Eyjafjallajokull has taken Europe by surprise and for many this has resulted in cancelled flights and ultimately cancelled holiday plans. For all of us who had planned to take trips over the coming weeks, whether for business or pleasure, this news has likely caused a lot of problems. One group of people this is likely to affect is those who travel abroad with pets.
Thanks to the PETS travel scheme, it is now possible to travel abroad to a certain number of countries with your cat, dog or even pet ferret.
While pet owners can book alternative means of travelling like the rest of us, they do face a different number of problems. For example, what alternative pet friendly travel methods are there out there? The number of countries you can reach is going to be limited. And, most importantly, how do you keep a ferret entertained on a 2 day car journey to the south of Spain?
But the big question everyone is asking is, where does insurance come into all of this? It’s something that the media have tried to cover over the last few days, but it’s something that really depends on the insurance company themselves and sadly there is not straight forward answer.
If you had taken out travel insurance prior to Eyjafjallajokull making international headlines you may be covered, but you will need to speak to your insurance provider to double check. While whether or not those who took out insurance prior to Eyjafjallajokull erupting is a bit of a grey area, airlines are certainly not covering any recent policies.
Your pet insurance policy isn’t going to prove to be a big help either – at least not with getting any money back. However, if you are still planning to go abroad – perhaps by an alternative means of transport – it will still provide you with overseas cover, if this is something that was in your original policy.
This is something more and more pet owners will be thinking about as the journey time which was once a quick flight to the continent has now become considerably longer and a lot more complications and pet-induced problems are likely to occur.
And what about volcano insurance? Well, this is probably only necessary if you live in Iceland although should it ever hit the States, one man is suitably covered.
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April 19, 2010
insurance