Hurricane insurance terms demystified

You’ve got your holiday insurance and it includes hurricane cover, but what do all those phrases and clauses mean? Here’s a guide: • Mandatory evacuation ‘Conditionally covered’ or ‘Not covered’ = means that if you're thinking of cutting short your holiday because of a hurricane, you need to check your policy. ‘Conditionally covered’ means you're covered for going home early if you have a certain amount of your trip left; this varies and is usually 50% or four days or less remaining at the end of an evacuation order. If you're ‘Not covered,’ you can't make a claim if the hurricane missed your destination despite the order to evacuate. • ‘Complete cessation of common carrier services’ If your airline has stopped flying due to the weather and you've missed a cruise departure or connecting flight, or you're stuck in an airport, most carriers will let you make a claim. The difference between policies is in the number of hours the airline is down: at least 24 hours of downtime is usually required, though some policies allow claims for any period of downtime. Note that you can miss your cruise ship and not be able to claim, especially if the cruise line offers you an alternative holiday. • ‘Covered for inclement weather’ This benefit is a more all-embracing version of ‘Complete cessation of common carrier services’ and will let you claim without the required hours of downtime. If any flight cancellation affects your holiday, you can claim the loss. • Note, special clauses for cruises = if a hurricane makes you miss your departure, insurance will pay for you to catch up at the next port of call. If the cruise is cancelled, any losses not reimbursed will be covered. If the itinerary is changed and you refuse an offer of an alternate route with the same travel dates, you won't be allowed to make a claim. If the dates offered are different, most insurance carriers will pay the claim (you'll have to surrender the tickets).