COVID-19 Travel Insurance (post from 2020 Feb to 2022 Nov)

Travel
41

Hi @dengam, welcome to the community.

It will depend of the product disclosure statement (PDS or tge insurance T&Cs) associated with the travel insurance policy.

If you could advise of the insurer and/or upload a copy of the standard PDS, we can have a look what it says and provide some general (non-legal) advice.

It is possible they might refuse full refund of the travel if you are given credit or voucher from the agent/travel service provider…as they might argue you are not out of pocket and have opportunity to travel in the future. Insurance claim could then seen as ‘double dipping’. It will however depend on the policy and PDS,

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42

Thanks for your prompt reply.
My travel insurance is with InsureandGo (not having any luck uploading the PDS but I think they have since added a clause re pandemics as there was no mention when i bought the policy last year).

My concern is if I request a cancellation then send off all the documents for review they will only pay the out of pocket expense if they are aware a deferment voucher was offered for a later booking
I want to cancel because I do not know if or when i could even or even want to rebook and do not feel comfortable to travel overseas in the foreseeable future.

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43

Does the PDS have any information about what consitiutes grounds for cancellation under the policy, such as death, medical condition etc? And what doesn’t…such as change of mind, mental illness etc?

This might give clues to how the insurance company may deal with the claim.

It is also worth contacting InsureandGo and requesting to speak to someone with authority/extensive knowledge of your policy and its cancellation clauses, to get advice on how InsureandGo would deal with your specific cancellation should it occur. Make sure you read the cancellation clauses in your policy before calling so that you have a broad understanding of them…so you are not hoodwinked by InsureandGo. Question them on their advice based on your knowledge of the PDS and its clauses/conditions.

Repeat a summary of the advice as you understand it to InsureandGo at the end of the phone call so there is no mistake in the interpretation of the advice given…also write down who you spoke to and a summary of advice given…as you may need this for future reference.

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44

I booked my trip to europe last year and paid Webjet/ Allianz $600 for travel insurance for the six weeks I would be away. I requested a refund on this as my trip has been cancelled due to covid 19. I have had one reply from them about 5 weeks ago saying they will pass my request to senior management. I would have thought I should be entitled to a refund similar to my cancelled flights. Any advice on how to proceed ?

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45

Welcome to the community @brad1,

A family member was coming to visit from the USA. After the global travel restrictions Allianz (USA) independently sent emails to every customer with travel policies in April-May offering new dates or refunds, no charges levied. Since there was no guarantee of when things would re-open ‘we’ took the refund option and the full amount was refunded to the card in 2 weeks. That policy was purchased direct, not through an agent.

Whether your policy via Webjet will be treated similarly is an open question, but Webjet’s failure to respond should not be tolerated. I presume you have already lodged a formal complaint? They do not make finding a contact for that easy. You could send a tracked letter to them at Level 2, 509 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004, or try this general email, onlinetravel@webjet.com.au, are the best I could find to initiate that. Webjet shunts problems to their 'change my booking’ form, another option you can check.

You could also try the ‘Message us’ chat (?) link on their support page. Other places to try getting attention are their facebook page, twitter, or instagram services. They are busy cancelling / rebooking / etc but 5 weeks in a black hole is still very bad form.

While possibly not explicitly germane you might send a formal letter of complaint to Webjet (as the retailer) using the ACCC letter of complaint tool with a specified date for response to the contacts I provided above.

They are not making it easy. Be sure to get an acknowledgement they received your ‘letter’.

Additional resources include the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (Refund page) remembering they are an industry promotion organisation, not a consumer protection organisation although it is not obvious if they are a member, although they show IATA.org accreditation, a different ‘mob’.

Also check the topic about COVID-19 Pre-paid travel issues where you might find other helpful information.

Plz let us know what you do and how you go as it could be helpful for others in the same situation.

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46

Thanks that was helpful. Should get refund late May.

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47

A post was merged into an existing topic: COVID-19 Prepaid Airline, Accomodation & Tour Refunds, Rebookings

48

We purchased travel insurance from Insure and Go in October 2019 well before the COVID pandemic.
For the last eight weeks we have tried on several occasions to contact and receive some information about the progress of our claim. We are continually told that ‘someone will get back to us’ but to date we have heard nothing from any team member at Insure and Go. One email last month to notify that there was a high demand of claims at this point in time due to the pandemic.
We totally understand that but feel that the customer service of this company is ‘nil’ and strongly advise anyone else thinking of using this company to rethink their choice.
We purchased Insure and Go after research on this site and reviews read but are disappointed and frustrated and will never use them again.
To date we are in the process of submitting a claim to AFCA in the hope that some resolution can be reached re our claim.

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49

Have a look at their recent reviews on Product Review.

Absolutely disgusting.

If you have not already given them a review on Product Review, perhaps you should do so.

