The day has come and you’re finally off on holiday. Your flight is delayed, and you’re left waiting for news, staring at the departure board, tired and frustrated – not the best start to your trip.

You’re all set to head to the airport, but your airline has just announced a strike is due to take place so your flight may be delayed or cancelled – not the start to your holiday you wanted. Industrial action, or strikes, can take place…

The term curtailment is widely used within travel insurance policies and although we don’t like to think about it, sometimes the worst can happen and you may find yourself cutting short your holiday and returning home early.

Your suitcase is packed, your passport is dusted off, and you’ve stocked up on enough sun cream to last the whole summer — everything is set for your dream holiday.

People tend to overlook connecting flights. A connecting flight is taken within 12 hours of you leaving your international departure point in the UK and enables you to continue on the next stage of your trip.

Cancellation cover is one of the key reasons people take out travel insurance, alongside protection for medical expenses and personal belongings. After all, no one wants to face both disappointment and financial loss if they are unable to go on their planned holiday.

You’ve been travelling since 3.30am, there’s no air conditioning in the airport and your suitcase is yet to make an appearance on the conveyor belt – not quite the start you were expecting to your week in paradise.

Rather than booking holidays through a travel agent or tour operator, many British holidaymakers now choose to arrange flights, accommodation and other travel extras separately in search of better value.

In our opinion, few travel moments are more frustrating than arriving at the departure lounge only to see the dreaded word “Delayed” flashing next to your flight number — especially in the early hours of the morning when you’re trying to keep a tired toddler entertained.

Understandably many holidaymakers would want to cancel their holiday if a terror attack took place in or near their chosen destination, however it is worth pointing out, travel insurance does not offer cover for ‘disinclination to travel’.

The Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) allows access to state-provided healthcare when travelling to a country in the European Union (EU) for any emergency or necessary medical treatment incurred while on holiday.

Similar to a car or home insurance, your travel insurance may include an excess.

An excess is the amount you agree to contribute towards any claim you make on your policy. It may also be referred to as a “deductible”, particularly in the Americas. Once the excess has been paid, your insurer will cover the remaining eligible costs up to the policy limits.

We have all heard horror stories of people having to re-mortgage their homes following a stay in a hospital whilst on holiday, but how do we make sure this doesn’t happen to us? Medical expenses is one of the reasons we take out travel insurance.

A week lounging in the sun sounds like the perfect holiday for some, whilst others will want nothing more than to climb mountains, sky dive out of aeroplanes and gallop along golden beaches.

A visa is an official document that allows you to legally enter a foreign country and is usually stamped or glued into your passport. There are several different types of visas, each of which allows you different rights in the host country.

In layman’s terms, force majeure means ‘superior force’ or ‘chance occurrence, unavoidable accident’. The need for force majeure cover in travel insurance became more recognised following the Ash Cloud in Iceland in 2010.