Holiday delayed departure a nightmare

Having your holiday departure delayed can be a nightmare so be careful to check the delayed departure and holiday abandonment cover offered by your travel insurance policy.

You can get some great travel insurance deals but make sure you get good delayed departure cover.

As research from Gocompare.com shows, the cover offered varies significantly between travel insurance providers.

For example, whilst you can claim up to £500 for delayed departure with AIG Direct’s Platinum cover, you’d need to be delayed 25 days to get the maximum amount.

With AIG Direct’s Silver cover there isn’t any delayed departure cover.

In contrast, with American Express you can claim once you’ve been delayed just 6 hours and with Virgin travel insurance you’d be able to claim £75 for each insured person if delayed just over 24 hours.

Many travel insurance policies also cover for abandoning your holiday because of an excessive delay caused by industrial action, adverse weather or mechanical breakdown of public transport.

As with any insurance policy though you do need to check the details to find out exactly what is and what is not included.

Chief executive at Gocompare, Hayley Parsons, said ‘Having your holiday delayed is no fun at all, but if you are held up on your outward journey it’s worth checking your travel insurance policy to see if you can make a claim when you get home.’

She added ‘In all cases check the terms of your insurance carefully and get official confirmation of the length of the delay and the reason for it from your holiday company or airline as your insurers will need proof when you submit your claim.’

Don’t forget as well to make sure you get the best holiday travel money deal – check out our MoneyHighStreet currency cards review where we consider whether they are the best option for travel money.