The new HFP chat thread – Saturday 11th April

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• Cuchlainn says:

  11 Apr11 April 04:38

  EI Avios Reward Flights,
  Ever optimistic I have just checked DUB to ACE for Halloween 19 and February 20 half-terms, having enjoyed both periods over the last several years. Always been 34,000 Avios and between £104 and £136 in taxes, dependent on how far in advance I booked.
  Booking well in advance and both periods coming up as 52,000 Avios and £160, with loads of availability.
  Can live with extra few £ but 50+% Avios – has something changed re partner IAG airlines ??

  • The Original David says:

    11 Apr11 April 05:13

    October 2019 and February 2020? This doesn’t sound like booking “well in advance” at all…

    But yes, the partner redemption chart changed about a year ago, IIRC.

• Anna says:

  11 Apr11 April 07:27

  You’re lucky you’ve got time for that stuff in D & C.

• Anna says:

  11 Apr11 April 07:31

  Re travel insurance in the current climate. It seems clear that most travellers won’t be covered for trips booked while the FCO are advising against all non-essential travel, indefinitely. But what happens if, for example, you book your flights now, but accommodation etc once the restrictions are lifted? I realise this is uncharted territory to a certain extent and will be checking with my own insurer but was wondering what others have been advised.

  • Spursdebs says:

    11 Apr11 April 07:44

    If they can get out of paying they will. I would guess insurance companies are busy re writing their T&C to make sure they aren’t liable to pay. Or they will cover you but it will be very expensive. I paid over £500 for my yearly policy to include cruise and terrorism cover. Getting older and with pre existing health conditions gets expensive. Years ago my husband had brain tumour he wanted to go to Caribbean the policy wasn’t much but the excess was £5000!

  • Blindman says:

    11 Apr11 April 08:06

    Its not the FCO advise that’s the issue but cover for COVID 19
    As it is a known event no insurance will cover it.

    I cannot see the threat of this disease going away and a traveller would have to prove to the Insurers they they are immunised against catching it by either having had it before or have had a vaccine.

    Nothing like that will be on the market for a good 12 months IMHO so I cannot see overseas travel being on anyone cards for a long while.

    • Anna says:

      11 Apr11 April 08:51

      My understanding is that if you book a trip while FCO advises not to go, you won’t be insured for *anything*, not just COVID-19. So if you book a holiday now, say, for Xmas, and are unlucky enough to need medical treatment while you are away, for example for a broken leg while skiing, your insurer will say sorry, you booked this trip at a time when the FCO advised against all travel so we’re not paying out.
      Very happy to be proved wrong!

      • memesweeper says:

        11 Apr11 April 09:22

        The FCO aren’t advising against future travel. They are advising against ALL travel NOW. If you book now and the restriction isn’t lifted before you travel it’s your risk – you are uninsured. If the FCO guidance for your destination changes before you travel you ought to be covered on a multi-trip policy. Any attempt to worm out of a claim on the grounds of a now expired prior advice not to travel wont wash with the insurance ombudsman or courts. IANAL

      • Blindman says:

        11 Apr11 April 09:43

        @Anna
        I think you have read that wrong.

        I agree with memesweeper in that travel booked now for a future date would be OK if the FCO lift the ban BEFORE you go. So long as you can be covered fro Covid19 that is.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Apr11 April 10:08

          I believe there’s confusion between being covered for medical and being covered for travel costs/disruption

          Most insurance companies are saying if you book now and there is future cancellations due to COVID19 you won’t be covered for cost of flights etc regardless of what the FCO advice is in the future.

          For medical cover it’s about FCO advice at the time of travelling. if you were to fall ill with COVID19 you would be covered as long as there was no FCO advice in place against travelling. If your medical cover excludes infectious diseases or virus etc dump it anyway as it’s worthless.

    • The Lord says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:18

      True but plenty of people travel without insurance

    • Rob says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:20

      You may not even get in. Look at New Zealand, which admittedly is extreme. It is now effectively free of it (1 death) but EVERYONE, even citizens, is being forced into 2 weeks quarantine in Government-controlled hotels on arrival. This is not going to change for a year if the country wants to stay free of it.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:21

        It’s known to transmit to animals and possible it could between them and then us.

