Canstar Reveals its Outstanding Value Travel Insurance Award Winners 2022

Arranging travel insurance is as essential as remembering to pack your passport. From replacing lost or stolen possessions to paying for life-saving medical treatment and repatriation, travel insurance can prevent an overseas mishap turning into a financial disaster. So if you’re headed on an overseas trip, read on for Canstar’s latest awards and ratings for Outstanding Value Travel Insurance.

After two years of domestic holidays, Kiwis are once again jetting off on overseas trips. But while pandemic lockdowns are, thankfully, now behind us, the virus is still impacting travel plans and the travel insurance market. The number of travel insurance providers in the market has reduced considerably, and most policies have changed to fit the new international travel environment.

Indeed, the last time Canstar conducted its travel insurance research, just before the pandemic, in late 2019, there were 28 eligible insurance providers in the market. This year, our research covers 17.

As a result, for our latest awards, our research methodology has changed. Covid-19 related cover and benefits have become a key part of our research team’s focus.

To receive a top 5-Star rating, a policy must have some form of Covid-19 cover. And, to be eligible for consideration for one of our prestigious Outstanding Value awards, a policy must have both medical and cancellation cover for Covid-related events.

What are Canstar’s Travel Insurance Star Ratings

Canstar’s Travel Insurance ratings score travel insurance providers and their products, and awards the best our prestigious 5-Star Ratings. Each insurance product is assessed and scored for its price and array of features.

For this year’s Travel Insurance Star Ratings, our expert research panel compared 37 travel insurance products from 17 providers across 40 customer profiles. To be eligible for our ratings, each product had to meet certain basic requirements, including cover for:

• $1 million overseas medical and hospital cover per international traveller
• Repatriation and evacuation services
• Luggage and personal effects
• Cancellation fees and loss of deposit

For ease of comparison, the different insurance products are classified by four consumer profiles and judged across six geographical regions.

Canstar’s Travel Insurance Awards

On the back of our Star Ratings research, we also award the best travel insurance providers and products our prestigious awards for Outstanding Value.

To be eligible for an Outstanding Value Award, insurance providers have to meet extra policy requirements. These include:

• 24-hour emergency helpline
• Period of cover automatically extends if a medical claim requires traveller to remain overseas for treatment
• $5 million or more family overseas medical and hospital cover
• $5 million or more family cover for repatriation and evacuation services
• Included cover claims arising from cruising holidays in domestic and international waters (cruise only)
• Availability to travellers aged over 70 (senior only)
• Covers cancellation and medical claims arising from COVID-19 related events

Canstar’s Outstanding Value Travel Insurance Award Winners 2022

This year, four providers earn Canstar’s Outstanding Value Travel Insurance Awards, across our four award categories.

Outstanding Value: International Travel Insurance

• House of Travel
• Southern Cross Travel Insurance
• Worldcare

Outstanding Value: Trans-Tasman Travel Insurance

• House of Travel
• Worldcare

Outstanding Value: South Pacific Cruise Travel Insurance

• House of Travel
• Southern Cross Travel Insurance
• Worldcare

Outstanding Value: Seniors Travel Insurance

• AMP
• Southern Cross Travel Insurance
• Worldcare

AMP earns its Outstanding Value | Seniors Travel Insurance award for its competitive pricing for older travellers and high levels of cover. Our awards panel notes that AMP performs particularly well in the Americas, Trans-Tasman and Asia profiles.

House of Travel

This year, House of Travel earns three Outstanding Value Awards, in our International, South Pacific Cruise and Trans-Tasman travel insurance profiles. The awards are driven by House of Travel’s market-leading pricing and high levels of cover across all age brackets.

Southern Cross Travel Insurance

Southern Cross also wins three Outstanding Value Awards, in our International, South Pacific Cruise and Seniors profiles. Our research panel notes that Southern Cross offers “impressive levels of cover at a reasonable price”. The travel insurer performs particularly well in senior profiles, due to its competitive premiums for older travellers. The same strengths also carry over into the South Pacific Cruise profile, placing them as an Outstanding Value Award | South Pacific Cruise Award recipient.

Worldcare

Worldcare is the only travel insurance provider in this year’s ratings and award to earn an Outstanding Value Award across all award profiles. This is due to Worldcare’s consistently competitive prices across all regions and age profiles.

Worldcare performs well in the International and Seniors profiles, due to its great pricing for older travellers in all regions, as well as its strong performance across the board in the Asia and Europe profiles.

In the Trans-Tasman and South Pacific Cruise profiles, again, Worldcare’s strong price-score performance places them high in the rankings, along with its high levels of cover.

To find out more about the best travel insurance in New Zealand, check out Canstar’s full 2022 travel insurance ratings report.

Compare Travel Insurance with Canstar

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce began his career writing about pop culture, and spent a decade in sports journalism. More recently, he’s applied his editing and writing skills to the world of finance and property. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.