According the ACCC’s Airline competition in Australia report released in December, travel demand is up and average prices are at the highest in years (image below). After a few years of pandemic uncertainty and restrictions, it’s no surprise people are ready to travel again.
Are you planning to take a trip this year?
If so, we’d love to hear about your experiences - whether there were any planning challenges, tips to save money or make travel easier and your picks for the best places to visit.
CHOICE has some travel guides to make your trip planning easier, including:
I have had a look at the Choice Feb 23 International travel Insurance comparison and can’t find where it identifies which PDS version they have reviewed for each cover or the date the policy was checked.
It is difficult then to know whether what I am looking at on a travel insurer’s website is what Choice reviewed or has been changed since they looked at it (without going through it with a fine tooth comb).
For example NIB travel insurance website shows a PDS dated October 22 with Underwriter Pacific International yet the Choice article says the underwriter is Lloyds. This looks to be just a mistake or out of date info. Is the information about which PDS version they have reviewed shown in the Choice article and I am just missing it?
It looks like the Insurance Provider status on our site referring to NIB may be an error, I will let our travel insurance team know. The date on the article specifies when we have last checked the review, so it should be correct up to that date, although as we can see there can be errors that slip through. You’re right to compare this to an insurer’s website, in case their has been changes before we have had the chance to update our review.
Apologies for the error, and thanks for letting us know.
Thanks for picking this up @Maree. This is corrected in the international travel insurance comparison now. We show the ‘Insurance provider’ as opposed to the Underwriter. Often they’re the same but sometimes they’re different. In this case, NIB travel insurance (and Travel Insurance Direct), are underwritten by Pacific International, but the provider is NIB Travel.
The reason we do that is so people can check the insurer’s complaints data on the AFCA datacube, which is listed by the insurance provider.
I often travel to Europe. I have two comments on this.
If you are travelling to Europe (European Union/Schengen), you must have valid travel health insurance and, if necessary, prove it on entry (although this is never actually checked). Australian travel health insurance can be very expensive for this purpose. An alternative is to take out so-called “incoming insurance” with a European provider. This is often much cheaper than comparable Australian insurance policies.
And for a credit card for travelling, I can recommend WISE. Here, the exchange fees are very low and the card itself costs nothing. It’s really worth looking at this option.
How about “inclusive credit Card travel insurance”
Just pay for ticket on your premium credit cards eg Visa Platinum etc
They even email you a confirmed coverage letter
Like all insurance policies it’s useful to look carefully at what is actually provided, the limitations and exclusions. Policies precisely define the risks acceptable to the insurer, and are so to better manage their costs.
The Pre-Existing medical conditions clause is one to ensure understanding of. Best not answered by a friend. Best to contact the insurer and record the answers.
We weigh up the alternatives ensuring we have all the facts before making what we hope is an informed decision. We’ve variously travelled OS relying solely on the CC for additional cover, as well as paying for specific travel insurance cover. Each trip is considered as it is booked. Circumstances and events do change.
That is not universal with all the premium card travel insurances. For example mine (Westpac) simply requires one to have evidence of the qualifying charge.
