Travel Insurance

Features and benefits

Travel insurance helps reduce the financial burden that could be ours if we suffer from some unexpected accidents or mishaps during our travels.

The catch is that a good number of the features of travel insurance are better provided for within a

home contents policy, which can cover lost valuables and luggage. (The more professional products also cover lost cash (up to around USD10,000) AND provide liability insurance that even covers you in North America)
a personal accident policy that provides year long protection, both home and abroad or a
medical insurance policy that that guarantees renewal. (Travel insurance carries no guarantee of renewal)

Travel Insurance is typically divided into one of 4 classes:

Trip Travel: to cover your specific journey which can be either a return or one way journey. When it comes to one way travel however, few insurers permit a trip that takes over a week;
Annual Travel: which allows for repeated trips throughout the year, normally with a limit of 90 days per trip;
Student Travel: provides additional cover such as reimbursement of fees if study is interrupted, plus cover for personal belongings and kidnap expenses;
Extreme Sports / Adventure Travel: These cover such things as paragliding and rock climbing, trips to Antarctica and medical evacuation from ships and icebergs.

Needless to say, you will not be covered for pre-existing conditions although some insurers may not regard a medical condition as pre-existing if it is under control.

Depending on the insurer and plan, “Travels” may begin:

when after we have departed from our home country, or
departed from our home for the airport

Likewise, depending on the insurer and plan, “Travels” may end on your return to your home country or for some time after you return, especially if you need follow-up medical treatment.

In terms of both the amount and frequency of travel insurance claims, they occur in roughly the below percentages:

Coverage	Percentage share of travel insurance claims
Medical	50%
Lost / Damaged bags and other property	25%
Other	25%

If you already have some form of medical cover, you may not need the medical component in your travel insurance plan.

However, there is no option to simply choose what elements of a plan that you really need! (Many who have medical insurance that has a deductible will use travel insurance as a means of paying for the deductible.)

Although there are some travel plans that cover only emergency medical expenses, most will also cover such things as:

Evacuation to the nearest appropriate medical facility (Not something under your control. It is often determined by the insurer’s doctors in consultation with attending doctors).
Travel costs of a close relative to be with you and onward travel for accompanying children.
Accidental Death and Total Disablement. The disability cover will typically permit a claim only if you have been disabled for a year and are unable ever again to undertake any kind of work.
If protecting your livelihood is important to you, speak to us about an annual Personal Accident plan, or better still, a Disability Income/Income Protection plan that will provide you an income stream if you are not able to work for a period of time.
Baggage and personal effects, with varying allowances for mobile phones, tablets and laptops. (A home insurance plan will however cover lost or damaged items more comprehensively than any travel plan!).
Purchase of emergency essentials if bag delivery is delayed more than 6-8 hours.
Loss of cash and unauthorized credit card use. Note: You will seldom find more than USD500 in lost cash cover in an ordinary travel plan, but the better quality professional home insurance plans will provide at least USD10,000 in lost cash cover.
Personal Liability. Most home insurance plans will also cover your personal liability, should you accidentally injure someone or damage their property.
The majority however, do not cover you according to your overseas legal costs and penalties, but reinterpret any judgments against you, in terms of what is the norm in Hong Kong.
Better quality home plans will insure you ‘on location’, wherever you are sued. So, for example if you were sued for CAD5m for injuring someone on a ski slope in Canada, quality home plans would cover you according to the norms of Canadian law.
Re-routing and accommodation expenses resulting from such things as strikes, riots, adverse weather conditions, or possibly overbooking in case such costs are not reimbursed by the airline or other carrier.

The important thing to remember about travel insurance that you take for a particular trip or to cover you for a year or so, is that such plans do not guarantee renewal.

It is completely up to the insurer whether or not to offer you renewal and should you have cost them a substantial amount, there is little chance you will be offered renewal. (There are a few insurers that will guarantee renewal for two or three years.)

Bear in mind also, that different insurers will have different ‘age at entry rules’ and exclusions related to risky pastimes or sports.

COVID-19 cover

Most, but not all insurers now cover medical costs for Covid treatment. More details in our FAQs.

For flight cancellations / trip curtailment / baggage delay etc the conditions under which you can claim vary between insurers. Most commonly you will find that flight cancellation due to contracting Covid 19 is covered.

For all terms and conditions, please refer to the specific benefit table or get in touch with us.