        There’s also people out there showing no symptoms passing it on. I’ll be extremely surprised if it won’t be seen again even if you carry on isolating travellers and that’s why the UK has decided against it.

      • AJA says:

        11 Apr11 April 15:58

        I read a report in the DT today that 91 people in Daegu South Korea who previously had Covid-19 and recovered have tested positive a second time. That makes me think that this will cause countries to keep their restrictions on visitors for a lot longer than initially predicted.

    • Jon says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:21

      I don’t get this ‘known issue’ thing. Does this mean I would be covered for being hospitalised for influenza? It is endemic, occurs every year, and people need hospital treatment for it.

      • Blindman says:

        11 Apr11 April 09:46

        How did insurers handle the SARS and MERs outbreaks?

      • Rob says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:42

        But it’s not a pandemic …

    • TGLoyalty says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:58

      Your medical insurance can not and will not be void for COVID19 because it’s a known event, especially if there’s no FCO advice against travel.

      There’s no immunisation or preventative medicine for it so it can’t be voided because you didn’t take it.

      There are lots of diseases which are known events are you not covered for them either?

      • Mart says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:16

        I’m still not sure where we stand booked ams-dps for Xmas back in February great deal with TK ,so assuming FCO guidelines are lifted we are covered?
        We have only booked the flights not the accommodation?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Apr11 April 10:26

          I’d phone your insurance to be 100% sure

          your flights should be covered as they were booked before March, if they try to wriggle out of that I’d take them to ombudsman.

          medical should be covered as long as FCO advice is lifted at the time

          any new hotels booked now are unlikely to be covered if there was a shut down for COVID19 in the future and they didn’t close/refund.

      • Rob says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:26

        If you deliberately go to a country where there is a known pandemic then, correct, you are unlikely to be covered.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Apr11 April 10:37

          Don’t see anything in the nationwide document excluding cover for something labelled a pandemic.

          If there is no FCO advice against travel then I would argue it’s no longer an anticipated event either. It’ll be interesting what the official wording is once all the lockdowns and travel advice is lifted.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Apr11 April 10:41

          Just to be clear no wording about epidemics either.

          A pandemic means it’s global. There a local epidemics in many countries at most times including flu, meningitis, malaria etc

      • Blindman says:

        11 Apr11 April 11:14

        “If there is no FCO advice against travel then I would argue it’s no longer an anticipated event either. It’ll be interesting what the official wording is once all the lockdowns and travel advice is lifted.”

        You may not argue that but I’m sure the insurers will.

        I have a Nationwide policy and at this early stage they say “COvid is a known event” so no cover for new trips.

        So you are saying that when the FOC lifts the travel ban we’ll all be Ok to travel ?

        I read the FCO advice against travel because all borders are shut\restrictive and there are no flights, nothing to do with the actual chance of catching the disease.?

        Will be interesting to see how this is handled.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Apr11 April 12:14

          It won’t be mine or their opinion that really counts it’ll be the ombudsman and perhaps at some point perhaps a judges.

          How is catching COVID19 in x months time when there’s no travel restrictions in place (either here or there) different to me catching something like flu, malaria, typhoid, meningitis etc which are labelled epidemics at all kinds of different times in a year in many countries.

  • Harry T says:

    11 Apr11 April 11:05

    They aren’t accepting new policies right now, but I just wanted to highlight that I renewed with LV recently and they are still covering for anything related to coronavirus for existing or renewing customers. I also have pre-existing medical conditions, which are covered. I chose LV because Money Saving Expert said they were the best and pay out in the most dire circumstances (NOT the cheapest but the best value). I’m glad that I chose LV and I think this crisis has really shown us all which insurance providers and airlines are worth giving your money to…

    • TGLoyalty says:

      11 Apr11 April 12:53

      Completely agree Harry

    • AJA says:

      11 Apr11 April 16:42

      Hi Harry
      I think LV is one of the better travel insurers out there. I read their page on coronavirus and it is slightly contradictory. It does say:
      “Don’t worry – if you’re an existing customer, you’re covered.
      All customers who have a policy with us are still covered and you can contact us in the normal way if you need to make a claim. We’re also still offering renewals to our existing customers, so you can continue to be insured with us.”

