If you selected Natural Disaster cover and meet the policy conditions, your policy may cover disruption caused by wildfires.
What this article covers
This article explains the cover you may have if wildfires affect your overseas holiday, either before you travel or while you are away.
Policies and trips covered
Natural Disaster cover is an optional benefit available with Gold, Gold Plus and Platinum policies. It must be shown on your policy schedule.
Natural Disaster cover:
- is available for overseas trips only;
- does not apply to trips taken solely within your home country; and
- cannot be added to a Silver policy.
Checks to make before taking action
Before making any arrangements:
- Check your policy schedule to confirm that you have Natural Disaster cover.
- Contact your transport and accommodation providers to ask about alternatives, refunds or compensation.
- Keep written confirmation of the disruption and any decisions made by your providers.
- Keep receipts for any additional travel or accommodation costs.
Preparing for an upcoming holiday
For Natural Disaster cover to apply, the wildfire must have occurred after you bought your insurance and all other policy conditions must be met.
The wildfire must affect the area where you booked to stay and cause damage to your accommodation or local transport, meaning you cannot access or use them as planned.
Section 12 of Abandonment cover applies if your scheduled public transport from the UK is cancelled or delayed for more than 12 hours and the alternative transport offered is not suitable.
If you decide to abandon your holiday after these conditions have been met, the policy may then consider covering the costs of unused travel, accommodation and other prepaid costs.
Choosing not to travel is not enough by itself. The transport disruption and abandonment conditions must be met for a claim to be considered.
Support while you are abroad
Start by contacting your accommodation and transport providers.
Natural Disaster cover may help with:
- unused accommodation costs that you cannot recover; or
- reasonable alternative accommodation and transport costs.
For example, if a wildfire damages your booked hotel and you can no longer stay there, the policy may consider either the prepaid costs you cannot recover, or the cost of booking a nearby hotel of a similar standard to your original booking.
You must contact Zurich Assist and obtain approval before arranging an early return.
Call the 24-hour emergency assistance line on +44 (0) 203 467 4122.
Do not make your own return arrangements before receiving approval, as this may affect whether the costs can be considered under the policy.
Dealing with flight disruption
Contact your airline to ask about:
- alternative transport;
- assistance;
- compensation; or
- a refund.
Ask for written confirmation explaining the reason for the disruption, the length of the delay and any alternative transport offered.
If your policy schedule includes Natural Disaster cover, you may be able to claim for certain delayed or missed departures.
In order for your policy to be abandoned, your flight must be involuntarily denied boarding because of overbooking or no suitable alternative flight is provided within 24 hours.
If your outward public transport from the UK is cancelled or delayed for more than 12 hours and the alternative transport offered is not suitable, you may be able to abandon your holiday. The policy may then consider covering the costs of unused travel, accommodation and other prepaid costs.
Any refunds or compensation received from your transport provider will be taken into account. You cannot claim for the same costs under more than one section of your policy.
For more information about Natural Disaster cover, see here.