Outstanding Value Travel Insurance: 2016 Award Winners

Canstar has released the 2016 star ratings for Travel Insurance, rating 87 domestic policies and 225 international policies and revealing the five-star rated travel products.

Are you planning on travelling within Australia or overseas sometime in the near future? If so, you need to check out our latest star ratings to help you choose an outstanding value travel insurance policy for your dream destination.

Every year, we research and rate which travel insurance policies offer outstanding value (a 5-star rating) for Australian travellers. But in conjunction with the travel star ratings, Canstar gives out annual overall awards to the travel insurance providers who offer the strongest combinations of products across the travel insurance star ratings profiles, as well as excelling in a range of travel destinations and features. Canstar recongises the insurers who provide outstanding value to consumers in four award categories:

• Domestic Travel Insurance
• International Travel Insurance
• Seniors Travel Insurance
• South Pacific Cruise Travel Insurance

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How did we pick the winners?

This year our Research Team assessed 87 domestic policies and 225 international policies from 75 travel insurance providers, assessing the price and coverage value they provide to three unique traveller profiles:

• Single
• Couple
• Family with two kids

We rated policies for several destinations falling into five main categories:

1. Australia: Domestic travel within Australia
2. Asia: China, Bali, Thailand, Japan
3. Europe: UK, France
4. Pacific: New Zealand, Fiji
5. Worldwide: Brazil, South Africa, USA

For insurers to be eligible for the overall awards, they must meet certain minimum requirements. They are as follows:

• 24 hour emergency helpline available
• Ability to extend cover while travelling (international only)
• $5 million + family overseas medical and hospital cover (international only)
• $5 million + family cover for repatriation and evacuation services (international only)
• Must cover claims arising from cruising holidays in both international and domestic
• waters (cruise only)
• Must be available to travellers aged 75 and above (senior only)

For more information about how we judged these awards and our ratings, read our detailed methodology (PDF).

2016 Award Winners – International Travel Insurance

In this year’s ratings, the award-winning international travel insurance products for Aussies abroad were:

Online Travel Insurance

Online Travel Insurance offer market leading prices with a good range of features across all destinations assessed by Canstar.

World2Cover

World2Cover are a recent entrant within the Australian travel insurance market. They offer a fully featured product that should cover you for almost any situation you find yourself stressing over.

See how we judged this award by reading our methodology (PDF).

To view the full star ratings results for all travel insurance policies, check out our interactive comparison table (enter your selection then click compare).

2016 Award Winners – Domestic Travel Insurance

For travel within Australia, this year’s ratings show the award-winning options are the same as our International Travel Insurance winners. They’ll provide you with outstanding value whether you’re travelling overseas or in Australia’s own vast backyard.

Online Travel Insurance

Online Travel Insurance offer market leading prices within the domestic market, beating out all competition across Canstar’s three domestic profiles.

World2Cover

World2Cover provide a comprehensive product that performed especially well within Canstar’s Family and Single profiles. Dependants are included at no extra cost up to the age of 25, which helped push this insurer to the top in this award.

See how we judged this award by reading our methodology (PDF).

To view the full star ratings results for all travel insurance policies, check out our interactive comparison table (enter your selection then click compare).

2016 Award Winners – Seniors Travel Insurance

Growing older doesn’t mean you can’t be young atheart, and we all know travelling to see new things and have new experiences can help with that. This year’s award-winning travel insurance options for seniors are:

Webjet/ZUJI

Seniors typically pay a lot more for travel insurance but Webjet/ZUJI has found the perfect balance between price and features. Their attractive pricing was a key factor when compared to the market and helped the insurer win Canstar’s first award specifically designed for travel insurance for seniors.

(In case you didn’t know, Webjet and ZUJI are actually the same provider by two names. They offer the same product at the same prices. We are congratulating both with the award but consumers can be assured that these two offer identical products.)

See how we judged this award by reading our methodology (PDF).

To view the full star ratings results for all travel insurance policies, check out our interactive comparison table (enter your selection then click compare).

2016 Award Winners – South Pacific Cruise Travel Insurance

For those heading out on the high seas for some fun and relaxation on the water, this year’s winning policies are:

Budget Direct

Budget Direct offer a comprehensive policy that extends cruising benefits as a part of its standard cover. Their combination of strong features at a reasonable price helped the insurer rise to the top of the South Pacific cruising award.

Online Travel Insurance

Online Travel Insurance‘s policy with the additional cruise pack was another example of a low priced policy that still offers the full range of features.

See how we judged this award by reading our methodology (PDF).

To view the full star ratings results for all travel insurance policies, check out our interactive comparison table (enter your selection then click compare).

Compare Travel Insurance

To the extent that the information in this report constitutes general advice, this advice has been prepared by Canstar Research Pty Ltd A.C.N. 114 422 909 AFSL and ACL 437917 (“Canstar”).  The information has been prepared without taking into account your individual investment objectives, financial circumstances or needs.   Before you decide whether or not to acquire a particular financial product you should assess whether it is appropriate for you in the light of your own personal circumstances, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs.  You may wish to obtain financial advice from a suitably qualified adviser before making any decision to acquire a financial product.  Canstar provides information about financial products. It is not a financial provider and in giving you information it is not making any suggestion or recommendation to you about a particular financial product.  Please refer to Canstar’s FSG for more information.