Frequently Asked Questions

Sometimes things can go wrong on holiday, from unexpected illness to an airline losing your luggage. We hope none of this ever happens to you, but if it does, travel insurance is there to help.

There are a few cover types to choose from: Single Trip, Annual Multi-Trip and Backpacker. The difference is primarily the type of trips you’re taking, and they all contain the same basic elements:

• Emergency medical is for when you or someone on your policy needs medical treatment such as an urgent hospital trip. Repatriation is cover for when the care team decide you need to be transported home to continue treatment. It doesn’t cover elective treatment — such as procedures you don’t immediately need (like cosmetic dentistry).
• Cancellation cover is for when any party cancels your holiday or a part of your holiday, and this means you can no longer go. It doesn’t cover you if you decide to cancel, except in serious circumstances like a family tragedy.
• Cutting short your trip is if your trip is cut short for reasons beyond your control. It doesn’t cover you if you decide to return home for non-emergency reasons. For more details around what is covered please check the policy wording.
• Personal possession is cover for loss, damage, or theft to your belongings. Sometimes this will simply be inconvenient, such as losing an expensive pair of sunglasses, but other times it can be much more important, like if your passport’s stolen. In those cases, travel insurance is vital.
• Baggage delays helps with the inconvenience of replacing essential items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and clothing if any third party creates issues in getting your baggage to you on time and you are left for a time without your belongings.
• Missed departure/connection covers you if events beyond your control mean you miss your transport, whether that’s outbound, inbound or a connection. Not all the events are considered, so please check your cover.
• Travel delay is cover for insured events causing transport departs later than scheduled. In the case of flights, there are a couple of time periods that need to elapse before you should get in touch with your travel insurance, seeking compensation from your airline first.
• Personal accident is the payment of a benefit if you are permanently injured or die. There are limitations on the activities you can take part in, as some are likelier than others to cause injury. So, make sure you’re familiar with these before you book them.
• Personal liability helps cover you if you are involved in an accident or dispute with another party and legal representation needs to be made or you are identified in another party’s insurance claim. There are a few limitations on this portion of your cover.

If you want more information on any or all of these, consult our policy documents.

Travel insurance is useful in a huge range of situations. There are also specialist add-ons for specific types of trip, which include cover tailored to the specific nature of those trips or events. These are:

• Winter sports
• Cruise
• Business Travel
• Enhanced Gadget

Firstly, we hope you choose us for the quality of our cover. You’ll find cover for all but the most unusual of circumstances in our policies. We know that no two people — and therefore no two holidays — are the same, so you can also tailor your policy to your needs.

But we go further, too. Our claims process is quick and easy, meaning you can get through to us quickly when you need us most. Our customer service representatives are experts and will help efficiently when you may be facing challenges, such as navigating a foreign health service in a stressful situation.

Our pricing is competitive, and we’ve made sure customers get value for money with our policies.

We hope you never need to make a claim, but if you do, we’ve made our claims process as simple and stress-free as possible.

If you want simple, high-quality travel insurance, then take a look and see whether our policies may be right for you.

Like other insurance, most people do not realise the importance of travel insurance until they need it. And in that case, most people can’t do without it.

Healthcare

The quality of healthcare and whether it is public or private differs by country. Having travel insurance means that you will receive the best available care and not be out of pocket. In some countries, such as the USA, meeting the costs of healthcare out of your own pocket can be prohibitively expensive. Travel insurance can ensure you’re cared for without breaking the bank. If you’re travelling in Europe. remember that your Global Healthcare Insurance Card (GHIC) will only cover certain types of healthcare and does not include medical repatriation (being flown home to continue medical treatment in the UK) or repay costs in all the circumstances it does cover, so it’s not an adequate substitute for good travel insurance.

Not getting away

There are plenty of things that can happen to prevent you from getting away: illness, injury or death in the family, being made redundant, damage to your home or being advised against travel by a medical practitioner — the list goes on. While we can’t give you the experience you missed, we can make sure you’re not missing out financially for a holiday that never was. But please bear in mind that in situations where your airline or holiday company cancels your trip, you’ll need to seek compensation from them in the first instance.

Things going wrong while you’re away

Whether that’s loss, theft or damage to your possessions, an accident, a pre-booked event being cancelled or troubles with your return trip, and much more, travel insurance is there to help. These situations can cause stress and difficulty as well as financial expense, and having travel insurance can help put your mind at ease.

There are numerous sources of travel advice depending on where you’re going. Before booking a trip, it’s always a good idea to go to the FCDO website  and select the country you’re planning to visit. This will offer the very latest advice on safety and things to know when visiting that country, as well as restrictions on visiting. The FCDO gives two levels of advice against travelling: ‘advice against all but essential travel’ and ‘advice against all travel’. Please note that visiting countries or areas where the FCDO have advised against “all travel will invalidate your travel insurance. The FCDO will also inform you of what types of documentations, visa requirements, checks and transport arrangements are necessary for each country.

