Allianz travel insurance review
Finding adequate travel cover is one of the most critical components of organising a trip. While most people believe that bad things during travel cannot happen to them, they forget if these bad things do happen, they have nothing to fall back on. What if your journey is cancelled due to sudden family emergency? You could potentially lose thousands in pre-paid expenses for your travel and accommodation.
Travel insurance provides cover for a whole range of losses including emergency medical assistance or hospitalisation and loss of luggage and cash. These are events that can occur anytime during your travel and the type of travel insurance you have will be able to cover these unexpected situations.
If you are looking for travel insurance, you should take a closer look at Allianz Travel Insurance. This insurance is offered by Allianz Australia Limited, which has a wide range of insurance and risk management products and services that it offers through its subsidiaries. Allianz Australia Limited employs about 3,600 people throughout Australia and New Zealand. It has investment assets of about $6.1 billion, making it a financially stable and reliable company. This review will discuss the different policies offered by Allianz and the benefits of taking out cover with this provider.
Who is Allianz?
Allianz is not a fly-by-night insurance company. It is one of the largest insurance and risk management companies in Australia and operates not just in Australia, but also in New Zealand. Through its various subsidiaries, the company offers a wide range of insurance and risk management products and services, including travel insurance, workers’ compensation and corporate insurance.
Its main subsidiary is Allianz Australia Insurance Limited, which has more than 2 million policyholders and also has grown to become one of the largest general insurers in Australia.
Allianz offers a wide range of travel insurance policies, such as Budget Travel Insurance, Comprehensive Travel Insurance, Frequent Traveller Insurance and Australia Only Travel Insurance. Each policy offers one of the following types of cover;
- Single Cover: If you are travelling alone or with a child or grandchild under 21, you can opt for this cover type.
- Duo Cover: If you intend travelling with a companion, you should opt for this cover type. The Duo Cover does not offer cover to dependant children. Each insured person will enjoy single cover benefits.
- Family Plan: If you and your family plan on travelling together, the Family Plan cover option is perfect. It is important to remember just family members are covered and include spouse, de facto partner, children and grandchildren. Your children and/or grandchildren should be under 21 and be your dependants.
Why Purchase Allianz Travel Insurance
Regardless of what your insurance needs are, you will be able to find the right travel insurance option for your trip with Allianz. Allianz Travel Insurance offers a wide range of options that fit seamlessly into your travel budget. You also have the advantage of seeking global assistance should the need arise. If you need emergency medical assistance or hospitalisation, Allianz Global Assistance is on hand to offer the right level of support. This service is available to customers 24/7 anywhere in the world.
Allianz is not just another insurance company. It is an underwriter for some of the leading insurance companies in the world and has worked hard to achieve a market leading position through its service and product line. The company operates throughout Australia and New Zealand via its subsidiaries.
If you are wondering what are your options when it comes to Allianz Travel Insurance, you will be amazed at the wide range of travel insurance policies that the company has to offer.
- Budget: If you are travelling overseas, you can take advantage of the budget travel insurance option that does away with all the frills, but retains the most important benefits. You can enjoy cover for overseas emergency medical assistance and medical and hospital expenses at an extremely affordable price.
- Comprehensive Travel Insurance: Just as the name suggests, you can enjoy comprehensive cover while travelling overseas, including overseas emergency medical assistance, cancellation, repatriation cover and luggage cover.
- Frequent Traveller: If you tend to travel frequently for leisure or business within Australia or overseas, this is the ideal travel insurance option for you. It is an annual travel insurance policy that offers comprehensive cover for 37 days for leisure trips and 90 days for business trips.
- Australia Only Travel Insurance: If you intend on travelling within Australia, this is the perfect insurance policy for you. It offers comprehensive cover for travel within the country, including travel delay expenses, damage to or loss of luggage and/or personal effects and cancellation of your travel and accommodation. You also can enjoy cover for many additional expenses.
Allianz Travel Insurance Policy Options
Allianz Travel Insurance offers a wide range of policies to suit your travel needs, be it within Australia or overseas. The policy options you can enjoy are as follows:
Budget Travel Insurance:
As a budget traveller, you never have to worry about avoiding travel insurance if you opt for Budget Travel Insurance from Allianz. This is a no-frills travel insurance that will cover emergency medical assistance and medical hospital expenses when you are travelling overseas. You can enjoy unlimited overseas emergency medical assistance and overseas emergency medical and hospital expenses. The policy also covers dental expenses up to $500 and offers personal liability cover up to $5 million.
Comprehensive Travel Insurance:
With Comprehensive Travel Insurance, you can get unlimited cover for cancellation fees and lost deposits, overseas emergency medical assistance and overseas emergency medical and hospital expenses. You also enjoy cover for the following:
- Travel documents, credit cards and travellers cheques
- Travel delays, which includes meals, accommodation, personal effects and luggage
- Alternative transport expenses if the transport you have booked is cancelled, delayed or diverted
- Permanent disability cover
- Loss of income cover
Comprehensive Travel Insurance also offers personal liability cover up to $5 million and rental vehicle excess cover up to $6,000.
