Flight Delays - Does Travel Insurance Cover Ash Claims?

Eruptions from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull Volcanoeruption became common knowledge, i.e., on April 15.
caused the closure of airspace over UK last month.(Please check the time zone).
Outside of UK, the volcano ash caused flights delays- Check whether your coverage includes natural
and cancellations across Southern Europe.disasters. (According to this authors understanding
Though the ash from the volcano affected only anatural disasters are default listed under the exclusion
limited part of the world, it prevented people fromclause).
traveling to and traveling out of UK. In effect, the- The claim must be submitted within a month of
ash caused flight cancellations and delays across thetraveling.
world.Now this brings us to the question of how much can
Some of the stranded travelers were lucky to haveyou claim. Sadly, you may not get much and at best,
experienced only minor delays. Nevertheless, whatyour expenses maybe compensated. However, the
about those who suffered mental anguish and put tolast word is not out, both the insurers and the airlines
economic hardship? Are they eligible to claim ashare trying to get the government to bail them out of
insurance? Does their travel insurance cover it?the losses they suffered from the flight delays. So,
There is no cut and dry answer to the questionlet us hope something 'good' comes out of it.
whether travelers can make insurance claims overDisclaimer: This author neither is an expert, nor is he
travel delays caused by the erupting volcano.qualified to dispense advice about insurance.
However, it has now become clear that insurers willTherefore, he urges the readers to make their own
consider an ash claim valid only if the policy meetsinquiries and consider the contents in this article as
the following criteria:general information.
- The policy must have been before the volcanic