There seems to be no let up in the winter weather that is causing ongoing travel chaos across the UK and many other areas of Northern Europe. In the UK alone we’ve seen closures at many of our leading airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, and Edinburgh and further delays on the rail network including travel to and from the continent on Eurostar services with queues at St Pancras station over half a mile long!. Our offices in Uxbridge are just down the road from Heathrow, and we can see at first hand the misery that many people are experiencing as they try to get to and from the airport and the knock on effects that this has on the rest of the travel network including the road system.
Delays on one leg of your journey can have a huge knock on impact on the rest of your trip. For example, many people who are trying to leave the UK for overseas destinations may well have a hire car booked at their destination and could well incur charges if they don’t make it to the booking desk on time to pick up their car. During periods of travel uncertainty it certainly pays to make extra arrangements to provide a bit of extra protection and peace of mind. At iCarhireinsurance.com, as well as providing low cost car hire excess insurance, we also provide Rental Vehicle Cancellation Insurance which provides up to £500 of protection from cancellation fees charged by car rental companies if you need to cancel your rental vehicle at short notice. This cancellation insurance is available as an optional upgrade when any one of our main car hire excess insurance policies is purchased and we’ve seen its popularity increase massively in recent weeks when the weather has created additional uncertainty over travel plans. This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen interest in this car hire insurance upgrade increase. The year started badly for travellers with Christmas travel plans for December 2009 being disrupted due to industrial action from British Airways Cabin Crews. The disruption for travellers continued throughout 2010 with volcanoes, industrial action and the good old British weather all conspiring to dampen traveller’s spirits. Every time the level of disruption and uncertainty increases, so does the popularity of our rental vehicle cancellation insurance, but when a few pounds investment buys so much extra peace of mind it’s hardly surprising to see why its so popular! Some of the main events that have caused disruption this year alone include; February – heavy snow across the UK cause disruptions to road, rail and air travel March – British Airways strikes April - Volcanic ash clouds grounding European flights May – Volcanic ash clouds continue to disrupt air travel. British Airways Cabin Crew start a series of 5 day strikes. Greek national strike over austerity measures affects travel and tourism to Greece. June – British Airways strikes ongoing. Strikes over pension reform in France disrupt travel to the continent September – London Underground strikes, French strikes over pension reform disrupt travel to the continent October – London Underground strikes, French strikes over pension reform continue to affect European travel November – London underground strikes December – Snow across the UK and Northern Europe cause travel chaos on roads, rail and air. Unite Union announce further ballot on strike action at British Airways for 2011 Lets hope that 2011 is a better year for travellers, but with the BA dispute ongoing, predictions of prolonged arctic conditions from weather experts and ongoing seismic rumblings in Iceland from Eyjafjallajökull and Katla who knows what next year will bring?!