Frequent Traveller Insurance:
If you travel a lot, the last thing you want is taking out travel insurance each time you decide to travel. The Frequent Traveller Insurance from Allianz Travel Insurance saves you this headache, as it is a 12-month travel insurance that offers cover for the following:
- Cancellation fees and lost deposits
- Overseas emergency medical assistance
- Overseas emergency medical and hospital expenses, including dental expenses
- Additional expenses
- Hospital cash allowance
- Accidental death
- Permanent disability
- Loss of income
- Travel documents, credit cards and travellers cheques
- Theft of cash
- Luggage and personal effects
- Luggage and personal effects delay expenses
- Travel delay expenses
- Alternative transport expenses
- Personal liability
- Rental vehicle excess
All you need to do is make a single premium payment and you enjoy cover for every single trip you make in the year. Your cover is reinstated after you complete each journey.
Australia Only Travel Insurance:
Just because you are travelling within your own company does not mean you are exempt from experiencing the same losses as travellers on international trips. If you are travelling within Australia and still want to enjoy a wide range of cover, you should opt for Australia Only Travel Insurance. It offers the following benefits:
- Unlimited cover for cancellation fees and lost deposits
- Additional cover for travel delays, including meals and accommodation
- Accidental death
- Luggage and personal effects
- Travel delay expenses
- Personal liability
- Rental vehicle insurance excess
Allianz Travel Insurance Benefit Options
Some of the benefits you can enjoy when you opt for an Allianz Travel Insurance policy are as follows:
- Cancellation Fees and Lost Deposits: If you paid for your travel and accommodation in advance and your journey is cancelled or shortened due to unforeseen circumstances, you can get the cancellation fees up to $1,500 for single cover and $3,000 for family cover. If you used frequent flyer points to buy your ticket, you will be paid for the loss of the points.
- Overseas Emergency Medical Assistance, Medical Evacuation or Funeral Expenses:
- If you are injured or become sick during your overseas journey, you will have access to a medical adviser for treatment, have messages relayed to your family or employer and written guarantees for payment for emergency hospitalisation. The insurance also covers your medical evacuation to Australia and if you pass away due to injury or sickness, the insurance will provide cover for your funeral or cremation overseas. The total amount you can claim is $15,000.
- Overseas Emergency Medical, Hospital or Dental Expenses: The insurance will pay medical or hospital expenses you incur until you return to Australia. The insurance also covers emergency dental treatment up to $500 per person.
- Additional Expenses: If you cannot travel due to illness or injury, you will be reimbursed for any additional travel and accommodation expenses you incur. You can also receive cover if your journey is disrupted, cancelled, diverted or shortened due to strike, riot, civil disturbance, hijack, weather or natural disaster.
- Hospital Cash Allowance: If your hospital stay is beyond 48 hours, you will receive $50 a day while you are in hospital.
- Accidental Death: If you pass away due to sickness or injury within 12 months of sustaining it during your journey, the accompanying dependant will receive a death benefit to a maximum of $5,000.
- Permanent Disability: If you become permanently disabled due to an injury sustained during your journey and that too within 12 months of the injury, you will receive $5,000 as a permanent disability benefit.
- Loss of Income: If you become disabled within 30 days of sustaining the injury and the disablement lasts for more than 30 days, you will receive $400 per week for 26 weeks.
- Loss of Travel Documents, Credit Cards and Travellers Cheques: If your documents, credit cards and travellers cheques are lost, the insurance will pay for the expenses you incur for replacing them.
- Theft of Cash: You will receive a maximum of $250 if your cash, bank notes, money order, postal order or currency notes are stolen from your person during your journey.
- Damage of Permanent Loss of Luggage and Personal Effects: If your luggage and personal effects are lost, damaged or stolen, you will be reimbursed for the repair or paid for the same after taking into account the depreciation.
- Luggage and Personal Effects Delay Expenses: If your luggage and personal effects are delayed, misdirected or misplaced by the airline for more than 12 hours, you will be reimbursed the expenses you incurred for purchasing essential items.
- Travel Delay Expenses: If your travel is delayed for 6 hours or more, you will be paid $200 for the initial 6 hours and thereafter $200 for every 24 hours for your meals and accommodation.
- Alternative Transport Expenses: If your arranged transport is delayed and you have to make alternative arrangements, you will paid for the alternative transport arrangement you made.
- Personal Liability: If you cause bodily harm to someone or damage someone else’s property, you will be reimbursed legal expenses for settling or disputing the claim.
- Rental Vehicle Insurance Excess: You will be reimbursed rental vehicle insurance excess or cost of vehicle repair if the vehicle is involved in an accident, is stolen or damaged while you hired it.
Allianz Travel Insurance Claims
In the event of a loss, you should notify Allianz of your claim as soon as possible. A claim form can be obtained from the Allianz website or by contacting the Allianz claim department. Once you have filled out the form, you will need to post it to the address mentioned on the form. Be sure to fill out the form completely or it will delay your claim. You also could end up getting reduced claim amount due to the delay caused by you.
Your form should be supported by all relevant documents and information, including medical reports, proof of ownership, valuations, police reports and original receipts. If any document is not in English, you will be required to have it translated at your own expense and submit the document to Allianz.
All medical, dental and hospital claims should be referred to Allianz Global Assistance as soon as possible.
If you lose or damage your luggage or personal effects, report the matter to the police at once and get a written report. You would need this report to make your claim.
In the event that your luggage and personal effects are damaged or misplaced by the airline, travel operator or accommodation provider, report the matter to the concerned authority at once and get a written report of your complaint. The report should contain any settlement offered by the provider.
Your claim should be submitted within 30 days of your return and it should always be in writing.
The claim, if approved, would be made in Australian dollars and the expenses you incurred on your overseas journey would be calculated on the exchange rate that was present when you incurred the expenses.
