Where you stand with your travel insurance

Booked to go skiing soon? Hoping for the best conditions is a natural part of the experience. There’s no guarantee of snow and certainly no promise of perfect conditions. Last month the press was awash with talk of snowless resorts in Europe yet this week it’s all about huge dumps stranding motorists and holiday makers and making travel very difficult in some areas of France. You simply never know what you’re going to get!
So we thought it might be a good time to let you know where you stand with snow and your World First travel insurance policy.
What happens if you get there and you can’t ski because there’s no snow?
With Winter Sports cover from World First you will be covered if there’s no snow on your skiing holiday – as long as it’s within certain limits. If you booked a skiing holiday in a resort that’s above 1600 metres between 1st January and 30th April then you’ll be covered for £20 per day up to a maximum of £400 with our Superior policy if you can’t ski. Maximum limits on our Economy and Standard policies are £200.
What happens if you can’t travel because of too much snow?
It might seem like the deepest of ironies to get stranded at home, in the UK, in a snowdrift, but it does happen.
This week we’ve already heard of a few problems with snow in the North of England and in previous winters we’ve seen snow disrupt thousands of flights. So what if it happens to you? While your airline is only obliged to get you from A to B and will either offer a refund or later flight, the good news is that you can claim on your World First travel insurance policy, as long as you booked it before any problems were forecast.
If you are delayed at the airport for 12 hours or more because of bad weather, we will compensate you providing you checked-in on time. You just need to get a representative of your airline to confirm the length and nature of your delay in writing.
If you are delayed for more than 12 hours at the airport you will be entitled to claim Trip Abandonment on certain policies, with a maximum payout of up to £5,000 on our single and multi trip Superior policies. So if you decide a major delay is no way to start the holiday of a lifetime, you’ll be able to recover your holiday expenses. Additionally, if bad weather causes an accident you’re involved in or your vehicle suffers mechanical breakdown en route to your departure point and you subsequently miss your flight, we will provide compensation up to the amount covered for trip cancellation. We will also pay-out if you are travelling to the airport on public transport that becomes delayed as a result of the adverse weather.
If snow delays you on the return leg of your journey, there’s no need to worry about extending your cover as your policy duration will automatically extend until you’re back in the UK.
What if there’s so much snow that you can’t get to your resort?
This did happen this week! Ski resorts are used to snow so it’s much more likely that you’ll be delayed by snow in the UK than in Europe or the USA. However, if you were to be delayed leaving or arriving in your resort due to avalanche your World First policy will cover the cost of additional transport and/or accommodation if you are unable to reach or leave your pre-booked resort because of access problems due to an avalanche.
What happens if you hit the wrong type of snow?
We aren’t talking about snow that stops trains. We are talking about snow that causes you to slip, trip or fall when you are away. Frankly it’s any type of snow, because, as all rational people know, there is an inherent risk of injury on winter sports holidays. So, whatever excuse you give for slipping and hurting yourself, no matter how seriously, we’ll be there to cover you.
Our policies will cover you for up to £10 million (with a Superior policy) worth of medical expenses, including the cost of medical emergencies and repatriation if you hurt yourself on your winter sports holiday. If you need to be airlifted off the mountain or even airlifted home after a serious injury it will more than cover it. And if someone else gets seriously injured on the slopes and it’s your fault, we’ll cover you for £2 million worth of personal liability cover too.