Travel Insurance
Hi everyone just sharing my experience on Red Pennant Travel insurance. I took out a policy in early January this year for a trip to Morocco in early June. I have spoken to the club insurers about having to cancel holiday as a person who is shielding until 22 June due to my illness and government instructions and have been told by the underwriters that any travel insurance new or old is not covered with Coronavirus so will be unable to claim. It seems that they can change the policy to suit themselves at anytime.
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I also took a policy with Red Pennant on 13th March for a trip to Spain in April. As FCO advice was not to travel and Spain were not allowing travellers in I cancelled my trip and Insurance on 23rd March. Received a full refund from Red Pennant possibly as it was within the 14 days cancellation clause.
I find it ridiculous they are refusing to refund on a policy which was taken out before Covid 19 was even thought off.
Perhaps you could try getting your money back through Credit/Debit card company as you have paid for something you have not received.
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Rohanfire, you are not going to travel so cancel the Red Pennant policy and get the premium refunded.
If you booked a package holiday to Morocco you can probably get a refund from the tour company under ABTA or ATOL rules.
If you simply booked transport I think the best you will get is a credit voucher for travel at some later date.
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Thanks for the replies. Yes they are prepared to pay back the cost of the insurance but not the cost of the holiday as they said that there was no wording in the policy to cover pandemics. I am waiting on TUI to cancel the holiday but again it is like a minefield concerning refund vouchers which according to which magazine are not covered by ATOL.
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Rohanfire, Yes, wait for TUI to cancel - if you booked with that company they will then give you the choice of a cash refund or a voucher for future travel with a 20% addition. Get well soon and stay safe.
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Like many others we took out Red Pennant before the Pandemic was declared for our trip to France through the Tunnel. The Eurotunnel booking is, as always, non-refundable.
RP weaselled out of their obligation to refund as they claim they didn't SPECIFALLY include Covid in their policy wording. The Club just rolled over and let the underwriters get away with this.
Yes, we got the premium refunded but that's not the point.
I wonder how many of the thousands of us badly affected by this disgraceful practice have lost faith in Red Pennant and will be loath to use them again. This could turn out to be a poor business decision for the Club and the RP underwriters.
The only good aspect of this is that Eurotunnel have taken the pragmatic and responsible stance of letting me roll over the fare until the end of 2021.
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Yes, we got the premium refunded but that's not the point.
One way of looking at it is was the Eurotunnel fare more expensive than the Red Pennant cover? If not a refund of the RP premium saved you more money because had they refunded the Eurotunnel you would have still ended up paying for Red Pennant I imagine? At least with the Eurotunnel booking you were able to move it until until next year. You will only be in a loss situation if you can't use a crossing next year?
David
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Sorry David but I think you missed the point.
The Eurotunnel was more that twice the RP premium but again that is not the point.
I am reasonably content that my fare is carried over to next year (assuming we can travel then) and I have only "lost" any interest I would have had if I had not shelled out over £300 this year - that is not the issue.
My complaint is that RP reneged on the insurance by not refunding the entire costs as soon as we could not travel.
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Watendlath, to be perfectly frank you are doing better than many people.
Red Pennant refunded your premium but other travel insurance policies did not. And you are not out of pocket whereas many others are - for instance our cleaning lady and her husband list £1700 on an aborted holiday in Thailand, and my son is half a million down so far on his overseas businesses in tourism and hospitality.
And you and I are both well whereas 28,000 others are dead. Neither of us should complain about Red Pennant. Stay safe.
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Eurotraveller, you know nothing, absolutely nothing, about me or my circumstances. You do not know if I or my extended family are well or have had Covid or indeed whether I am one of those who have had the tragedy of a death.
Until you do, don’t comment.
My post is the point of principle over RP’s business behaviour.
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I assume that section 15 of the Exclusions was in place when you booked?
