Canadian travellers who have been impacted by the volcano received some good news yesterday. The Travel Health Insurance Association (THIA) http://bit.ly/THIA-Volcano announced that Most Canadian travel insurance companies have considered the disruption to travel resulting from the volcanoes in Iceland as an event that is covered.
THIA which is a national organization representing Canadian travel insurers also indicated that most insurers are also providing policy extensions at no extra charge to travellers who were stranded beyond the expiration dates of their policies.
This is certainly good news to anyone who purchased travel insurance!
Trip Cancellation & Trip Interruption
This means that for those savvy travellers who purchased a travel insurance policy which includes Trip Cancellation will be entitled to make a claim for any additional costs incurred as a direct result of the volcanic eruptions. Typically, most Trip Cancellation policies include limited benefits for Trip Interruption and Travel Delay providing reimbursement for the cost of additional accommodation and meal expenses.
Some policies also cover for the cost of alternative travel arrangements in the event of a missed connection or travel delay. But not all policies are the same or offer the same coverage so you really need to contract your insurance company to find out what benefits, if any you may have for your specific situation and how to make a claim.
Travel Insurance Claims
Travellers whose flights were cancelled and never left Canada will be entitled to obtain a refund from their airline or reschedule their departure. The airlines however will not pay any compensation for losses due to non-refundable pre-paid travel arrangements such as hotels accommodation, cruises, tour package or car rentals etc. In these cases you may be entitled to make a claim under your Trip Cancellation coverage for any non-reimbursable, fully insured and prepaid portion of the trip, including airfares, pending cruises, land tours, hotel stays that you may have book separately.
For all-inclusive packages booked through an airlines or tour operator which included airfare and hotel you may be offered vouchers for future travel in lieu of immediate refunds. In these cases you may not be entitled to make a claim under your Trip Cancellation policy because you have not suffered a financial loss.
Future Travel
The financial impact of claims resulting from the volcano are expected to be as significant as the 9/11 event and insurance companies are expecting to pay claims in the millions of dollars. This has increased the awareness of the importance of travel insurance and as a result many more people are considering purchasing travel insurance for their next trip which is always a smart idea.
It is important to note however, that most Canadian travel insurance companies have considered the disruption to travel resulting from the volcanoes in Iceland as an event that is covered if the insurance was purchased or in effect before April 14. Travel insurance covers unexpected events and since the volcanoes in Iceland continue to remain a threat you would not be able to claim for losses due to this same event in the future.
Always travel Safe & Secure – Goinsured!
Mark Anevich
Travel Insurance Expert
LinkedIn Profile
Subscribe to this blog to receive automatic email notifications of future posts
