Red Pennant Travel Insurance provides financial protection should something go wrong before or during your trip. It offers protection should you need to cancel your trip due to covered reasons, which include vehicle breakdowns or sickness prior to departure. It provides cover for emergency medical costs should you be taken ill whilst on holiday and the costs of returning you and your vehicles to the UK should you not be well enough to travel as intended. It also covers situations like travel delays and lost or stolen baggage or belongings.

For most holidays and international trips there is no law that forces you to buy travel insurance, but it is highly recommended. Without it you could be liable for very high costs if something goes wrong. These could include medical costs, medical repatriation costs (the costs of flying you home on an air ambulance under the care of a flight doctor or nurse), the costs of returning your car, caravan or motorhome to the UK, deposits and costs incurred should you need to cancel or amend your trip, and many more.

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) who are the main UK insurance industry body, UK travel insurers paid out around £472 million across more than 500,000 claims in 2024. Based on this, the average payout for a travel insurance claim was about £1,528 but individual medical claims can be much higher.

Advice from the NHS is that people take out travel and medical insurance for the duration of their trip, stating as a reminder that "the UK GHIC is not a replacement for travel insurance". Although the GHIC may get you access to emergency medical care in some European Countries, not all state care is free outside of the UK. You may have to pay for treatment that you would normally get free on the NHS.

The GHIC would not cover you for being flown back to the UK (medical repatriation) or for treatement within a private medical facility. It would also not cover you for other aspects that travel insurance protects against, such as cancellation, cutting short your trip, lost or stolen baggage and belongings or travel delays.

The NHS advises to travel with both appropriate travel insurance and the GHIC (or EHIC) for the duration of your trip.

You can read more about the GHIC on the NHS website.

Your policy must start and end while you are in the UK,  meaning cover must begin before you leave and finish after you return. As long as this condition is met, you can choose the start date that suits you.

Cancellation cover begins as soon as you take out single trip cover. For annual multi-trip cover, cancellation cover begins from the start date or from the date you book your trip (whichever is later). For this reason, you should consider arranging your insurance as soon as you book, so you are protected against cancellation charges from the outset. Waiting until just before departure means you wouldn’t be covered if you had to cancel beforehand due to illness or another insured reason.

If you have an annual multi-trip policy, any last-minute trips you book during the policy period will also be covered.

Absolutely. Red Pennant Travel Insurance offers both annual multi-trip cover and single trip cover.

Annual multi-trip cover provides protection for any number of trips, up to 45 days per trip, within the 12 month policy period. This is great if you are planning more than one trip to the continent and it will protect all your UK trips too! Single trip cover provides protection for one trip of your chosen duration up to 90 days.

Red Pennant Travel Insurance offers the following duration options:

• Single trip maximum duration - 90 days
• Annual multi trip maximum duration - up to 45 days per trip

Our Travel Insurance partner P J Hayman does have options available should you wish to be away for longer than 90 days. If you give them a call they can discuss these options with you.

Yes. At the moment our travel insurance is available to anybody.

Red Pennant Travel Insurance provides financial protection for the holiday and the individuals named on the policy, it does not provide vehicle insurance or breakdown cover. MAYDAY European Breakdown Cover is available through the Club and our vehicle insurance policies, including Caravan Cover, have options to protect your vehicles whilst travelling in Europe. If you have an existing policy you should check the cover levels with your provider prior to travel to ensure it meets your needs.

The old product known as Red Pennant Motoring and Personal Cover, underwritten by Astrenska Insurance Ltd, is no longer available. We are no longer able to offer a combined offering for breakdown and travel insurance. Individual travel insurance and European breakdown policies will need to be purchased. You are advised to check that the policy entitlements of each policy meets your needs.

MAYDAY European Breakdown Cover is supplied by Green Flag and they will handle motoring related assistance requests.

Red Pennant Travel Insurance is supplied by PJ Hayman Travel Insurance and their assistance provider will handle travel insurance related assistance requests.

Yes you can. Although the Red Pennant Travel Insurance product is only available up to the age of 79, we have ensured that our new travel insurance partner, P J Hayman, have alternative travel insurances options to meet the needs of all our members. If you give them a call they will be able to discuss these options with you.

Once you have purchased a Red Pennant Travel Insurance policy you will have access to the 24 hour UK based medical assistance line operated by Healix Medical Assistance Services. They will be able to guide you to the most relevant medical facility for assessement and treatment and will oversee your medical care and necessary arrangements.

You will also have full access to a 24 hour UK based GP service.

For any medical emergencies that present a risk to life whilst travelling, the local emergency services should be contacted in the first instance. They can be reached by dialling 112 from any phone. 112 is the European emergency phone number, available everywhere in the EU, free of charge and should only be used for urgent, life-threatening situations.