Ash shows travel cover limits

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned that travel insurance will not cover many policyholders for delays and cancellations caused by the Icelandic Volcanic ash.

Nick Starling, the ABI's director of general insurance and health, said: "Travel insurance policies will differ in this situation; there is no standard set of conditions which applies to a situation of this kind.

“Therefore customers should check their travel insurance policy, and speak to their travel insurer to understand what their individual policy covers them for in this situation."

Act of God

Steve Williams, head of travel insurance at Confused.com, the price comparison service, said: "The situation is incredibly rare and insurance providers will treat the occurrence in different ways.

“It is unfortunate that there is not one standard approach when an 'Act of God' happens – this will be referred to as catastrophe cover in policies.

Direct Line will pay

The Telegraph said Direct Line has confirmed that customers will be covered for travel delay and missed departure.

Jennifer Thomas of Direct Line said: "Customers will need to provide written official evidence to support any claims where it is reasonable to request such evidence. In this case, information from official airline websites is acceptable as evidence.

The Guardian said a spokeswoman for RBS said customers of Direct Line, Churchill, NatWest and RBS may be able to claim for unused accommodation.

"If a customer has a flight cancelled and is refunded from the airline, but still has accommodation that they can't cancel or use, these claims can be considered under travel delay leading to trip abandonment," she says. "Customers will need to provide written official evidence to support any claims where it is reasonable to request such evidence. In this case, information from official airline websites is acceptable as evidence."

On-going Saga

Saga will also pay claims of this nature as long as customers obtain a letter from the airline to confirm the flight was cancelled due to the weather.

But Aviva will not pay such claims, the Guardian said. It does not offer cover for the cancellation of independently booked accommodation or car hire.

A spokeswoman says: "Cancellation or abandonment of your holiday covers specific events only, such as injury, illness, death of the person insured or their travelling companion/a relative, redundancy or damage to your home by fire, flood or storm. There is therefore no cover for cancellation as a result of this incident."

Fortis will pay

Fortis said it will be treating the volcanic ash incident as a bad weather event so customers may be entitled to claim under the terms of their travel insurance policy.

All policies include a Delay compensation benefit which is designed to provide cover in the event that either an outward journey from the UK or a return journey to the UK is delayed for a minimum period specified in the policy.

A specified amount (as detailed in the customer's policy document) is payable by Fortis. This benefit is intended to provide a contribution towards the costs of refreshments and overnight accommodation where appropriate.

All Fortis policies provide abandonment cover that comes into if an outward journey from the UK is delayed for a minimum of 12 hours and they choose to abandon their holiday. This too will be paid.