Overseas travel plans can be turned upside down before a traveller even leaves the country - Fair Go spells out what Covid cover travellers need and which companies will offer it.
An increasing number of insurers are now offering Covid cover as part of their insurance packages.
That may include:
- Cancelling a trip after testing positive for Covid and being unable to board a flight
- Testing positive while overseas and having to change flights and pay for extra meals and accommodation
- Covid-related medical expenses
AA Travel, Southern Cross, Tower, CoverMore and partners Air New Zealand, AMI and State cover all three scenarios - though some are only for comprehensive plans.
1 Cover only takes care of medical expenses and TINZ won't cover anything relating to Covid.
Most insurers will require a person to be fully vaccinated, but others, like Allianz Partners, will cover unvaccinated travellers but only if it's not required by the airline they’re flying with or the country they’re entering.
No insurer is likely to pay out if a country goes into lockdown or if they holiday somewhere high risk.
The Ministry of Travel and Foreign Affairs’ website, SafeTravel, lists all the countries in the world and it tells you which ones you can travel to safely and those that are deemed 'do not travel' zones.
Insurance Council Chief Executive Tim Grafton says while people can expect to pay higher premiums for travel insurance because of the heightened risk Covid poses, “it is quite affordable”.
Grafton also points out that if a person does end up making a claim, they’ll need to show results from a supervised test to prove they had Covid.
Insurance companies advise all customers to check the wording of a policy to fully understand how they may be protected.
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