India-based Airlines - Travel insurance with Booking on Kingfisher for Intl travel

Ok so as fate has it I had booked myself and Mrs for DEL-DXB-DEL to travel in mid march few months back before the news of shutdown started and it got so messy! I am in a catch now to cancel or take the risk and considering the fact that I have had always had good experience on KF I thought what the hell lets go for it! My hotel bookings and all were also done and paid for in advance long back when I did the travel booking on KF.

I was now about to buy travel insurance through TATA AIG or ICICI LOMBARD and was wondering on your views that just in case KF cancels on me or goes bust by then would insurance be a good bet to cover my additional costs? KF would give out a 100% refund and even if they dont my AMEX Card would protect me am not worried on that! The case arises on last moment changes to book a higher class ticket for same sector which is a trip delay/change I guess insurance should take care of it later? Since KF still is under IATA I believe insurers cannot run away from this?

Even if my trip is cancelled I would have to settle two nights at hotel which rounds about to $300 so is there a way for Insurance to bear this as well?

Let me know what you guys think in this case and if so what insurance do you recommend for a trip of a week!

Ok so as fate has it I had booked myself and Mrs for DEL-DXB-DEL to travel in mid march few months back before the news of shutdown started and it got so messy! I am in a catch now to cancel or take the risk and considering the fact that I have had always had good experience on KF I thought what the hell lets go for it! My hotel bookings and all were also done and paid for in advance long back when I did the travel booking on KF.

I was now about to buy travel insurance through TATA AIG or ICICI LOMBARD and was wondering on your views that just in case KF cancels on me or goes bust by then would insurance be a good bet to cover my additional costs? KF would give out a 100% refund and even if they dont my AMEX Card would protect me am not worried on that! The case arises on last moment changes to book a higher class ticket for same sector which is a trip delay/change I guess insurance should take care of it later? Since KF still is under IATA I believe insurers cannot run away from this?

Even if my trip is cancelled I would have to settle two nights at hotel which rounds about to $300 so is there a way for Insurance to bear this as well?

Let me know what you guys think in this case and if so what insurance do you recommend for a trip of a week!

I think that you would be too late to buy insurance now against them going bust, it is pretty well established that Kingfisher are in big trouble... it would be a bit like trying to insure your house when it is already on fire. If you do decide to buy insurance read the policy before you purchase and if in doubt specifically ask whether it would cover what happens if ( when) Kingfisher bellies up.... don't assume it will be covered because in all likelihood it won't be.

The best insurance is to buy a ticket on another carrier and hope that Kingfisher's flight gets delayed/cancelled - that way you'll get a refund from them..

You could always make that ticket refundable so that if Kingfisher goes on schedule, you can get your money back...

Cost benifit analysis will be required for the specific situation obviously.

I'd switch to another carrier.

I am in a catch now to cancel or take the risk and considering the fact that I have had always had good experience on KF I thought what the hell lets go for it!

welcome to ft punjabi007....my advice would be to cancel & go with another carrier....

I'd switch to another carrier.

agreed....

Inspite of KFAs repeated troubles, it has not appeared on any black lists of the insurers (http://www.ipplondon.co.uk/airline-news.asp).

The one I usually use in Germany is: http://www.reiseversicherung.de/de/versicherung/weitere-reiseversicherungen/ticketsafe.html#tab=2

So if you can find someone, get some insurance. Usually insurance can only be arranged 3-7 days after booking.

Inspite of KFAs repeated troubles, it has not appeared on any black lists of the insurers (http://www.ipplondon.co.uk/airline-news.asp).

The one I usually use in Germany is: http://www.reiseversicherung.de/de/versicherung/weitere-reiseversicherungen/ticketsafe.html#tab=2

So if you can find someone, get some insurance. Usually insurance can only be arranged 3-7 days after booking.

That may be the case in Europe, however, I know of at least one insurer in Australasia who has specifically removed Kingfisher from their bankruptcy cover. In any case, since a lot of policies specifically exclude financial collapse from their terms of cover, blacklisting an airline is often more about the perception that they are unsafe in the sense of accidents/incidents rather than financial collapse. This is why it is important to actually read the policy before purchasing it rather than just assuming that a particular policy includes insolvency cover. At least in my corner of the world most insurers specifically exclude financial collapse and have done since 2001/2002 in the wake of a large number of post 11 September airline collapses.

Furthermore, many policies include wording along the lines of 'this policy is designed to cover unexpected events' , and for anyone purchasing a policy today, a financial collapse of Kingfisher could hardly be called 'unexpected' ( the situation would be quite different for someone who purchased their insurance say, 6 months ago)