks at ACAS were apparently close to an agreement but they have failed to seal the deal. The usual conditions apply to your travel insurance. If you bought it before the announcement on 10th May you’ll be covered. If you bought it afterwards, you will be covered for everything not related to the strike, but not for delayed travel or failure to get away. Sorry.

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And now the good news (well, almost) | World First Travel Insurance Blog

If you’ve travelled recently, are travelling or are planning to travel, you could be forgiven for being a little confused.

The ash has been coming back in the last couple of weeks but only to the edge of Europe. Frustrating if you live in Belfast, Dublin or Gran Canaria, but it didn’t cause the same major problems as it did across the whole of Europe a month or so ago (and hey, if it means me staying a few more days in Gran Canaria, where’s the factor 50!).

There’s also the will they/won’t they strike British Airways situation. BA asked m’learned friends last week to get the whole thing declared illegal again just because they the union didn’t report that there were 11 spoilt papers at the last ballot. They duly did but then the union appealed and got that ruling overturned. Some flights were cancelled on the morning of the first planned strike but there was no real disruption.

At the time of writing, talks are being held at the Advisory, Conciliation and and Arbitration Service (ACAS), but as things stand, further strikes will be held on 24th – 28th May, 30th May – 3rd June and 5th – 9th June

Then, when you do get to the airport….oh the confusion! Some flights leaving, some flights not. And of course no-one is giving any information. As if they were doing it deliberately. In another life I worked in that kind of situation. Let me tell you, if those people behind those desks aren’t telling what’s going on, it’s because they don’t know. And nor does anyone else because the situation is changing every 5 minutes and people are generally very bad at communicating.

So what do you do? Click here for a great article by World First that sets out the situation as it is now and what you can claim and what you can’t. And if you’re worried about the British Airways strike, replace volcanic ash with BA and the same applies.

Oh, and Martin‘s going on holiday next month, I hope he’s got insurance!

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Confused.com? Ash, strikes and travel insurance | World First Travel Insurance Blog

I seem to have done nothing but write about volcanic ash recently. It caused unprecedented problems 3 weeks ago shutting airports in Northern Europe. People were stranded across the world unable to get back home and to work. International sports events were disrupted and the world’s leaders had to cancel plans to attend the recent funerals of the Polish presidential couple killed in an air crash in Russia.

Over the last few days it has been making cameo appearances again, stopping flights over Ireland and Scotland and then closing a large number of airports in Spain and Portugal. It seems that destinations in Switzerland and Germany are also being affected.

So where does that leave me then?

Frankly, nothing has changed

We can’t speak for other insurers, but World First will continue to cover you. In concrete terms, this means if you are delayed for over 12 hours because your flight has been cancelled, you can claim (to use the insurance speak term) Travel Delay.

You can then claim Abandonment (more insurance speak) if you are delayed for more than 24 hours in any alternative travel arrangements offered to you.    You will need to prove that your flight was cancelled for that length of time when claiming because flights will start to resume when the airspace ban is lifted.

If you are stuck abroad when your policy is about to run out, it will be automatically extended until the next available flight is offered and no further than that.

If you buy a policy before going to one of the affected areas you will not be covered. You cannot insure against something of which you are already aware.

And then there’s British Airways again

It seems nothing is resolved with British Airways with the two sides as much at loggerheads as ever following the recent sacking of a union official. News reports are saying that a variety of scenarios have been laid out for strike action although no-one is certain yet. In the current situation of mistrust though, there’s a fairly good chance that there will be some disruption in June.

That seems like another good reason to get some insurance then. As with the volcanic ash, if you get your insurance before the strikes, you will be covered.

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Travel, ash and strikes | World First Travel Insurance Blog

With the ongoing problems relating from the fallout from the volcanic ash (pun intended), World First has set out how it intends to respond to the claims its policyholders will be making in the next few weeks here.

To summarise, if you are returning to the UK with an EU registered airline, they have a legal obligation to look after you – even if they might try to wriggle out of it. If you are leaving or were intending to leave from the UK, either World First or your airline will cover you. Read the policy for details on how to claim. This is not the case for all travel insurance companies, see here for more details.

It goes without saying that if you purchased your policy after the no fly policy started, you won’t be covered. However, if you had the foresight to purchase an annual policy, you will be covered when the next unforeseen crisis occurs!

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Your travel insurance policy will cover you for Icelandic ash | World First Travel Insurance Blog

No Iceland, we said cash…

Unless you’ve just come back from a stay on Mars, it won’t have escaped your notice that air traffic in large parts of Western Europe has ground to a halt because of large quantities of ash being spewed out by a volcano called Eyjafjallajokull (yes, that’s it’s name) in Iceland.

Volcanic ash is extremely dangerous once it gets into contact with aircraft engines. In 1982 a British Airways plane had a lucky escape on a flight from London to Auckland when flying over Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. Ash got into its engines and all four failed. On the free fall that followed, the crew was able to get one of the engines going again because the air flow had dislodged some of the ash and some very frightened passengers made it to Jakarta. This is why northern European airspace has come to a halt – its dangerous.

What should I do now then?

The first port of call if your flight is cancelled or delayed is your airline. They have to offer alternative flights or refunds if you can’t fly. Watch the situation very closely however as it is changing almost by the hour.

You probably won’t be entitled to compensation as although European law says you are eligible under “exceptional circumstances” the airlines will quite reasonably argue that these circumstances couldn’t exactly have been prevented or anticipated.

This rare situation comes under what is called an Act of God. Insurance companies have trouble sometimes reacting in a standardised way to these things and this is no exception.

World First Travel insurance will be paying out

When the story was starting to break yesterday, World First’s Managing Partner Martin Rothwell, was at a meeting of the association of Travel Insurance Intermediaries http://www.atii.co.uk/ and that they were in immediate contact with the underwriters, http://www.ptic.gi/ to clarify the situation.

World First have said that if you are delayed for over 12 hours because your flight has been cancelled due to this problem, you can claim Travel Delay. You can then claim Abandonment if you are delayed for more than 24 hours in any alternative travel arrangements offered to you.

You will need to prove that your flight was cancelled for that length of time when claiming as flights will start to resume when the airspace ban is lifted. We would not expect people to go to the airport where flights cancelled or the airport is closed. Cutting through the technical jargon, you’re covered.

And so are some, but not all, of the others

RBS have said the passengers that bought insurance through Direct Line, Churchill, NatWest and RBS will be able to make a claim for accommodation that cannot be cancelled or used as long as they have written evidence to support it.

Saga have also said it will honour claims subject to customers getting a letter from their airline to say that their flight was cancelled to to the weather.

Aviva however have said that they will not be accepting any claims. A rather terse statement says “Cancellation or abandonment of your holiday covers specific events only, such as injury, illness, death of the person insured or their travelling companion/a relative, redundancy or damage to your home by fire, flood or storm. There is therefore no cover for cancellation as a result of this incident.” So that’s that then.

What if I haven’t got insurance?

It goes without saying that it’s too late now. You can’t buy insurance against a problem that you already know exists. To put it quite bluntly, you’ll know better next time. This just shows the point of buying insurance. It doesn’t cost very much, especially if you go away a few times a year and you get an annual policy and it could have you a pretty packet.

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1. What do I do if my British Airways flight is delayed or cancelled?
2. Your travel insurance policy will cover you for Icelandic ash
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My flight’s been cancelled by volcanic ash – will my insurance cover me? | World First Travel Insurance Blog