Ever since international borders have reopened, Australians are looking forward to travelling overseas again and are opting to pay hundreds of dollars for travel insurance.

But how ‘protected’ by the insurance are you, really? One couple from Sydney shared their experience.

Beth and Larry Lee bought travel insurance ahead of their trip to the United States in December. Photo by Daniel Irvine from ABC News.​

Sydney couple Beth and Larry Lee are about to fly to the United States to meet their grandchild, which the both of them have never seen in person.

"I'm the kind of person who watches people at airports and cries when the people they know come in," said Ms Lee.

"So, I'm really excited, but also a little nervous."

Aside from the excitement of finally meeting their grandchild, the couple is also feeling the nerves from thinking about the unpredictability of post-COVID travel.

"There are nerves because, if something happens, we might get stuck over there. We might end up in a hospital," said the husband.

"And we won't have money to cover that."

To protect themselves financially, the pair looked around for travel insurance that could cover them for COVID-related issues.

After phoning several companies, the Lees decided to get their travel insurance from the company ‘Southern Cross’.

The cost of $698 for two people for three weeks in the United States was slightly more expensive than standard cover because the retired couple have their own pre-existing medical conditions.

The Lees’ travel insurance from Southern Cross comes with:

• Medical expenses if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 while on their journey
• Costs to change their travel arrangements if they, or a relevant person, are diagnosed with COVID-19 before they leave and their journey is cancelled or amended
• Costs to change their travel arrangements if they, or a relevant person, are diagnosed with COVID-19 after they leave and their journey is interrupted or cut short

Mr and Mrs Lee were only able to take out their policy to travel to the United States after travel advice from Smartraveller, a service provided by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, was downgraded from "do not travel" to "travel with caution", due to its ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks.

However, if the travel advice to the United States changes to “do not travel” and the couple still decides to push forward with their plans, it was confirmed that Southern Cross would not cover them for COVID-19 expenses.

“They would be able to claim under our COVID-19 cover for costs to [cut short] their journey and return to Australia if the change happened after they left and it was unexpected,” a representative for Southern Cross said in a statement.

“It's really important people monitor when they're travelling around.”

“You could be in New York and, while you're there, there's a huge surge in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles. Smartraveller updates will change to say "do not travel" to Los Angeles because of the surge.”

“If you go to that high-risk city, regardless of government advice, and catch COVID, there won't be any cover. If you go anyway, against government advice, and have an unexpected medical event, then there would be cover.”

Another important thing to note is that Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements with 11 nations, including the UK, New Zealand, and Italy.

Australians travelling there for urgent medical treatment will be covered under the agreements; however, often not the entire bill. Evacuations also aren't covered by reciprocal healthcare agreements.

A recent survey by consumer group CHOICE found only 23 per cent of Australians were confident in making travel plans. Photo by Danielle Bonica from ABC News.​

But what about lockdowns or border closures?

In the event of general COVID-19 lockdowns or border closures, Southern Cross confirmed that they would not be able to provide refunds for travelling costs and compensation for rearranged plans.

“Our customers also want affordable travel insurance, so our policies currently don't provide cover for lockdowns, which would expose us to much greater insured losses," explained the company representative.

“Were our policies to provide lockdown cover, they'd be less affordable, so fewer people would have insurance cover.”

Considering the current situation in Europe, lockdowns are still very much a consideration for future travellers.

The Lees are both vaccinated and will be travelling to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles with caution, feeling somewhat less nervous knowing their travel insurance covers them for contracting COVID-19 and associated medical and cancellation expenses.

“We're going to do rapid antigen testing twice a week while away,” said Beth.

“We probably will not go into a restaurant to eat inside over there. We've thought about it and are taking as many precautions as we can. We want to see our family; we pray we'll get back there safely and come back safely.”

However, rolling lockdowns or border closures still make them nervous as these are not covered under the insurance.

“That's the tricky one,” said Larry. “You could certainly book into a place and be left high and dry. That could be a problem.”

“We don't want to go into our superannuation. And it could take huge amounts of money.”

So far, the Lees have spent $10,000 on their short-term accommodation and flights to the United States. Although the flights aren't refundable, they may get travel credits if their plans need to change.

Because of the unpredictability of their situation, they have intentionally booked short-term rentals where the cancellation policies say they can be given full refunds.

“We love to travel, so we won't stop travelling,” said Beth.

“We're aware of the fact that your travel plans can be upended at any time.”

 

[Lynette Finnigan]

COVID-19 travel insurance: What it does and doesn't cover​

Ever since international borders have reopened, Australians are looking forward to travelling overseas again and are opting to pay hundreds of dollars for travel insurance.

But how ‘protected’ by the insurance are you, really? One couple from Sydney shared their experience.