15 For your travel to a country or specific area or event to which the Travel Advice Unit of
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the World Health Organisation has advised the
public not to travel.Now of course you wouldn't have known that you wouldn't be allowed to travel when you booked. The question is whether the Club have treated you fairly. Most insurance is based on actual loss and as you have been able to move your booking (regardless of whether at a later stage you might not be able use it) no loss has been incurred. Your travel arrangements have just been delayed as frustrating as that must be. I would have thought the fact that the Club have additionally refunded your policy premium is also an indication they are treating you fairly. Had Eurotunnel cancelled your booking and not been willing to allow you to rebook that would have been a real loss which I expect would have probably been covered by RP. So the nub of the question is that because of the flexibility of the Eurotunnel crossing you have not yet suffered an actual loss, would any insurance policy pay out on that basis?
David
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It is indeed a question of principal. When we take insurance out we want the confidence to know that if things go wrong we are covered to get us home if a medical situation arises and as the booklet says cover us for cancellation. I can understand that any new policy now taken out will not cover us for Coronavirus not a policy taken out in January. I had entered into a contract with the insurance company to cover me not have them change the contract when it suits them. I just hope that you do not have to claim for any insurance and find you are not covered because it suited them.
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This is the official wording on the clubs Travel Insurance page...I think there could be claim under the last para below..as you took out the policy before the event was known...
Aside I am still waiting for the letter informing me i can defer my Annual Policy for 6mnths.(taken out in February before the Coviod-19 announcement)...Maybe the club will do a U turn like the vouchers and renege on that too...Mmm, did I say 'Club'.
Due to the impact Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having in Europe, we’ve taken the decision to temporarily suspend the sale of Red Pennant insurance. This will help ensure we can focus on assisting our members that have existing policies at this difficult time.
If you already have a Red Pennant policy, you can contact us to amend your policy, make a claim or renew your annual policy.
Please be aware there will not be any cover for anything linked to Coronavirus for any new trips you may book, as this is now a known event.
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Thank you for that. I talked to the club who have been talking to the underwriters who have said that I am not covered as in the Red Pennant booklet under cancellation (section 3b page 19) "prohibitive regulations by the government of any country" i.e. because our government cancelled all unnecessary travel I will not be covered.
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I am also waiting for the letter about deferring the start date. Glad its not just me that's waiting. I have asked about cancelling the policy, they said they would ask the underwriters and get back to me. Been waiting over a month for their reply. Have chased it up, but still nothing. Thats not good customer service. Not impressed!
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I renewed my annual travel policy in November of 2019 and used it once for three days in Portugal - with no claims.
The total cost of the policy was in the order of £200 and usually my wife and I would have around 3 to 4 holidays a year – excellent value.
When the current virus situation hit I emailed the Caravan Club asking then to suspend my policy as the advice at that time was to avoid all overseas travel. I received several responses over a two month period stating that the underwriters had been asked to make a decision. I never received an answer and had to chase things up regularly– fair enough they were busy. But two months for an answer to a simple administrative question?
A few weeks ago I telephoned the Club and asked what progress had been made. The person I spoke to said that the underwriters were adamant that there would be no refunds, no suspensions of any policy – nothing. They said that they were perusing things and would call me back – they haven’t.
Several insurance companies are offering pro rata refunds for unused insurance policies due to the recent situation. Some are not. I had hoped though, that a ‘Club’ might have offered a more conciliatory approach.
Had I purchased a single trip policy, it is very likely I would have been refunded.
I suppose that I will need to ‘take this on the chin’. An insurance policy is based on risk – but in my case there is no risk at all to the underwriters because I will not be travelling. This is not my own choice – but Government advice.
I didn’t buy my insurance off the underwriters. I bought it from the Club – a Club which promotes itself as having members’ interests at its heart. I won’t be renewing my membership, my travel insurance (obviously) or my Caravan insurance.
I will take my chances on the open market as I cannot see what the ‘value added’ is from continuing as a member.
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I have always taken out Red Pennant and actually claimed once and found the service excellent.
I took out the last annual policy in August 2019 and did a trip in Sept Oct 2019.
We were planning on another trip this spring but as the epidemic struck we of course cancelled.
I asked for a refund on the policy but was refused.
I think this is totally out of order and will not be using them in the future.
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I took out life insurance but decided not to die. Can I ask an insurance company for a refund?
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