As extreme weather events increasingly disrupt travel worldwide, insurers are fielding growing questions from agents and travellers about what travel insurance does – and does not cover.
For agents, this has become particularly important in managing flight delays, cancellations and accommodation disruptions linked to climatic events.
Simmy Micheli, Sales and Marketing Manager of Santam Travel Insurance, and Anrieth Symon, Head of Travel at Bryte Travel Insurance, said travel insurance may respond to weather-related disruptions, but only under specific conditions and depending on the benefits selected.
Micheli said Santam’s comprehensive travel insurance policies provide cover when unexpected weather or unforeseen delays disrupt a traveller’s journey. However, Symon said cover did not apply uniformly across all policy types.
She said insurers generally offered several tiers of travel insurance, with varying benefit limits and levels of protection depending on the plan selected. While cover is provided on a worldwide basis, it is subject to policy terms, conditions and exclusions.
Conditions for cover
Some of the primary risks associated with extreme climatic events are the potential for delays, cancellation, postponement or early termination of a journey.
While these risks may be covered under certain benefits, eligibility depends on how events such as natural disasters are defined in the policy and whether the event was foreseeable at the time of booking.
“Travellers should always review their schedule of benefits and policy wording to understand exactly what is covered and under which circumstances,” emphasised Symon.
Transport disruption benefits
Protection against flight or public transport delays, cancellations or diversions due to poor weather conditions are addressed under clauses, such as Santam’s Weather Conditions and Travel Delays benefits or Bryte’s Public Transport Carrier Disruption benefits.
Micheli said that under Santam’s Weather Conditions benefits, if bad weather or a natural disaster cancelled travellers’ transport, the insurance would reimburse them for the non‑refundable costs of travel, accommodation or events already paid for, and cover reasonable extra expenses for travel so they may return home or continue their trip. Santam offers similar benefits for transport delays, under Santam’s Travel Delay benefit.
Symon said under Bryte’s Public Transport Carrier Disruption benefits, the insurer would cover accommodation, alternative transport and food expenses accumulated due to unforeseen travel delays, diversions or cancellations, as well as reimbursement of non-refundable, unused travel costs, date-change or rerouting fees and reasonable additional accommodation expenses, subject to benefit limits and excluding any refunds already received.
Reasonable additional costs
On an OpenJaw post, agents highlighted challenges where airline-provided accommodation or alternative arrangements during severe snow storms were unavailable.
Symon explained that travellers may submit a claim for reasonable additional accommodation and essential expenses in these situations.
“All claims for reasonable additional costs are assessed based on the specific circumstances of the incident, the cause of the disruption and the benefits available under the traveller’s policy.”
However, she notes that travel insurance does not cover expenses that can be recovered from service providers such as travel agents, tour operators, travel suppliers, public transport carriers, accommodation providers or other service providers.
“Cover applies only if the benefit is shown on the traveller’s schedule of benefits, and all claims are subject to the policy’s terms and conditions,” Symon said.
