Travel insurance: cover for delayed and missed flights

For information relating to policies purchased prior to 03 February 2022, please check the PDS provided with your purchase. You can contact us if you need this sent to you again. For policies purchased on or from 03 February 2022 please see below.

If you miss a flight or your flight is delayed, your policy can help, but only if the delay or missed flight is due to an Insured Event. These are listed in the PDS (in Section 3 Cancellation and Trip Interruption).

Delayed and Missed Flights - What's covered with World Nomads? 

Your reasonable and necessary additional expenses, such as transport and accommodation costs, if:

  • you’re directly involved in a motor vehicle, railway, air or marine accident causing you to miss your flight;
  • your flight is delayed due to severe weather, natural disaster, hijacking or strike, including if it causes you to miss a connecting flight.

By ‘reasonable’ we mean the standard of transport or accommodation you were booked to use. If you had an economy class ticket on a flight you’ve missed, you can’t upgrade yourself to business without being able to prove that it was reasonable to do so in the circumstances.

How does the World Nomads cover for delayed and missed flights work?

You should do everything you can to avoid or minimise any additional expenses including accepting any reasonable offers of compensation or rescheduling from your travel service providers before incurring additional expenses.

For example, call the airline involved and let them know you’re going to miss a connecting flight, as they may be able to rearrange your flight (at no cost)…don’t be a ‘no show’ if you can help it. If you’re going to miss your flight because you’re just running late, that’s not an Insured Event.

If you make a claim for unexpected and unavoidable expenses you’ll need to provide:

  • a written report from the carrier confirming the reason, timing and duration of the unexpected event causing the delay;
  • evidence of any compensation offered by the carrier (if applicable) as well as a copy of your travel itinerary;
  • written confirmation of the accident from an official body in the country where the accident happened: i.e. a police and/or relevant transport authority report (if an accident caused you to miss your flight).

What’s not covered

Travel insurance is not designed to cover everything, so take the time to read the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions in the PDS, particularly Section 3 Cancellation and Trip Interruption and the General Exclusions, so there are no surprises if you do need to use it.

Here and the main things that aren’t covered:

  • Delay due to mechanical issues or any other issue within the carrier’s control (e.g. overbooking or change of schedule). Compensation should be sought directly from the carrier in these situations;
  • If your airline offers you an alternative flight/transport, you are expected to take it, otherwise your cover may also be limited;
  • Any claim where you haven’t allowed at least three hours for check in and transit OR if your travel provider officially requires more than 3 hours then you must allow for this.
  • Any reason for the delay or missed flight not listed as a covered event, e.g. you missed your fight because of heavy traffic on the way to the airport.

This is only a summary of cover and does not include the full terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of the policy. You should read your PDS in full, so you understand what is and isn’t covered. If you are unsure about your level of travel cover, please contact us for help.


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