Travel Insurance covering Covid-related entry bans for US residents
We are traveling to Austria from the USA at the end of November. The travel insurance policies I have seen are confusing as to trip cancellation. Do any of the policies cover trip cancellation if a country bans citizens from your particular home country from coming into their country due to Covid? We have the ability to cancel our hotel with no penalty but the airfare is only changeable up to 48 hrs before departure.
Best Answer
Do any of the policies cover trip cancellation if a country bans citizens from your particular home country from coming into their country due to Covid?
Typically not.
Insurance policies vary a lot so you need to carefully study the details of your specific policy to find out. Personally I found websites like sqauremouth.com very helpful, since you can read the full policy before you buy (no advertisement or endorsement intended).
It appears that most insurance would require a "Cancel for any reason" policy to cover that specific case. However these are rather expensive and typically don't cover all of the travel cost (typically 75%).
Personally, I just do medical travel insurance since it's inexpensive and the potential costs could be massive. Travel cost coverage often costs 5%-10% of the total trip price and my track record of making trips is much better than that.
Even if you get banned from entering Austria on short notice, you may still be able to negotiate something with the airlines. It's also possible that the airline will have to cancel their flight, in which case you would get a full refund.
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