Beth and Larry Lee bought travel insurance ahead of their trip to the United States in December. Photo by Daniel Irvine from ABC News.​

Sydney couple Beth and Larry Lee are about to fly to the United States to meet their grandchild, which the both of them have never seen in person.

"I'm the kind of person who watches people at airports and cries when the people they know come in," said Ms Lee.

"So, I'm really excited, but also a little nervous."

Aside from the excitement of finally meeting their grandchild, the couple is also feeling the nerves from thinking about the unpredictability of post-COVID travel.

"There are nerves because, if something happens, we might get stuck over there. We might end up in a hospital," said the husband.

"And we won't have money to cover that."

To protect themselves financially, the pair looked around for travel insurance that could cover them for COVID-related issues.

After phoning several companies, the Lees decided to get their travel insurance from the company ‘Southern Cross’.

The cost of $698 for two people for three weeks in the United States was slightly more expensive than standard cover because the retired couple have their own pre-existing medical conditions.

The Lees’ travel insurance from Southern Cross comes with:

• Medical expenses if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 while on their journey
• Costs to change their travel arrangements if they, or a relevant person, are diagnosed with COVID-19 before they leave and their journey is cancelled or amended
• Costs to change their travel arrangements if they, or a relevant person, are diagnosed with COVID-19 after they leave and their journey is interrupted or cut short

Mr and Mrs Lee were only able to take out their policy to travel to the United States after travel advice from Smartraveller, a service provided by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, was downgraded from "do not travel" to "travel with caution", due to its ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks.

However, if the travel advice to the United States changes to “do not travel” and the couple still decides to push forward with their plans, it was confirmed that Southern Cross would not cover them for COVID-19 expenses.

“They would be able to claim under our COVID-19 cover for costs to [cut short] their journey and return to Australia if the change happened after they left and it was unexpected,” a representative for Southern Cross said in a statement.

“It's really important people monitor when they're travelling around.”

“You could be in New York and, while you're there, there's a huge surge in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles. Smartraveller updates will change to say "do not travel" to Los Angeles because of the surge.”

“If you go to that high-risk city, regardless of government advice, and catch COVID, there won't be any cover. If you go anyway, against government advice, and have an unexpected medical event, then there would be cover.”

Another important thing to note is that Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements with 11 nations, including the UK, New Zealand, and Italy.

Australians travelling there for urgent medical treatment will be covered under the agreements; however, often not the entire bill. Evacuations also aren't covered by reciprocal healthcare agreements.

A recent survey by consumer group CHOICE found only 23 per cent of Australians were confident in making travel plans. Photo by Danielle Bonica from ABC News.​

But what about lockdowns or border closures?

In the event of general COVID-19 lockdowns or border closures, Southern Cross confirmed that they would not be able to provide refunds for travelling costs and compensation for rearranged plans.

“Our customers also want affordable travel insurance, so our policies currently don't provide cover for lockdowns, which would expose us to much greater insured losses," explained the company representative.

“Were our policies to provide lockdown cover, they'd be less affordable, so fewer people would have insurance cover.”

Considering the current situation in Europe, lockdowns are still very much a consideration for future travellers.

The Lees are both vaccinated and will be travelling to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles with caution, feeling somewhat less nervous knowing their travel insurance covers them for contracting COVID-19 and associated medical and cancellation expenses.

“We're going to do rapid antigen testing twice a week while away,” said Beth.

“We probably will not go into a restaurant to eat inside over there. We've thought about it and are taking as many precautions as we can. We want to see our family; we pray we'll get back there safely and come back safely.”

However, rolling lockdowns or border closures still make them nervous as these are not covered under the insurance.

“That's the tricky one,” said Larry. “You could certainly book into a place and be left high and dry. That could be a problem.”

“We don't want to go into our superannuation. And it could take huge amounts of money.”

So far, the Lees have spent $10,000 on their short-term accommodation and flights to the United States. Although the flights aren't refundable, they may get travel credits if their plans need to change.

Because of the unpredictability of their situation, they have intentionally booked short-term rentals where the cancellation policies say they can be given full refunds.

“We love to travel, so we won't stop travelling,” said Beth.

“We're aware of the fact that your travel plans can be upended at any time.”

People need to be aware that you don't get your money back but you do get flight credits is not as wonderful as it sounds....we had flights, hotel, car hire, etc all booked for Perth and covid struck. We got our money back on every thing except flights. Finally, we got notice that we had to use our flights as it was nearing 2 yrs since we booked. Now.. we paid $998 for return flights for 2 so we thought we might get a couple of trips, because they were offering return flights to Queensland (as it was now winter so we chose to go there instead) for $149 return.... wow, cheap right!! No.. we had to pay a further $139 on top of what we'd paid to change our flights to Brisbane when it would have cost us $149 each to buy from scratch. Will never be using Webjet services again!!