Maintaining trust in travel: our 10-point plan

David – I think that is a standard condition across the insurance industry but it does not take account of the current exceptional circumstances. Getting a concession on renewal is not a bad result but could be better I suppose.

Of course, not traveling could have saved your life and will certainly save you money – maybe more than a partial refund.

Insurance is about what could happen, not what will, and the company is not to know that in the next six months you won’t make a journey that gives rise to a claim.

I doubt if you can insist on a refund of part of your premium but that is a personal opinion, not legal advice.

Thanks John and Em for responding. My situation is complicated by the fact that I have an underlying health condition and if the Government goes ahead with its plan to extend the lockdown until a proven vaccine is found which the experts tell us will not happen until next year the voucher is unlikely to have any real benefit for me. Since I am a frequent customer of Staysure a goodwill gesture might seem appropriate like the 7 out of 11 travel insurers reported yesterday in Martin Lewis’s moneysaving expert blog who are giving either a full or partial refund.

I am sorry if you feel that the concession offered to you is likely to be of little benefit but I happen to think it is quite reasonable. Each insurance company has its own way of managing its risks having regard to its claims history and customer profiles. Their policies on refunds and renewal incentives differ accordingly.

Your insurer is no doubt aware of your underlying health condition and took that into account in making its offer to you. I appreciate that your travel insurance premium might be substantial in view of your condition and that even a partial refund would be useful, but without knowledge of all the terms and conditions, policy benefits, cover for different risks, and premiums across the companies compared it is not possible to say whether or not you chose the best company to insure with – it could be that the ones offering full or partial refunds would not have satisfied you in other ways.

If you have six months on your present Staysure policy and a voucher for a further fifteen months you have until December 2021 in which to travel with guaranteed cover.

We stopped when they introduced the low cost wing seats. They wouldn’t even supply complimentary goggles. And as for the outside toilets…

I’d be concerned that the wing seats might be draughty.

Chye – Good points. Even the no-frills and low-cost carriers were making substantial returns but are now acting like they are on the floor. Perhaps they are, and maybe some of them should stay there [after settling their debts]. So long as people want to travel, operators will emerge, so we should not lose sleep if a few airlines go under. Of course, fares will no doubt rise and associated expenses [baggage, seating arrangements] will go up, but to some extent silly and unsustainable prices have caused some of the problems.

I am wondering whether the government is turning a deaf ear to the airlines’ pleadings for financial support or easing of statutory requirements and just letting them stew in their own juice until they fold up or disappear.

I must admit I can’t understand the administrative problems that the airlines are citing as the reason for refusing or delaying refunds. They are not exactly overwhelmed with passengers or bookings at the moment, so what is the problem? OK, a number of staff are probably absent in connexion with coronavirus, either shielding, self-isolating or on furlough, but, addressed diligently, the refund problem should be manageable within a reasonable time-frame – and Ryanair is reported to be sitting on a cash pile running into billions of pounds. Other operators are also moaning and being difficult, but air traffic has not been unprofitable over the past few years, so where has all the money gone?

The airlines systems are capable of taking large volumes of payments for flight bookings. Perhaps they simply don’t like reversing the process.

I see no reason why what seem to be sensible COVID precautions should be relaxed in the cramped environment of an aircraft just to suit the commercially-motivated pleadings of an airline. I imagine that the entry restrictions of many countries together with post-COVID austerity will limit air travel for a considerable time. Airlines will presumably shrink substantially, merge, maybe disappear but will we be any worse off? The environment will benefit, we can holiday closer to home, we can have meetings on the net. Could be a change for the better.

Brits abroad seem to spend so much time moaning about the food, the entertainment, the shops, the heat, the staff, the holiday reps, the lateness of their tabloids arriving at their costa location, and the airport delays and queues, but think it’s a lot worse back home. The only things a UK holiday cannot match are fairly predictable weather and low prices. We have great beaches, lovely inland scenery, historic towns and cities, familiar shopping, modern public transport, authentic food, plenty of fun for the kids, and the locals speak the same language. What more could you want? And staying at home keeps our cash in this country which should now be a national priority and our civic duty. Seriously.

Why do we buy Danish bacon, New Zealand lamb and lager from umpteen countries? Are we incapable of producing our own? Perhaps it would be worth encouraging people to buy food and drink from the UK.

Although I have flown for work purposes and stayed for a holiday I have never flown for a holiday. The pandemic has demonstrated that many people can work at home and perhaps this can continue on a regular even if not every day. Many Zoom meetings have been held, showing that it is not always necessary to jump in the car or on the train.

The current pandemic is a crisis but not on the same scale as the damage we are causing to our environment. We have had Stay at Home and Stay Alert. Perhaps it’s time to Stay in the UK.

Quite a lot of “fake foreign” branded lager is now brewed in the UK, but most wine is still made overseas.

For most items of food and drink, it is good to have the country of origin declared on the packaging, so we can make informed choices as consumers. Post-Brexit, this may become even more important, if we want to avoid cheap imports of dubious quality.

Indeed it is, but the breweries are increasingly falling into the hands of foreign companies. I suppose that brewing beer and assembling cars for these companies is better than just importing the goods. Our country has enjoyed good reputation for brewing and now we are helping the economies of the countries where the multinationals are based.

Thanks to Aldi and Lidl increasing their market share by tactics such as selling good quality and affordable British meat (or so people keep telling me) our UK-owned supermarkets are losing out.

Oops. I see we are supposed to be on the topic of travel. 🙂

There are a lot of itchy backs that need scratching in the import/export industry Wavechange 🙂