Yes, you can claim for your non-refundable travel expenses if you must cancel your trip before leaving home, but only if you are canceling for a covered reason.
For information relating to policies purchased prior to 14 July 2021 12:00am UTC, please check the Policy Wording provided with your purchase. You can contact us if you need this sent to you again. For policies purchased from 14 July 2021 please see below.
Pre-Trip Cancellation coverage starts from when you purchase your insurance and provides cover until you leave your home to start your trip (your policy start date).
What’s covered
World Nomads’ plans provide coverage for your unused, pre-paid, non-refundable travel, accommodation and tour expenses, as well as tuition/course fees if you can’t travel as a result of, but not limited to, the following insured events:
- Accidental injury, serious illness, or sudden death of you, any person with whom you are intending to travel or stay, or of your close relative (as defined in the Policy Wording).
- You being called for jury service, attending court as a witness (but not as an expert witness).
- The unexpected, involuntary redundancy of you or of any person with whom you had arranged to travel.
- Your home or place of business being made uninhabitable, within 14 days of your travel ‘start date’ noted on your policy, or the police asking to see you after a theft from your home which occurred within 14 days of your travel ‘start date’ on your policy.
- The U.S. Department of State issuing a ‘Do Not Travel’ warning to a specific region or country and that warning was first given after you booked the trip and purchased your insurance policy (applicable to the Explorer Plan only).
- For Explorer plans, under the Coronavirus Travel Costs section, if your close relative (defined in policy wording) back home is diagnosed with Coronavirus after you’ve started your trip and then is hospitalized or dies, and you have to cancel your trip, you may be covered for your non-refundable pre-paid travel arrangements. Please note: this section has its own benefit limit which applies. You can check out our Coronavirus article which has more information, including benefit limits, conditions and exclusions.
What you need to do if you can’t travel anymore:
- Contact your travel provider to reschedule, rebook, cancel and/or refund your expenses before you make a claim. You may need to show us evidence of this, so keep a record of all emails, phone contacts, receipts and correspondence.
- When claiming, confirm that the illness or injury that has caused you to cancel was unexpected and occurred after you had booked and/or paid for your trip and, most importantly, occurred AFTER the insurance was purchased. If not, your claim won’t be valid.
- When making a claim, you’ll need to provide evidence of your non-refundable cancellation costs incurred to support your claim.
Also be aware that any claim submitted related to pre-trip cancellation will have the applicable policy excess applied.
What’s not covered
Here are some main things that aren’t covered:
- The Policy Excess.
- Illnesses or injuries considered 'Pre-Existing Medical Conditions' at the time you bought or extended the insurance.
- If the cancellation is due to a change of mind, disinclination or reluctance to travel; change in weather conditions; acts of terrorism; acts of war (whether war is declared or not); nuclear disaster.
The policy isn’t designed to cover everything, so take the time to read the terms, conditions, limitations and exclusions in the Policy Wording for full details so that there are no surprises if you need to use it. If you’re not sure if something is covered, get in touch.