50

Hi.

We got insurance with InsureandGo in 2019 for our trip to Japan. We took up the Choice recommendation in travel insurance as we have purchased products recommended by Choice and have been very happy with them.

As the pandemic arose and continued to escalate, we were approaching our leave date on March 16 2020. It became obvious that our trip to Japan was going to become more of a hassle than a relaxing holiday. Many of the tourist attractions were closed and opening dates were being pushed back here and there with no real certainty. Through discussions with InsureandGo and reading their policy, if we cancelled our holiday before a government travel ban our cancellation would be treated as a cancellation by choice not by force. They couldn’t be sure whether any insurance claims would be approved. We decided we had to cancel our trip nevertheless - it simply wasn’t safe to travel at this time.

So as the procedure in the policy states, we started seeking refunds on the thousands of dollars already spent on deposits and flights before attempting to submit an insurance claim. Meanwhile, the Australian Government issued a travel ban on the 18th March 2020 - 2 days after we were due to travel. We were very much relieved we didn’t go.

We got most of our money back then submitted a claim to InsureandGo for travel vaccinations and passport. As this stage, we would have understood if it was declined because of what we were claiming for however it wasn’t declined for this reason, it was declined due to choice of cancellation not by force. Which indicated to us that any accommodation booked after the travel ban on the 18th March would also have not been covered. If fact, we weren’t insured at all for this pandemic although we had the forethought to get insurance early in our holiday planning for these extreme circumstances. This is what people get insurance for. With the government travel ban in place two days after we were due to leave, we would have thought it made sense to pro-rata an insurance payment rather than blanket decline a payment. We are afraid to think of what could have happened if we weren’t able to get refunds on most of our flights and accommodation - our insurance would have simply been proven as junk!

We have submitted a complaint to review our claim further and we’re awaiting a reply.

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51

Welcome to the community @ddeman52,

Thanks for adding your experience. I moved your post to this existing topic because many have experienced issues with their travel insurance.

Insurers traditionally are hard edged about the specific T&C in their PDS and regardless of circumstances will apply them as you have discovered.

Choice previously posted their advice on COVID-19 and travel insurance on this topic.

Please let us know your outcome as a number of members have Insureandgo policies, some like yourself, under dispute.

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52

Insurance isn’t junk. If we didn’t have COVID-19 and you travelled, you would definitely would have needed the protection of having travel insurance in the event that something went wrong.

Many travel insurance policies have exclusions such as for civil unrest/wars, acts of terrorism and pandemics. Some insurers covered pandemics, but may have had conditions for when cover was triggered.

The reasons for some events being excluded is they are rare (unless one seeks a real adventure holiday by going to known hotspots) and to exclude them reduces the cost to the consumer and risks to the insurer (otherwise individuals may chose to take risks and pushing the responsibility of their decision onto the insurer - which is particularly the case when travelling to a war torn location).

Your point about the trigger for cancellation is valid as if one cancels travel outside the grounds nominated in a policy, any claims made under the insurance policy may be invalidated. As you have indicated that you chose to cancel the cover before there were any formal travel restrictions could be an excluded cancellation reasons. One should also recognise that the COVID-19 could have a different outcome where travel was still allowed and safely…and one cancels cover through what could be seen as a change of mind. Insurers protect themselves and risks by excluding some reasons for cancellations.

Travel insurance covers a large number of common travel related issues, such as medical cover, personal liability, cancellations due to ill-health etc, loss of personal effects, rental car insurance, emergency evacuation etc. Some of these if they occur on ones travels can turn a holiday into a financial disaster if one does not have any travel insurance (think having a heart attack in the US where major emergency surgery is required).

Choice has written some articles on Coronavirus and travel insurance. Links to these articles are presented in some of the above posts and are as follow:

It is also worth knowing that no one forecasted the COVID-19 pandemic or its impact on world travel. Anyone who travels and takes out travel insurance accepts the limitations of the cover provided and should recognise that cover is not open ended in either what is covered or the value of claims made under the insurance policy. This is why it is very important to understand what is covered and what isn’t covered, and be comfortable with the level of coverage before taking out insurance and booking travel.

53

Hi

I purchased my Insureandgo policy on 10 Feb 2020 for travel in July/August to South Africa.

As the travel ban is is place and I can’t travel, I requested a “either refund or to hold or provide a voucher for later use”.

The response was” Unfortunately, there is no possibility of a refund if your policy is outside the 14-day cooling off period with no exceptions.” We cannot hold your policy as a credit or defer to another trip there are no exceptions.”

Has anybody achieved a credit for their policy?

Thanks

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54

Welcome to the community @JohnLeys,

Others have previously posted regarding their experiences with Insureandgo. It appears they are being all but uniquely inflexible.