      But further down the page it then also has the following:

      What is a known event?
      We define known events by things such as changes to FCO advice or wide media coverage. On your policy, you’ll find an exclusion stating that there is no cover for anything you were aware of at the time of taking out the policy, or booking a trip that you knew could result in making a claim. You should not consider travelling against FCO advice as your travel policy will be invalid.

      I have an annual travel policy with Axa which I renewed in mid-March because they specifically said I was covered for coronavirus as a renewing existing customer. I mentioned I had two booked trips, one in July 2020 and another in Sep 2020 and they confirmed I was still fully covered for these. Then on 17 March I received an email saying they had changed the cover due to the FCO advice and would still cover me for trips booked prior to 17 March but not for any trips booked after that date. I phoned and queried the future bookings and they pointed to the “known event” clause, effectively the same as above on the LV site, which says I am not covered for “Travel to a country, specific area or event which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the World Health Organisation has advised against all travel”.

      I have not cancelled as I still have the two trips, I am increasingly expecting BA to cancel the July trip but am hopeful that I can still travel in September. I have not booked any other travel and don’t plan to at this point, disappointing as that is.

• Spursdebs says:

  11 Apr11 April 07:33

  Is inspector Vince from the force that shall not be named .. Devin and Cornwall …, Harry’s new non de plume?

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    11 Apr11 April 07:49

    Inspector Vince should be manning them road blocks designed to keep all those 2nd home owners from invading the SW! 😁

    • Spursdebs says:

      11 Apr11 April 07:56

      Did you see yesterday those 9 people who flew to France in private jet to holiday in Cannes ? got turned back by the French,7 men in their 40/50s and 2 woman aged 23 and 24 …., obviously rules don’t apply to them.

      • Blindman says:

        11 Apr11 April 08:14

        They must have thought they were MP’s 🙂

  • Brighton Belle says:

    11 Apr11 April 08:00

    If it quacks like a duck then it’s probably a duck. Writing style seems familiar

    • Spursdebs says:

      11 Apr11 April 08:01

      That’s what I thought.

• Trevor says:

  11 Apr11 April 08:35

  ‘morning folks.

  Chatting with another [housebound] travelling chap and the subject of insurance reared it’s ugly head. In my case we were due to travel to the USA for 3 weeks in May/June. Our annual travel insurance covers us at present as the policy was taken out last year. They told me [earlier in Feb] that if we went to the US in May we would be covered for COVID unless the FCO advice intervened.

  Obviously that’s all been overtaken by events. Now the issue of travel in the future comes up. When I renew my travel insurance in June I fully expect that the policy will be re-worded. Particularly in regard to the US, I would be reticent about going there [even next year] if we couldn’t be covered for COVID. I guess the policy will not cover us if a ‘pandemic’ is going on. I assume they won’t mention COVID by name but they will have some sort of catch all condition. Unless people can get cover for COVID in the US for the next year or two then I guess the tourism business for America will die on it’s backside.

  Any insurance experts have a view about how this may pan out?

  Stay safe everyone

  Trev

  • Anna says:

    11 Apr11 April 08:54

    Not an expert but you won’t be covered unless FCO advice has changed in the interim. I would be VERY careful about going to the USA or anywhere else with high medical costs unless I was absolutely sure I was covered (see the posts directly above yours).

  • Rob says:

    11 Apr11 April 09:11

    I agree. This is the main reason that I think travel will be more Euro-centric, since EHIC cards still offer some protection if you cannot get covid insurance. Although EHICs will expire on 31st December 2020 in the very unlikely scenario of a trade deal being agreed by 31st June.

    Short 3-4 day US breaks are probably OK – you would be very unlucky if you were symptom-free on the day you flew but were too incapacitated four days later to return – but longer trips are a major risk given US medical costs. You would be looking at six figures, possibly close to seven figures, for a couple of weeks on a ventilator in a US hospital ….

    • Sean says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:39

      Rob

      Pretty sure a trade deal won’t be done by 31 June.

      • @mkcol says:

        11 Apr11 April 12:16

        Or even the 30th.

    • J says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:41

      EHIC entitles you to be treated like a local in the state healthcare system. The NHS is simple and free at the point of use – other European systems can be more complex. EHIC will usually be enough for most emergencies but I wouldn’t rely on it alone.

