Canceled trip: can travel insurance help?
Imagine flying to South Korea to finally see a K-pop girl group for the first time, in person. The concert ticket has been purchased and you are ready to catch the fever and enjoy this unique and exquisite musical experience. Unfortunately, upon arriving in Seoul, he was informed that for some reason the concert will not take place.
What if you attend a Digital Startup Conference in Berlin, but before boarding the plane, you were told that for a number of reasons, the organizers couldn’t get you set up and it can’t take place?
In cases of event cancellation, travel insurance can definitely help as it offers coverage for canceled events.
For a claim to be valid, the following conditions must be met:
- The cancellation of the event must be outside the control of the insured.
- The event cannot take place before your flight back to your country of origin.
- The organizer must provide written confirmation that the event has been cancelled.
There are two (2) circumstances that may occur when making use of this insurance coverage. These are:
- The event was canceled before departure: If you have been informed before traveling to the venue, the maximum sum insured per person will be £400 for unused event tickets and specific limits as indicated in the insurance policy that covers unused travel arrangements, such as flights, accommodations, and excursions, as well as other additional travel expenses associated with the trip.
- The event was canceled after arrival in the destination country/city – In this case, up to 50% of the travel expenses and seven (7) days of accommodation will be covered by the insurance policy.
Since this is additional coverage, check to see if your standard or comprehensive policy has this feature. If not, you can always contact your insurer to include this feature.
It should be noted that your claim cannot be considered if the event is rescheduled before your flight home. Likewise, the insurance must only indemnify those that are not reimbursed by the organizers. The claim also does not include food and beverage costs, as these are regular, recurring, everyday expenses.
Experiencing the cancellation of an event, especially one in which you have invested financially and emotionally (significantly) in it, can be heartbreaking. This is why it is worth making sure that we can recover our advance payments when this cancellation occurs and one can do this by purchasing the appropriate travel insurance policy with event cancellation cover.
Cancellation of events
