Tiger Airways still grounded in Australia

It was just announced today that Tiger Airways in Australia was grounded until at least 1 August 2011. That will bring the total time to 1 month since they would have flown unless they are grounded further or deregistered.

What does this mean for people who have bought tickets through Tiger?

• If you are flying Internationally you won't be affected unless you need to make domestic connections.
• Tiger is refunding your domestic tickets if they have been canceled. But only up to when they are officially grounded. People have reported that it can take 6 weeks to get a refund but the airline is quoting 2 weeks.
• Tiger won't cover the cancellation or rebooking fees associated with the rest of your holiday.
• Travel Insurance won't cover these costs if you take out insurance after Tiger was grounded.
• If you already have Travel Insurance before the grounding announcement and will incur costs due to cancellation or rebooking, contact your Travel Insurer for advice. They will tell you what kind of documentation you need to submit for a claim.

Travel Insurance and Civil Unrest in Egypt

The recent troubles in Egypt highlight the need for taking out travel insurance. Thankfully it was rare for tourists to actually be injured and require medical attention as the protests were largely non-violent. However, it was still a potentially unsafe area and not a place you would want to go for holidays. Luckily there were several benefits of travel insurance that would help.

Cancellation - If you were yet to go to Egypt your Travel Insurance provider was more than likely happy to pay your cancellation costs so you weren't out of pocket. Alternately they could pay for the costs associated with moving your travel plans to another date. It is cheaper for them to do this than potentially have to spend a lot more if you get hurt over there or the situation gets even worse. If you were already in Egypt and wanted to fly out you could be reimbursed for cancellation charges of accommodation, flights, tours etc that you hadn't used.

Additional Costs - If you were in Egypt and wanted to get out then your travel insurance should pay for any additional costs that arise from this such as flights, accommodation, and transport.

Medical Costs - And of course if you are injured during an event like this you will be covered for your medical and hospital costs.

Always check with your travel insurance company if you are heading into an area that is potentially dangerous like the Egyptian crisis or it may involve volcano's, cyclones, or other natural disasters. You can also review your travel insurance policy to check what you will be covered for.

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Travel Insurance - 5 Features To Watch For

Medical Fees - Do you have to pay upfront?

When travelling overseas and need to receive medical treatment at a doctor or hospital your travel insurance doesn't always payout upfront. Quite often you'll need lodge a claim when you get home. Before seeing a doctor, or as soon as possible if its an emergency, call your insurance provider and inform them what is occurring. They'll be able to tell you if they have a recommended medical provide and what you need  to do to claim the costs back.

It is preferable to have the insurance pay for your hospital or doctors costs upfront as this saves you from putting the fees on your credit card or attempting to organise the money from friends or family, especially if its a high cost incident.

Overseas Emergency Assistance - Who to call?

All travel insurance companies have some form procedure for being notified of emergency events and how to handle them. Always look for a policy that offers local telephone numbers to call in a wide range of countries. This will make it easier to contact them if something goes wrong. Reverse charge numbers don't work in all countries so should be avoided if you are going anywhere slightly off the beaten track. Calling back to your own country can end up being hundreds or even thousands of dollars depending which country you are in.

Always ensure you have the emergency assistance contact information with you at all times while travelling and store a separate copy in your luggage and in an online storage or email account.

Excess

A small excess is very useful for comprehensive travel insurance because it allows you to claim on a wider range of items. Many policies offer an excess buyout for a fee (reduces the excess to $0). This is often a very good idea as it means that you are able to claim on anything that you are able to and will get the full amount back. If you are going for a backpacker or medical only travel insurance policy the excess may be of less importance as you will most likely only claim for high cost events where the excess is just a small percentage of the total amount.

Sports and adventure activity coverage

Certain adventurous activities are automatically covered by travel insurance policies, these are usually low risk sports or activities such as bushwalking, snorkelling, and cycling. Higher risk activities like sky diving, bungee jumping, and rock climbing may be covered for an extra premium but some policies do cover these as standard. You should confirm directly with the insurance company if you are doing any of these activities.

Pre-existing conditions

Many of us have certain medical conditions that could potentially cause problems when on holiday. Things like asthma, arthritis, allergies. Sometimes these will be covered by the insurance policy, other times they will not and some with stop you from getting the travel insurance policy. These are listed in the PDS and you should contact the travel insurance company directly if you have any pre-existing medical conditions.

Reviews

Reading customer reviews is very helpful as it provides an overview of the claims and assistance services that you can't get from reading the travel insurance PDS or from the businesses website. Make sure you take not of the ease and speed of claims and whether the company tries to get out of settling claims where ever possible.

New Travel Advisory for New Delhi, India

High risk of terrorism

DFAT have updated their travel advisories for New Delhi, India in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games in October. Remember to check frequently as the situation could change rapidly.

Here are some handy link to Smarttraveller:
http://www.smarttraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/India
http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/TravelBulletins/Commonwealth_Games,_New_Delhi,_India

As always, you should purchase travel insurance prior to travelling and review your travel insurance policy to make sure you are covered for these type of events.

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