It is unknown if they changed their advice or T&C since you purchased your policy, but you should start by reviewing the T&C in your own policy regarding pandemics, epidemics, force maejeur clauses, and so on. There are no words written or implied about Insureandgo offering any refunds or changes of date.

This report may give cold comfort you are not alone.

Read to the end. While the report is a month+ old you may be well served by lodging a formal complaint with Insureandgo as well as AFCA.

Please let us know if you have any success.

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55

There was an InsureAndGo travel insurance review done recently, but it expired in June 10, so here is my gripe:

Jodi Bird from Choice put an article in the June 2020 magazine under “Checkout” on page 5 which rang bells with me. It was about how the InsureAndGo travel insurance company which was recommended by Choice last year (and which I took on board and insured with) has been giving disappointing service.

My husband and I paid $800 to this company in December 2019 to cover us for travel in May 2020. Our travel bookings were all cancelled due to Covid19, so I wrote to InsureAndGo on 3rd April (a full month before our planned departure date) advising of this and asking if they could transfer our insurance cover to the same holiday that we were re-booking for 2021.

They replied that they were not postponing any policies due to the government’s Do Not Travel warning, and suggested I claim on my policy for any out-of-pocket expenses due to Covid19. We had heard via media that insurance companies don’t cover for lost monies due to pandemics, so why would be bother putting in a claim? Besides that, we wouldn’t know until next year if we will incur any extra expenses. I asked them to confirm that when the government lifts their Do Not Travel rule, they would transfer this policy to next year’s holiday, but they won’t. They said however, that they would discuss this again when the Do Not Travel ban is lifted.

It doesn’t seem like a big ask to me. I paid $800 to insure for a holiday that we didn’t have. How can InsureAndGo possibly think they have the right to keep that $800?

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56

Welcome to the community @tanderra,

Your comments are shared by many others. Choice has taken them on board. Please peruse this topic and especially the preceding 3, related to your own post, that could be helpful.

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57

We purchased travel insurance for a European trip from Insure & Go in October, well before there was any hint of Covid-19. In April (about a month before we were due to travel) it became apparent that we couldn’t go - Singapore Airlines had cancelled our flights. (Singapore Airlines refunded the fare OK, but it took some time). I contacted Insure & Go by telephone and, on the advice I received, sent email requesting a refund. I received a detailed response about their procedures fairly quickly, but since then (it’s now mid-June), nothing, in spite of some follow-up emails. I rang yesterday and was told the “management will be informed”. I expect nothing and will be contacting AFCA if there is no response within a few days.

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58

I’m hoping people out there might have some advice. We had to cancel our honeymoon due to COVID. We insured it way back in October 2019, and were fully covered for pandemics. We’ve submitted a claim for $11,200 to our insurance agency. But they need documentation from our providers to say our booked services were non refundable and that we are not taking the credit offered. Luxury Escapes issued that letter for us. Unfortunately Air Asia have made it impossible for us. We have $2,200 worth of flights we want to claim. We’ve tried getting through to them literally dozens of times. Their chat system is glitchy and time consuming and no-one can help. On Twitter they’ve told us “we don’t do letters like this.” I’ve sent screenshots of the twitter chat to World Nomads (our insurer, underwritten by NIB) and they say it’s not good enough. But they also won’t call us back, reply to our emails, or help us figure out how the hell we get the documentation they need when the documentation they need is impossible to get. This is causing me a great deal of stress, and I don’t know what to try next. We’ve already lost so much money with a cancelled wedding etc (we got married via Zoom in the end if you’re curious) and I just can’t bear the thought of even more being lost. Thank you.

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59

Welcome to the community @natasha. Congratulations on your marriage. It was probably a ceremony well below your expectations only months ago, but you will have stories about it forever if that is any consolation.

I moved your post into this topic about travel insurance issues as it is becoming a bit of a library of related information. Yours is another variation of the problems members have posted, and a first.

It seems they established their ‘credit account’ system or ‘change your flight’ rather than issuing vouchers. The credit account seems like a voucher at the end of the day, but without some of the limitations. On that basis they may not be willing to advise you there is no refund. From their perspective they are doing the right thing by maintaining your full value for your future use as a ‘cash credit account’, not a voucher.

My suspicion is they are not equipped to ‘take your money and run’ which is the underlying problem. I for one have no idea how you could circumvent that. Perhaps @JodiBird may have seen this catch-22 before and can offer advise.

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60

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your trials & tribulations.

Unfortunately you are in a ragged mob trying to attract the attention of travel related businesses. Almost every one of those businesses had been smashed by the doors being slammed shut everywhere. It appears that most have not yet come to grips with the tsunami of claims resulting from COVID.

While I understand that you have a lot of money tied up- Do Not Panic. New policies have to be developed, procedures worked out, staff recruited & trained, equipment sorted, & processing started.

It may take some time for them to get back to you. In the meantime keep trying to make contact regularly.

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