The dastardly terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir yesterday is a sad incident and raises a lot of questions. If you had a trip planned to Kashmir, you would be, in all likelihood, planning to cancel it. But will travel insurance cover you?
For the policy to respond to trip cancellation/curtailment/trip delay/hotel stay extension due to a terrorism event, it has to specifically list terrorism as a covered contingency. Most policies in the Indian market, from my experience, do not have terrorism as a listed event for the policy coverage to trigger
The dastardly terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir yesterday is a sad incident and raises a lot of questions. If you had a trip planned to Kashmir, you would be, in all likelihood, planning to cancel it. But will travel insurance cover you?
Probably not.
There are two types of travel insurance - domestic and international. The terms and conditions vary across insurance companies, and there is no one standard cover.
What Travel Insurance Covers
“The policies cover trip cancellation and/or trip curtailment due to specific contingencies such as death or injury or hospitalisation of the insured or immediate family, riot, strike or adverse weather at the destination, etc,” says Hari Radhakrishnan, Expert, Insurance Brokers Association of India. For example, travel insurance provides coverage against natural disasters.
What is paid is the additional costs incurred, such as airfare, hotel expenses, etc., which are non-refundable and have to be forgone by the insured. If the insured has to extend or delay the trip due to return flights being cancelled due to an insured event, the policy may pay for additional hotel stays and other costs.
The air tickets, bills, booking vouchers, and other documents in support of the financial loss incurred have to be provided to the insurance company while filing the claim.
Terrorism Not Likely To Be Covered Under Travel Insurance
“For the policy to respond to trip cancellation/curtailment/trip delay/hotel stay extension due to a terrorism event, it has to specifically list terrorism as a covered contingency. Most policies in the Indian market, from my experience, do not have terrorism as a listed event for the policy coverage to trigger,” says Radhakrishnan.
If there is a specific travel advisory by the government not to travel to a particular region or to avoid non-essential travel, and you have bought the policy in advance, your trip may be covered if this is listed under a covered risk. However, otherwise, it is not likely to be covered.
There are, however, certain policies known as cancel your trip for any reason policies, which will provide you with a refund if you cancel your trip for any reason, and this includes terrorist activities. These plans provide coverage of typically 75 per cent of your travel costs.