Does Travel Insurance Cover Coronavirus Trip Cancellations?

An epidemic disease as coronavirus proves the importance of paying attention to the print of a travel insurance policy, so a traveller knows what it includes, and what he/she risks losing for cancelling a trip in cases like this.

This is why, travellers that have already made all arrangements necessary for a trip, whether to China, Europe or elsewhere, before rushing on to cancel their plans with the confidence that travel insurance will cover them, should check if it actually does.

The thing is that most travel insurance policies do not cover trip cancellations for reasons as fear of an epidemic disease, as they do not consider it a good enough reason for trip cancellation.

In fact, almost every existing travel insurance policy excludes epidemics and pandemics on purpose, as insurance companies are most scared that an epidemic or pandemic by nature could put these companies out of business if they had to pay out millions of dollars for all their policies.

Cases When Travel Insurance May Cover Coronavirus Trip Cancellations

Despite that travel insurance companies tend to exclude epidemic and pandemic diseases from their plans, there are several cases when they have to, and they do reimburse travellers hurt by a situation similar like the one caused due to the coronavirus outbreak.

1.         Firstly, if you have arranged everything to travel to a country where there’s a confirmed outbreak, as China, South Korea, Italy or Iran before the outbreak took place, then you have better chances of being covered to an extension by your travel insurance, than if you were to cancel your trip to a country where only a few cases have been detected, but you are scared of travelling there.

Some Travel insurance companies have themselves stepped in and declared that they will cover all trips to China booked before January 21, when the outbreak of the virus happened. Whereas, for those booked later, they will not take responsibility

1.         Also, if the Foreign Affairs authority in your country of residence advises not to travel to a particular country, the travel insurance is obliged to cover your material loss, if you have booked the trip in advance of the “do not go” advise. You may be able to even get a full refund.

2.         In addition, if you have another health condition, a weaker immune system, or you simply get sick before your trip, you can get a full refund even if your destination country has only detected a few cases of people infected with the coronavirus. A note from a doctor should be handed to the insurance company in such cases.

3.         The last option is that you have a “Cancel for Any Reason” travel insurance policy. Many companies offer this option to their clients, which means they can cancel their trip without even having to present a reason for the company, in case they want to.