5 Things You Must Know About Your Travel Insurance

Ever looked at travel insurance and wondered what a certain benefit meant or if a specific event is covered? In this article we share five things you may not know about travel insurance.

1. Insolvency protection

Insolvency protection in travel insurance covers for when your bookings are cancelled or disrupted as a result of the travel agency becoming insolvent.

However, note that if you book through a travel agency, this benefit covers against the insolvency of the travel agency, and not the company that conducts the activity. For example, booking Company A’s cruise package through Tour Agency B. Should Company A declare themselves insolvent, you will not be able to make any claims. This is because under this clause you are protected against the insolvency of Tour Agency B, and not Company A.

Additionally, your travel agency or tour operator must be a licensed travel agency operating in Singapore, and registered with Singapore Tourism Board in order to receive coverage.

2. Trip disruption vs Trip cut short

If you were to take a look at the coverage table in your travel insurance policy, you will notice two benefits: Trip disruption and Trip cut short. While these two benefits sound similar, they actually cover for different scenarios. Here is what is different about these two benefits:

Trip disruption:

This refers to when there is a disruption to your trip and as a result you are forced to change your itinerary due to the covered event. Note that changing your itinerary does not necessarily refer to returning to Singapore but rather to change a part of your itinerary to allow you to continue to your original scheduled trip. This disruption may take place when you are in Singapore, or overseas.

Trip cut short:

This benefit covers when you are overseas, prevented from travelling further due to a covered event, and have to return to Singapore before the scheduled return date.

3. Trip cancellation vs Trip postponement

Trip cancellation refers to an action done before your trip commences. This is done in Singapore when you are forced to cancel the entire trip as a result of a covered event and will no longer be going on your trip.

While trip postponement also provides coverage before your trip commences. This benefit is only activated when you have to postpone your entire trip or make changes to your itinerary as a result of a covered event. As the trip postponement benefit is only meant for you to cover the additional costs incurred to move your travel to a future date, the benefit limit for this is usually lower. This typically refers to additional admin costs incurred from changing your flights and hotels.

(See :"Travel Insurance 2023: Do I Still Need Covid Coverage?")

4. Travel delay vs Travel misconnection

Travel delay refers to when your scheduled public transport is delayed or when you are forced to travel at another time because your scheduled public transport is overbooked. For example, a direct flight from New York to Singapore that has been delayed beyond a specified time would be a travel delay claim.

Travel misconnection refers to when you are stranded or when you miss your onward travel connection as a result of a delay of your previous scheduled public transport. However, the coverage conditions for travel delay and travel misconnection tend to vary across insurers. For example, if you are flying from New York to Singapore via Frankfurt and the delay occurs in your first flight from New York to Frankfurt which then results in you missing your connecting flight to Singapore – insurers may classify this situation as either a travel delay or travel misconnection.

Tip: Request for proof of delay from your public transport carrier should you find yourself in the situation of a travel delay. This will come in useful when you file for your travel insurance claim.

5. Fraudulent personal credit card charges

Did you know that not all travel insurance plans will cover for fraudulent personal credit card charges? Additionally, in order to make a claim, there must be a loss of your credit card due to a robbery, theft, or burglary, and a report must be made to your credit card issuer. A travel insurance policy will only cover in the event that there is a financial loss resulting from this fraudulent personal credit card charges.

Premiums and Ongoing Promotions for Single-Trip plans

^{*Premiums shown are before discounts.}

^{Information is accurate as of 31 July 2023 with changes subjected to the insurer's discretion.}

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