Travel insurance claims are usually refused for reasons that were printed in the policy the whole time. Not hidden, not in unreadable legalese, just never read, because the policy arrives after you have already paid and it is forty pages long.
You do not need to read forty pages. You need to read five sections, and you can find them in about ten minutes.
The short answer
The five that catch people:
- Undisclosed pre-existing conditions. The single most common reason a medical claim fails.
- Alcohol. Many policies exclude anything that happens while you are impaired, and the threshold is often lower than you would guess.
- Adventure activities. Standard policies exclude a long list. Scooter and motorbike hire is the one that catches most people abroad.
- Unattended possessions. A bag beside you on a beach is unattended.
- Cancellation for reasons not listed. “I changed my mind” is not covered, and neither is a great deal of what people assume is.
Everything below is detail on those.
Pre-existing conditions
If you have a medical condition, have had one recently, or take regular medication, the insurer wants to know before it sells you the policy. Not declaring it is the most reliable way to have a medical claim refused.
The trap is how broadly this is defined. It usually covers anything you have seen a doctor about in a stated recent period, anything you take medication for, and anything you are waiting for tests or results on. Something you consider resolved may still qualify.
Declaring usually costs more, and sometimes the condition is excluded rather than priced. Both are better outcomes than a refused claim on a hospital bill abroad.
Declare everything. If in doubt, declare it anyway.
Alcohol
Most policies exclude claims arising from being under the influence. Insurers rarely define a precise limit, which cuts against you: if a hospital record notes alcohol, the insurer has grounds to argue.
This applies to more than accidents. A stolen bag while drinking, a fall on uneven paving, a missed flight after a long evening. All are refusable.
Adventure activities
Standard policies cover ordinary holiday activity and exclude a long list of the rest, typically including skiing and snowboarding, scuba diving beyond a shallow depth, climbing, water sports, and anything involving an engine.
The one that catches people is scooter and motorbike hire, which is close to a default holiday activity in parts of Asia and the Mediterranean. Cover normally requires a licence valid for that vehicle in that country and a helmet, and without both the claim fails. This is a common and expensive discovery.
If you might do any of it, buy the activity extension. It is generally cheap relative to the medical bill.
Unattended possessions
This is stricter than most people expect. Possessions are usually “unattended” whenever they are not within your sight and reach, which includes a bag on the beach while you swim, a phone on a café table while you queue, and luggage in a car boot.
Related limits worth knowing before you rely on the cover: single item limits are often modest, valuables such as laptops and cameras may be excluded from baggage cover entirely, and theft usually must be reported to the police within 24 hours with a written report. No report, no claim.
Cancellation
Cancellation cover pays out for listed reasons only, and the list is shorter than people assume. Illness, injury, jury service, redundancy and similar are usually in. Changing your mind, a work commitment, a disagreement with whoever you were travelling with, or a destination that no longer appeals are not.
Two structural points matter more than the wording. Cancellation cover starts when you buy the policy, not when you travel, so buying at the last minute means the weeks when a trip is most likely to fall through are uncovered. And where a government advises against travel, most policies follow that advice, which can cut both ways.
How to read a policy in ten minutes
Open the policy wording, not the marketing page, and find these five things.
- Medical cover limit and the pre-existing conditions section. Confirm what must be declared.
- The excess. Per person, per section. A £150 excess makes a £200 claim pointless.
- The exclusions list. Read all of it. This is where the answer is.
- Baggage single item limit and the valuables position.
- Cancellation: the list of covered reasons.
If those five are acceptable, the policy is probably fine. If the exclusions list is missing from what you were sent, ask for the full wording before you buy.
What insurance does not replace
Insurance is not a substitute for rights you already have, and claiming from the wrong place wastes time.
If an airline delayed or cancelled your flight, you may be owed statutory compensation, which insurance does not affect. See what you are owed for a delayed flight.
If an airline lost your bag, the airline is liable first under the Montreal Convention, and most policies require you to claim from them before they will look at it. See delayed, lost or damaged baggage.
If a package operator failed, you may have insolvency protection and repatriation rights that no policy provides. See package holiday vs booking it yourself.
Insurance covers what those do not: medical treatment abroad, repatriation for health reasons, cancellation, and theft.
Frequently asked questions
Is my credit card or bank account travel cover enough? Sometimes for short European trips, rarely for the United States, where medical costs dwarf typical limits. Packaged cover often has strict age limits, trip length caps and its own pre-existing conditions rules. Read it as carefully as a standalone policy. This is travel insurance attached to a card, which is a separate thing from Section 75 purchase protection.
Annual or single trip? Annual pays for itself from roughly the third trip a year, but check the maximum trip length, which is commonly 31 days.
Does an EHIC or GHIC replace insurance? No. It gives access to state healthcare in participating countries on the same terms as a local. It does not cover repatriation, private treatment, or cancellation.
When should I buy? When you book, because cancellation cover only runs from purchase.
Sources: standard policy wordings and exclusion structures common across UK and EU travel insurers, and the interaction between insurance and statutory rights under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and the Montreal Convention.
Researched from published policy wordings and checked August 2026. Terms vary significantly between insurers, so read your own policy. General information, not insurance advice.
