Travelling to Japan from the 25th of March til the 10th of April. Just needed advice on what travel insurance you guys would recommend with the current situation of Coronavirus.
Any advice would be much appreciated <3
<edit> besides that what would be a good travel insurance company to go with whilst travelling to japan? Thanks
Yes def read the PDS
This is for covermore:
Customers (excluding Credit and Debit Card Travel Insurance)
MEDICAL CLAIMS IN CONJUNCTION WITH ASSOCIATED ADDITIONAL EXPENSES IN RELATION TO CORONAVIRUS: It is a condition of our policies that you are not aware of any circumstance which is likely to give rise to a claim. If you incur medical expenses with associated additional expenses as a result of contracting coronavirus, there may be cover up to the benefit limit. Our Claims Team will consider DFAT travel advices in place at the time you purchased your policy and where you chose to travel.
CANCELLATION AND OTHER RELEVANT SECTIONS OF THE POLICY: Cover for this event is excluded under other policy sections such as cancellation.
“We will not pay for claims caused by or arising from an Epidemic, Pandemic or outbreak of an infectious disease or any derivative or mutation of such viruses, or the threat or perceived threat of any of these.”
However, if you have purchased the Cancel-For-Any-Reason option (available on some of our products) and wish to cancel your trip, you can claim the non-refundable portion of the prepaid travel costs according to the terms and conditions of the policy.
"“We will not pay for claims caused by or arising from an Epidemic, Pandemic or outbreak of an infectious disease or any derivative or mutation of such viruses, or the threat or perceived threat of any of these.”""
What a joke.
LOL!
i broke ozbargain's margin rules
Hahaha… same here. I noticed the same in my comment below.
The site's layout functionality must be a bit broken at the moment. :D
My annual policy says:
A loss that arises because you did not follow advice in mass media of government or other official body's warning:-
of a likely or actual epidemic or pandemic
of a threat of epidemic or pandemic that requires the closure of a country's border
of a epidemic or pandemic that requires you to be quarantined
Guess I won't be covered anything related to coronavirus LOL
IN any case, go to Japan, have a fantastic time and don't let FEAR hold you back. Remember FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.
if you want to go to Japan, go now.
The risk of getting infected by the virus outside China (and cruise ship) is still low.
Who knows what will happen in 6 months time.
As its now listed as a known event, there will not be any cover from any insurance company, even from those that cover against this type of event.
for example, Insure and Go, their cut off for trips to destinations other than China was 31 January at 4pm, any policy after that date and time is not covered at all.
Even then, cover may only be provided due to travel delays.
https://www.insureandgo.com.au/travel-alerts/update-global-c…
•If you bought your policy after 12:00am AEST on 21st January 2020 and before 4:00pm AEST on 31st January 2020,
you will not be covered for cancelling your trip due to change of mind or fear but you may be covered for claims
directly related to travel delays as a result of quarantines at major airports directly related to the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Please be aware our policies only cover connecting flights where the stopover was originally scheduled on your itinerary for more than 6 hours.
•If you bought your policy after 4:00pm AEST on 31st January 2020, you will not be covered for claims related to the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
It would be expected the policy was entered into with awareness of the virus and its developments.
" with the current situation of Coronavirus"
We just returned. Used similar precautions to home and avoided crowded public transport (peak hour). Did carry masks but rarely wore without reason.
I'm going to Japan in a similar timeframe - 30th March to 16th April.
and I only just bought ING travel insurance yesterday. I didn't see any disclaimers mentioning no cover? like the other insurances so I hope this is ok?
Interesting… ING's PDS actually explicitly includes cancellation due travel restrictions associated with an epidemic.
You being unable to travel because of travel restrictions imposed on you after an epidemic, terrorist attack or natural disaster
I'm similarly in position where I need to travel in March & May and have been calling around the bigger brands asking
what coverage I'd get. The answer has been consistently "none" off the back of very open ended exclusions targeting
"an actual or likely epidemic or pandemic."
ING seems to be selling a product provided by one of the budget brands… I'll need to do some more digging, it may be worth a shot.
EDIT: Fixed really long lines 'cause ozbargain seems to not be wrapping text at the moment. :)
I was having a look at this, noting 1cover specifically excludes such coverage. However, I noticed Chubb, which I understand underwrite the Amex travel insurance plans, has no mention of anything to do with pandemic or epidemic in their single-trip policy. At least my brief search led me to believe that, could be wrong. They do, however, have a specific bulletin on their website, advising of cut-off times, yet at the same time, couldn't really spot wording in their policy around the whole matter.
Anyhow, in the case of medical, not that anyone would ever want to rely on it, but do the insurer's actually review cases on a case-by-case basis even if there is a broad-sweeping exclusion, or it's just more ass-covering despite the fact they shouldn't really need to when it's specified clearly in black and white? Noticed this in 1Cover's bulletin…
"Therefore, regardless of when you purchased your policy, it is unlikely that any claim (to anywhere in the world) will be covered if it relates to the coronavirus. However, we will assess each claim based on its individual facts and circumstances and policy terms and conditions."
Also, taken from Canstar: https://www.canstar.com.au/travel-insurance/coronavirus-trav…
Southern Cross, being one company that specifically excludes such coverage, "issued an update recently, indicating it would assess claims normally if the insurance was purchased before 11am AEDT on Tuesday, 21 January, but said if customers bought a policy after that time it “would consider that you would have been aware of the outbreak”
Just interesting to see these bulletin points in light of these policy wordings
I've had a look at a few insurance PDS and all of them have this clause, I'd assume ALL travel insurance now will exclude Coronavirus (from jan 21 onwards)since it's listed on DFAT as a Travel Alert.
edit: looks like there are some companies that MAY cover https://www.comparetravelinsurance.com.au/travel-insurance-t…
going to try insure4less
@jaxon: Interesting (that it only mentions China).
"Effective 02 February 2020 (9:00am AEST), there is no cover for amendment or cancellation costs for travel to China as the outbreak of the Coronavirus is no longer deemed an unforeseen event."
It looks like it's implying that cancellation will be covered in the case of "the Australian Government either issues a regulation that stops you from travelling, or a level 4 warning “do not travel” is issued advising against travel to your destination"
Why do they have the following section on that site when Hollards and Llyods/Coffre-Fort are among those that don't/won't provide cover of any sort?
If you travel to an affected country and contract coronavirus, your travel insurer is likely to do everything they can to assist you. In most instances, your medical costs would be covered, subject to when you purchased your policy and any travel advice warnings that are in place. This not only includes covering the costs for medical treatment but also providing support and updates to family members where appropriate
Also interesting to note re: insure4less and the post 23 Jan coverage - "If you travel to a country affected by the Coronavirus (China) and contract the virus, there is no cover for overseas medical expenses" - they've specifically singled out China, yet also kept wording quite vague by "a country affected"…or could it be referring to China as in, to refer to it as the Wuhan Coronavirus, since there are various Coronavirus'??
Don't go
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/opinion/coronavirus-japan…
numbers are possibly massively under reported as reports in press (let alone social media) are that they are not offering the sick hospital treatment just requiring them to fend for themselves at home, let alone testing for infections, let alone confirming deaths
i can't get any refunds so I'd have to forfeit about 3.5k. :(
Read the pds for travel insurance your applying. They might not cover coronavirus due to purchasing insurance cover after it was a known event.