Martin Lewis has given a huge warning for anyone who has already booked their holiday for this summer. In a new update the personal finance guru gave an alert to people who have already paid for breaks from the main holiday firms and airlines like TUI, Jet2, Ryanair, Wizz, easyJet and British Airways.

Appearing on his ITV show he explained if people do not take one action as soon as they book in - they could lose everything if it all goes wrong and bad things happen to their holiday plans. With the current situation in the Middle East there are serious concerns about jet fuel supplies for flights. Mr Lewis explained that in some circumstances if something happens when people ahve booked a holiday and delayed before getting insurance - they could lose everything.

Mr Lewis said people need to buy insurance as soon as they book their break: “The reason you do that is because half of the cover you’re paying for is in case something happens that stops you going before the trip. And if you don’t have the travel insurance place, you’ve got no cover. So, you may as well have it in place. But at this time of year when many people have already booked, I have a slight adaptation, which is this. If you’ve booked and you don’t have it yet, just get it now.

"Get it done as soon as possible.” A Money Show Live viewer called David said: “I booked flights to Australia for a family group of seven to travel in March next year. I took out insurance immediately. One of our group is now pregnant and can’t travel on the dates planned. It costs £5,000 to reschedule, which I’m happy to report the insurance covered.”

Mr Lewis also interjected on issues for larger groups: “Very quick aside on that, think of who you’re booking for. So, if it’s a family group and one can’t go, they’ll often cover you. But if there’s a large group of friends going, you often all get independent travel insurance. Well, then if one can’t go or and you can’t all go on the trip, it’s only the person who’s who’s got that cover. So, you’d need a group insurance policy so that if one can’t go, you all can’t go.”

During his Money Show Live on ITV, the financial expert responded to an audience member who asked: ‘If my flight’s cancelled due to no jet fuel will you definitely receive all your money back even for your hotel booking as well.’

Mr Lewis made clear that travellers would lose their hotel booking costs if they had arranged accommodation independently from flights booked with airlines such as Jet2, TUI, Wizz, Ryanair or easyJet – as they would not be protected under consumer regulations.

He stated: “No. And I think this is what people need to be very aware of. If you booked a package holiday where you booked everything in one, then under the package holiday regulations and rules and protections generally if your flight went you would get everything back.”

He went on to say: “And so actually at the moment package holidays give you a certain level of extra security that you wouldn’t get if you did a DIY booking where you bought your hotel and flight separately.” The reason behind this, he explained, is that the hotel booking itself remains valid: “Because the point is if you lose your flight and you’ve DIY booked, there’s nothing wrong with your hotel.

“The issue is you can’t get there. Your hotel is still there. It’s not faulty. It’s not cancelling. So, you don’t have those consumer rights.” If the hotel hasn’t done anything wrong, then guests might look at how they’ve made their booking – but that route offers no solution either.

He said: “So, you would then say, ‘What about using a credit card or debit card protection?’ It won’t work because there’s nothing faulty. And that’s just giving you the same replica rights that you would have with the retailer.”

Finally, travellers might turn to their travel insurance for help. Mr Lewis revealed: “So, you’ then say, ‘What about travel insurance?’ This is the bad bit. We were checking 40 travel insurance policies.

“Of those, only a few would have covered you for the knock-on eventuality of your flight being cancelled due to jet fuel and then your hotel costs.

“Only about three or four and most of those were package bank accounts where it’s linked to your bank account. Only one standalone provider. So we need to be blunt at the moment.

“There is a big risk in those circumstances. If you’re booking, you want something with free or limited cancellation quite short before. So you could just cancel it. You should always talk to the provider.

“The reason this is important to know is if you are in that position once you understand you have no rights and they say, ‘Well, we’ll give you a voucher and you can come back in 6 months.’

“You suddenly realise you’re doing well, not badly, right? If you didn’t have free cancellation and that this is going to be a problem if we get to that jet fuel shortage.

“Government are saying there isn’t one at the moment and they’re working on consolidating flights and doing things so there won’t be one, but people’s hotel costs if they book separately and other knock-on costs are potentially at risk.”

Direct insurance through bank

Another viewer, Michelle asked: “What if your holiday insurance is direct through your bank account? When I’ve told them I’m going away, they said I don’t need to tell them. Does this mean if something happens before I go, I’ll still be covered?”

Mr Lewis explained: “Effectively, what you’ve got is an ongoing rolling annual travel policy that keeps auto renewing without you doing everything. So, let me just take this in a bit more detail because people often ask me, ‘What does ASAB actually mean?’ Well, if you’re booking a single trip policy, a policy just for one trip, then you get the insurance as soon as you book. to cover a specific future date, say the 10th to the 17th of August.

“You pay for that. Once you’ve paid for it, you have the travel insurance. So, if anything happens from that point onwards, you’re covered. No problem.” On an annual policy he emphasised that people need to know exactly when they’re covered from: “On an annual policy, if you don’t have cover, you need to start it ASAB. You need starting not your holiday dates. You need that annual cover starting now. Or if you start it the date you go on holiday, you’re not covered. So, it’s all lost. Now, if you’ve already got cover in place and it lasts until after the holiday ends, no problem. Well, effectively, Michelle, that’s you. You’ve got an ongoing rolling annual travel insurance policy provided by your bank. So, you’re fine. You don’t need to notify them. You’re always covered unless you go over the maximum number of days in a year or on a trip.

“If you have an annual policy that covers you now, but let’s say you’re going on that trip and your annual policy ends on the last day of July, what you need to do is get a new annual policy that starts the day your old policy ends. Now, if something were to happen now to that holiday in August and you’ve got the policy that ends before the holiday starts, the vast majority of annual policies would cover you even though the policy is after the close date because the event happened while you’re still within the term.”