GP TRAVELLER GUIDES
FINANCIAL PROTECTION FOR YOUR TRIP
How you can help protect yourself against costly financial losses if something unexpected happens before your trip.
How you can help protect yourself against costly financial losses if something unexpected happens before your trip.
When you book a holiday through a travel agency in the UK they are legally required to provide financial protection for your trip. When one of our guests at Altitude Luxury Travel asks us to arrange their Grand Prix™ trip they are financially protected against our business or any of our suppliers going out of business. This means that if the airline they were due to fly with, the supplier we’ve bought the Grand Prix™ tickets from or the hotel they were due to stay at goes out of business there is financial protection in place so that our guests money (and holiday) is protected and that money can be recovered.
If you think this will never happen to you just Google “holiday company goes bust” and you’ll soon see that this is not an uncommon occurrence.
When you book your holiday (or in this case Grand Prix™ trip) independently it is extremely unlikely that you will receive any financial protection from the companies that you use to piece together your trip.
Just to clarify, when I say book independently, I mean you are booking each element of your trip through different companies or websites and not as a package from a licenced travel agency. An example of this would be buying your flight from the EasyJet website, your hotel from Expedia and your Grand Prix™ ticket from the circuit. This DIY approach would give you no financial protection if any of these companies were to go out of business.
The good news is that you can protect yourself. Hopefully it goes without saying that you should take out adequate travel insurance for your Grand Prix™ trip just as you would for any holiday. I would recommend you look for a travel insurance policy that also includes Supplier Failure Cover and Scheduled Airline Failure Cover.
It’s also likely that the cost of your Grand Prix™ trip may exceed the standard cancellation cover limit of a basic travel insurance policy so check if you can increase the level of cancellation cover for an additional premium to prevent any short falls when making a claim.
In the resources section below you will find the link to a travel insurance policy that I have found to provide good levels of cover but you should always read the policy wording and Key Facts documentation to ensure you have the correct cover for your personal circumstances.
If your bank or credit card company provide insurance always check that it is adequate for the trip you are taking.
You should also only buy travel insurance from someone who has passed an exam set by the Financial Services Authority.
If you think this will never happen to you just Google “holiday company goes bust” and you’ll soon see that this is not an uncommon occurrence.
When you book your holiday (or in this case Grand Prix™ trip) independently it is extremely unlikely that you will receive any financial protection from the companies that you use to piece together your trip.
Just to clarify, when I say book independently, I mean you are booking each element of your trip through different companies or websites and not as a package from a licenced travel agency. An example of this would be buying your flight from the EasyJet website, your hotel from Expedia and your Grand Prix™ ticket from the circuit. This DIY approach would give you no financial protection if any of these companies were to go out of business.
The good news is that you can protect yourself. Hopefully it goes without saying that you should take out adequate travel insurance for your Grand Prix™ trip just as you would for any holiday. I would recommend you look for a travel insurance policy that also includes Supplier Failure Cover and Scheduled Airline Failure Cover.
It’s also likely that the cost of your Grand Prix™ trip may exceed the standard cancellation cover limit of a basic travel insurance policy so check if you can increase the level of cancellation cover for an additional premium to prevent any short falls when making a claim.
In the resources section below you will find the link to a travel insurance policy that I have found to provide good levels of cover but you should always read the policy wording and Key Facts documentation to ensure you have the correct cover for your personal circumstances.
If your bank or credit card company provide insurance always check that it is adequate for the trip you are taking.
You should also only buy travel insurance from someone who has passed an exam set by the Financial Services Authority.
