Hays Travel has worked with Rush Insurance Services and Allianz Insurance to develop “comprehensive” travel insurance covering Covid-19 and other pandemics as standard across all its policies.
The cover is being offered by the agency from Friday, and “explicitly covers cancellations or curtailment of a holiday, emergency medical expenses and repatriation following diagnosis of Covid-19 or any disease that is classed as an epidemic or pandemic”.
It also covers cruise holidays where customers are confined to their cabins or lose out on port stops and prepaid excursions because of pandemics.
John Hays, managing director, said: “As people are beginning to book their holidays again we wanted to give them real confidence that if they are affected by Covid-19, they will not lose out financially, which would be one thing less to worry about should the worst happen.
“We have worked hard with our partners to put together insurance cover that answers the concerns that many of our customers naturally have as we gradually emerge from the lockdown.”
Hays Travel said: “The cover provided means that if you, your travelling companion, immediate family or business associate, or someone you were going to stay with, are diagnosed with Covid-19 before you travel, and you are required to isolate or be in quarantine, you will be able to cancel and claim back the full cost of your holiday. This applies to holidays in the UK as well as travel abroad.
“If you or your travelling companion become ill with Covid-19 during your journey or are subjected to compulsory quarantine, the insurance will pay emergency medical and associated expenses and the costs of getting home.”
John Hays added: “We are now including explicit references to being diagnosed with an epidemic or pandemic disease such as Covid-19 as standard with all travel insurance policies. We have ensured there is cover for all permutations we can think of, because we want our customers to go on holiday whether home or abroad and feel secure about the cover they’ve got.
“We’ve been doing all we can to give customers confidence and get the travel industry bouncing back. Introducing this new insurance cover for everyone is another step forward.”
Hays customers who have already booked can take out the insurance before they travel and those with existing insurance can upgrade to include the additional Covid-19 cover.