    • Trevor Gardiner says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:43

      I guess it’s what happens in the next 6 months in regard to the US. How are insurance companies going to define the risk of COVID or similar episodes. Will something have to come under a defined ‘umbrella’ of, say, an officially declared ‘pandemic’? Otherwise, for example, COVID would never be covered in the future which would not be workable?

• AndyGWP says:

  11 Apr11 April 08:39

  Re: Avanti West Coast refunds

  Following up from someone’s query the other day. I’ve now had both my tickets refunded from claims made on 22nd and 24th March

• Michael C says:

  11 Apr11 April 08:53

  OT and very non, essential but…does anyone have ANY email contact for either Hermes or Amazon? My (confined) mum’s “entertainment” package has been on “problem but we’ll get it moving in 24 hours” for 8 days. Amazon says contact carrier. Hermes only has automated chat, saying contact retailer…

  • Anna says:

    11 Apr11 April 08:57

    Is this something you are expecting for home delivery? Hermes are a complete nightmare when anything goes wrong. There are contact forms on the Amazon website where you can input queries about orders.

    • Michael C says:

      11 Apr11 April 09:39

      Thanks, Anna – I’ve done that in the past, too, but even the forms seem to have disappeared!
      Maybe same IT team as the “Easyjet refund button” squad?! ;o)

      • Anna says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:05

        Is Amazon itself the retailer, you don’t say? I had a large parcel from Holland & Barrett go missing a few months ago, Hermes had logged it as put through my letterbox and were completely useless! I contacted H & B and they sent a replacement straight away. I assume there’s a Hermes delivery driver out there somewhere with a lot of vitamins and dietary supplements 😂

    • RussellH says:

      11 Apr11 April 10:48

      Hermes can be a complete PITA. We have one regular delivery man who does 5 days / week, and sometimes they get someone else in for the other two days.

      In January I ordered from Beer52 (£12 off £24 with Amex). The first shipment disappeared without trace. Beer52 said that they thought it had been damaged, but Hermes had not reported it as they were supposed to.
      The replacement should have arrived on one of the days an irregular was delivering. He delivered to the house next door, but by the time I went out to ask about my delivery he was off up the road. The package continued to show on the Hermes website as out for delivery for another hour, then suddenly changed to “delivered”. I phoned Beer52 – they could access GPS data on where the package had been delivered – and was told that the delivery point was several miles from my house. Beer52 also said thet they were in the process of changing from Hermes to Royal Mail for their deliveries, and that my second replacement package would come with the regular postman, which it did – within a few days, but nearly a month since the original order!

  • Genghis says:

    11 Apr11 April 10:28

    Amazon is responsible for getting the package to you. They should be liaising with Hermes. You have no contract with Hermes.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      11 Apr11 April 10:45

      I’m actually surprised by that as I’ve never had that sort of response from amazon support.

      I would contact amazon and be firm that this is their issue to sort out.

      • Rob says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:55

        We had an issue where the Amazon delivery guy handed over a parcel to someone who was leaning against our wall having a smoke. Seems the driver asked him if he lived in the house and he said yes, so the guy handed it over.

        As it turned out, it was 2 x childrens books worth £8. I could not find an easy way to report this to Amazon – none of the online options covers delivery issues – so I ended up writing the money off rather than waste time on it (time I value far more highly than £8).

        • Michael C says:

          11 Apr11 April 12:12

          That’s my opinion over mum’s paperbacks – simply no Amazon communication channel open!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Apr11 April 12:17

          I’m not sure about now but I’ve never had an issue getting someone on chat or getting them to ring me later.

          I know normally It’s a pain to find but the option is there.

        • Lady London says:

          11 Apr11 April 14:34

          @Michael C if you log in and Wade through the depths of the Contacts bit at the bottom of the page Amazon has a Chat line. 2/3 times they fix things. You also have a record (make sure you do your own copy before you close it as the option to get a copy doesn’t always work.

  • Michael C says:

    11 Apr11 April 14:45

    Thanks Lady L & everyone – did find that chat: hadn’t bothered trying it as it starts of as a botchat, but then someone comes on. Refund quickly done (no explanation)

• WillPS says:

  11 Apr11 April 09:46

  It looks like most Hilton properties in the UK have now dropped all rates except their Flexible & Semi-Flex rates. This makes it quite hard to trigger any Amex offers you might still have.

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