Airport Shutdown? Bank on your Travel Insurance for your bookings

Team Digit, 01 Mar 2019

When we have an upcoming trip, we try to be sure of each small thing, so our trip goes picture perfect. But what about things which aren’t in our control?

Amid the Indo-Pak tensions, few airports were shut down for a few hours for security reasons. All flights got cancelled for a brief period.  Now in such cases the first instinct is to panic and lose your calm. Your mind goes into a fuzzy of questions. What will happen to my flight tickets? What happens to my hotel bookings? What about the other expenses that I paid in advance for? And to top it, the stress and grief that clouds our judgement in such a crisis.

Well, it is very unfortunate if such a situation ever arises and we can only guess what you feel if a planned trip gets cancelled. However, if you luckily have a travel insurance at least your expenses get covered for.  So, let’s see in situations where the Government announces for an airport shutdown or all flight cancellation, what are your options:

What happens to my flight tickets?

Your flight tickets, both refundable and non-refundable, gets completely refunded by the airline. Your travel insurance doesn’t get activated here, as the airline is already refunding the tickets. However, in case of any partial refund, we will cover that amount.

What happens to my hotel expenses?

If you have booked your hotel in advance, here’s what happens

-         If your booking is non-refundable, your travel insurer will refund you the  amount up to the opted limit, after you cancel the stay

-        If your booking is refundable, the hotelier will refund you the amount after you cancel the stay. If there is a part payment by the hotelier, your travel insurer will pay the rest of the booking amount

What happens to my bus ticket bookings on my trip?

So, if you have taken a round trip insurance, and you have booked for bus, train or a rented car to travel from your first destination to the next one, your travel insurance will pay for those expenses too. For example, you booked a flight ticket to Shimla, and from there booked bus tickets for Manali, your airline will refund your tickets to Shimla while your travel insurer will refund your bus tickets to Manali.

Any other expenses that is covered by your travel insurer?

Well, if you have booked for anything else in advance, all such expenses are covered by your round-trip travel insurance too.

So, having a travel insurance for your trip is not only to ensure that everything goes fine while you are on the trip, but also to ensure that you are covered even if your trip gets called off for reasons beyond your control.

While we are praying and hoping for the tensions to cool down, but in future if there’s a situation like this again, we hope this article is useful for the potential travellers.

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Team Digit

Digit is a General Insurance company on a mission to Make Insurance Simple for people. We are backed by Fairfax, one of the largest insurance companies in the world.

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