Where?
You can buy travel insurance from a travel insurer, travel agent, insurance broker, credit card provider, or even from your health, home or car insurer.
How?
You can buy travel insurance online (direct from the insurer’s website, from a comparison site or through an airline booking site), over the counter or over the phone.
When?
Buy travel insurance as soon as you know your travel dates. That way you’re covered if your trip is cancelled before you even leave or if you’re unable to travel at all.
What?
You can certainly buy travel insurance quicker than it will take you to read this guide, but do you know what you’ll be covered for? Will you be covered if you trip over after having a drink? If you crash your scooter in Thailand? If you lose your wallet during a stopover? If you miss a flight because of a car accident?
“93% of people who travelled with insurance were unaware or unsure of at least one common policy exclusion.”
There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ to consider, depending on where you’re going and what you’ll be doing, so it’s worth reading the product disclosure statement (PDS) first to make sure you’ll be covered.
Will you use it?
Hopefully not, but here are the most common claimed events:
- Flight or tour cancelled
- Flight delayed more than 12 hours
- Received medical treatment
- Lost, damaged or stolen luggage
- Missed a connecting flight
- Lost, damaged or stolen cash or personal items
- Forced to cancel trip before departure
What if the insurers don’t pay out?
Australian travellers lodged over 261,000 insurance claims in 2022-23. Almost 165,000 claims were accepted, paying out almost $362 million.
Top reasons for declined claims
- Due to policy exclusions, or not included in the policy conditions
- Claim amount was below the excess
- Claim was due to a pre-existing medical condition
- Claim was for an item that was stolen while it was unattended