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I have booked flights and hotel with The Flight Centre (in the UK) to fly to Singapore for the Singapore Formula 1 race in September. I have also booked tickets for the race from the official race website.

This cost a lot of money, and is a long way off, so I would like to know if something happens to the event (it is cancelled/moved to another date) can I buy some insurance to cover the cost of the race tickets and flights?

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Something to keep in mind: It's pretty much guaranteed that the expected value of buying this insurance is negative, i.e. the insurance will cost more than the probability of the event getting cancelled multiplied by your lost expenses. Otherwise, selling this insurance would lose the company money. Rationally, you should only buy insurance against rare events that would bankrupt you totally. Otherwise, you're basically paying money for peace of mind. – Michael Borgwardt Mar 20 at 16:54
@MichaelBorgwardt - This is a once in a lifetime trip for me, so if it were to be cancelled and I had no refund I would not be going again. If it cost 50 pounds to insure me against a possible loss of 3,500 pounds I would pay it. – Matt Mar 21 at 8:26

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Yes. It is called a "trip/travel cancellation insurance". Just like every other insurance, you get it before something happens, pay for your trip, get the insurance and then reclaim the money in case something prevents you from traveling.

Of course, you will have to make sure that the policy covers the eventual reasons for the cancellation that you want to cover.

There are some packages that allow you to protect yourself against a whole host of reasons, such as sickness etc. If you are not concerned with a health-related issue, you can take a wholesale "cancel for any reason" insurance.

There are some websites that help you do this. This one here for example will list you all the companies that give a certain insurance type in your country.

The rates can vary somewhere around 5% to 10% of the overall trip value, of course depending on all the different factors that play into insurance quotes.

Regarding the racing tickets, there is a chance that the travel insurance will not cover this. You can however, get a separate insurance for those if this is the case. There are Even ticket insurances from insurance companies like Allianz, and one from tour organizers for the Singapore F1 (this is a South African one) themselves. It seems however after searching more that you will have to get this kind of insurance from the ticket vendor itself. Unless your travel insurance covers it or your ticket vendor does, you might be out of luck on that one.

So you could ask directly at the company that sold you the tickets if they offer such protection, or ask your local insurance company.

However, I personally never heard of a F1 race being cancelled or moved by several days. Maybe it would be worthwhile to investigate on the chances of that happening before breaking your head over an insurance.

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Travel insurance will cover your flight but the cost of the race tickets. – Karlson Mar 19 at 13:23
True. Will update above. – uncovery Mar 19 at 13:27
Thanks for the answer - however I still cannot find insurance that explicitly covers race cancellation/changes by the organiser – Matt Mar 19 at 16:21
@Matt please see my edits above – uncovery Mar 19 at 18:01
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@Matt the Turkish and the New Jersey's GP were never in the Calender 2012 so I am pretty sure that there was no ticket sell. – Dirty-flow Mar 20 at 15:36
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From the Terms & Conditions of the Sinagpore GP

2.3.2. SGPPL will refund the cost of a Ticket to the Ticket Purchaser of that Ticket only if:

  • the entire Race is cancelled and cannot be rescheduled;

  • the dates of the Race are changed after they have been confirmed by FIA and the relevant Ticket Purchaser has confirmed in writing to SGPPL that he does not wish to attend the Race on the rescheduled dates;

  • there is a significant change to the Ticket Holder’s reserved seating arrangements (other than as described in Clause 2.2.2 and as determined by SGPPL in its sole and absolute discretion) . If SGPPL makes any significant changes to the Ticket Holder's reserved seating arrangements, SGPPL will notify the Ticket Purchaser directly of such changes, using the contact details provided by the Ticket Purchaser at the time of purchase of the Ticket(s). SGPPL will offer the Ticket Purchaser the opportunity to ex change his Ticket for a Ticket of the same or lower face value to another reserved seating or general admission area. If the exchange is not acceptable to the Ticket Purchaser, SGPPL will refund the cost of that Ticket

So what you need is a normal cancellation insurance. If something happens and the race get cancelled or the date changes, they will refund the tickets. But to be honest - it's very very unlike that something happens and if the insurance costs more than 10% of the ticket price I would never make it. Bahrain 2011 was an exception and you don't have to worry that this can happen in Singapore

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Thanks - this is what happens when you are paranoid and don't read the small print – Matt Mar 20 at 16:22

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