Yes, it is vital that you do so. If you have a medical condition that you don’t tell us about, you may not be covered for any medical treatment you need as a result of that condition. As well, you may have a claim limited or denied for an unrelated health problem that needs treatment. It’s important you tell us about any medications you are taking, too.

Most of all, we want to be able to give you the most comprehensive cover possible. Knowing about your conditions will help us provide the best level of cover for you. If we can’t cover your specific condition, we will point you towards a specialised list of insurer(s) who may be able to cover.

We hope you don’t need to make a complaint, but we recognise there may be times when we haven’t got it right. In these situations, we want to learn how to improve and would love to hear from you.

We take all complaints seriously and each one is investigated. Details of how to contact the person responsible for travel insurance complaints can be found on the contact us page. Please include as much information as possible, as well as any supporting evidence, so we can look into each complaint thoroughly.

The Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) replaced the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) as a result of the UK’s departure from the European Union. Despite the different name, the two cards provide the same access to medical services in the same countries except Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

If you currently have an EHIC, you do not need to replace it with a GHIC until it expires. British nationals can no longer apply for an EHIC. Instead, they will need to apply for a GHIC, however the process remains broadly the same. Applications can be made online (please note that this doesn’t apply to UK students planning on attending EU universities), and GHICs are free. Some websites will attempt to charge you for the application — if this is the case, leave the website and go to the dedicated NHS website.

The EHIC and GHIC entitle holders to medical care at the same cost as nationals of the country you are visiting. This doesn’t cover everything — elective treatment and some kinds of emergency aid (such as mountain rescue) are not covered, nor is medical repatriation. For this reason, the EHIC and GHIC are not substitutes for good travel insurance. Not all healthcare in all countries is free for their residents, and so the EHIC and GHIC will only ensure you pay the same amount for the same care as residents.

Our standard policies offer cover for COVID-19-related circumstances, including cancellation (if your GP has certified that you are too ill to travel for example), medical and repatriation (if you become sick with COVID-19 while away and need to be flown home as a result).

Whether you’re thinking about getting a policy and want to chat, need to make a claim, want to make a complaint or simply have questions about your policy, we’d love to hear from you. All of our contact details can be found on the contact us page. Please be advised that there is more information on making a claim on the page.

For general enquiries or if you’re an existing customer, you can call us on 0330 041 8147 or email travel.sales@oasis-insurance.co.uk.

But remember that if you want to buy a new policy, the simplest way to do this is online.

Our phone lines are open 9am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday.

It’s easy to work out which would suit you better: how many trips do you take a year? If you’re just planning the one trip, then Single Trip would be suitable. But if you’re taking two or more trips, there’s a good chance that Annual Multi-Trip would work out as more cost-effective.

We realise that you might not yet know whether you’ll be taking more than one trip, but if you intend to, then having Annual Multi-Trip means you’re covered if you do decide to go away a second time.

We know that, if you need to make a claim, you could be under stress too. So we’ve made our claims process as easy and stress-free as possible.

The quickest way to reach us in the event of a claim is to call us. There are different numbers you’ll need depending on where in the world you are at the time you need to reach us. These can all be found on the claims page. These lines are open 24/7.

If your claim is less urgent and you purchased your policy after 1^st December 2025, you may prefer to make your claim online, email us or write to us. We will deal with these as quickly as possible.

Before you go away anywhere, make sure that you have a copy of your travel insurance documentation, including policy number, to hand. It can be sensible to have this stored on your phone or the cloud in case any paper documentation you have is lost.

You don’t need to spend ages finding the right person to contact if you need to make a claim. There is just our claims department. You can also find a section within the policy wording explaining the evidence you will need to provide so we can assess your claim.

All of these details are available on the claims page.

If you’d prefer to contact us by another method, you can fill out your claim online, email us or write to us. Regardless of how you contact us, we will deal with your claim as quickly as possible.

Once we receive your claim we will pass it to the necessary team for processing. A claim handler will assess the nature of your claim and ensure that they have the necessary documentation to process a settlement. If the nature of your claim is not covered or is not within the conditions of your policy your claim will be rejected and passed back to our administration team. They will endeavour to contact you to discuss your options. If we don’t receive the necessary documentation to support your claim it will be passed back to our administration team who will get in touch to support you with your claim.

We will endeavour to get in touch with all claimants as soon as possible with a settlement, request for further information or rejection of their claim. If you do not hear from us immediately after you have sent your claim, do not worry; it can take time to assess the nature of your claim.

When an airline cancels a flight you are entitled to certain refunds and compensation from the airline.

We ask that before you contact us in relation to costs arising from the recent spate of flight cancellations that you first directly approach your airline, tour operator or packaged holiday organiser.

If you are unable to get a refund or compensation from any of the above companies and you paid for your trip with a credit card you may also be able to recover your costs through section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act or via a 'chargeback claim'.