On 15th July 2016, there was an attempted military coup in Turkey.
If you’re currently in Turkey or you’re travelling there soon, here’s how your travel insurance cover can help:
- Travel delay – This would be deemed to be civil unrest so the travel disruption travel delay benefits and terms would apply
- Abandonment – If you bought travel disruption cover and the delay in departing from the UK exceeds 12 hours/24 hours as specified in the policy wording then unused travel and accommodation costs, which cannot be reimbursed from other sources, will be refundable
- Accommodation cover – If you bought travel disruption cover then the extended accommodation cover may come into effect if you cannot remain in your booked location as to result of the civil unrest
- Missed departure – If you bought travel disruption covr then the extended missed departure cover may come into effect if you cannot reach your international departure point and miss your international flight home as a result of this incident
- Cancellation – No specific cover as claims would fall under the abandonment section terms
In terms of travel to the UK departure points, a lot of our wordings state a customer must check in for a travel delay or abandonment claim to be valid. We would generally waiver this requirement whilst the press and TV confirm no sea crossings, including the Eurotunnel, are going in and out of the affected airports in Turkey.
Some of our policies include a travel disruption upgrade. For those customers who have purchased the upgrade additional benefits may be payable, please refer to each specific policy wording for full details of cover.
All of the above terms would apply to customers who purchased their policy before 15 July 2016 (when this became publicly known via the media). For customers who have purchased their policy from 15 July 2016 onwards, the incident would be deemed to be a known event so no cover would be in place, or cover will be limited (please check the relevant policy wording).
For customers stuck overseas and unable to return to the UK, their existing policy would automatically extend to cover them until such time as they are reasonably able to return home.
For customers who are still in the UK and have not yet travelled, the following rules should apply:
- Where possible, a full refund should be sought from their ferry company, Eurotunnel, tour operator, travel agent etc. Only non-refundable expenses will be considered on their travel insurance policy
- For customers wishing to rearrange their trip dates, provided they are not making any claim under abandonment, we can allow the cover dates to be transferred to a new trip provided the new trip is within three months of the original departure date and is for the same (or no longer) duration and is to the same geographical area