Review: New Singapore Airlines x Allianz travel insurance policy

Singapore Airlines passengers have the option to purchase an exclusive travel insurance policy that provides coverage for overseas medical expenses (including COVID-19), accidents and travel inconveniences. 

This was previously called Travel Insurance by Travel Guard (underwritten by AIG). Singapore Airlines has now replaced this with a new policy called Travel Protect by Singapore Airlines (underwritten by Allianz).

Singapore Airlines Travel Insurance
Previous AIG Policy	New Allianz Policy

Coverage is available to Singapore Airlines passengers who are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents of Singapore, or Singapore Pass Holders and/or Work Permit Holders and their dependents residing in Singapore. Journeys must commence in Singapore.

I’ve gone through the new Allianz policy, and the good news is it’s a significant improvement from the previous AIG one- not only does it offer more coverage, it’s also cheaper to boot. 

Allianz Travel Coverage

Travel Protect by Singapore Airlines (which for convenience I’ll just refer to as the “Allianz policy” from hereon) provides up to S$1 million of overseas medical coverage and S$500,000 of emergency medical evacuation coverage (both including COVID-19). 

The policy is available regardless of whether you bought your ticket with cash or redeemed miles. Coverage can be added either at the time of booking your itinerary, or subsequently via the Manage Booking function. 

If you don’t see the option to add insurance, you’ll need to contact customer service at sq_travelhelp@allianz.com or call +65 6245 4059 (Mon-Fri 0930 to 1730 SGT). 

Under the Allianz policy wording, you’ll notice two columns: Comprehensive, and KrisFlyer Comprehensive. 

Simply put, if you’re a KrisFlyer member (of any tier) during the period of insurance, you’ll enjoy KrisFlyer Comprehensive coverage. This provides additional coverage for medical expenses, rental car excess, loss of personal documents and more, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t qualify for this. 

Comparison: Allianz vs AIG

Here’s a summary of how the new Allianz policy measures up to the previous AIG policy. Do note the following:

• I’ve used Allianz KrisFlyer Comprehensive as the basis of comparison since it costs nothing to join KrisFlyer
• AIG’s values have a range because coverage depends on where you’re travelling to. AIG splits the world into three zones: ASEAN, Asia and International. ASEAN has the lowest coverage, while International has the highest
• AIG also has some supplementary coverage for KrisFlyer members, so I’ve included it where relevant

There’s a lot of information in the table above, but what should immediately jump out is that Allianz not only offers more coverage in most areas, it’s also cheaper than AIG (unfortunately I don’t have historical AIG quotes for travel within Asia/ASEAN, so I can’t make that comparison).

Let’s look at some of the finer details below. 

COVID-19 medical expenses & emergency medical evacuation

AIG’s policy covers up to S$350,000 of COVID-19 medical expenses, but Allianz covers up to S$1 million. 

More importantly, under the AIG policy both COVID-19 medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation share the same cap (i.e. the maximum you can claim for COVID-19 medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation is S$350,000).

With Allianz, there is a separate cap for COVID-19 emergency medical evacuation of S$500,000. 

Chances are, if your situation is bad enough to warrant medical evacuation to Singapore, you’ve already racked up a sizeable overseas medical bill. You’ll want to ensure there’s enough left over to cover the repatriation. 

Quarantine allowance

If you’re diagnosed with COVID-19 overseas and are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, most countries won’t admit you to hospital. Instead, you’ll be issued with a quarantine order, which you’ll serve out in a hotel. 

AIG provides a quarantine allowance that varies depending on country (max. 14 consecutive days):

• ASEAN: S$50 per day
• Asia: S$100 per day
• International: S$200 per day

Allianz doesn’t mention a quarantine allowance, but you can make a claim under the trip interruption section for:

Such coverage applies when :

tl;dr: if you get a quarantine order due to COVID-19, you can claim up to S$150 per day for 14 days. 

AIG would be more generous for travel outside of Asia and ASEAN, but otherwise Allianz is the superior option.

One-way trips

Given award space constraints, it’s not uncommon for miles collectors to book separate one-way tickets, even if their intention is to fly a round-trip.

While both policies cover one-way trips, AIG was much stricter in its wording. Cover for a one-way trip was limited to certain sections of the policy, commenced 3 hours before leaving Singapore, and ceased at the earlier of:

• the expiry of the period specified in the insurance; or
• your arrival at your first overseas destination

That made it highly impractical on its own. Most customers ended up having to write in to AIG and present 2x one-way tickets, in order to get quoted insurance on a round-trip basis. 

Allianz is much kinder with its treatment of one-way trips.

If your policy was purchased with a one-way booking, your coverage end date will be the  scheduled return date for your trip, as shown on your travel documents (not exceeding 30 days from the departure date shown on your travel documents). Additionally, your policy will end on the earliest of:

1.  At 23:59 on the day you cancel your policy; or
2. At 23:59 on the day you file a trip cancellation claim with us;
3. At 23:59 on the day you end your trip, if you end your trip early;
4. At 23:59 on the day you arrive at a medical facility for further care if you end your trip due to a medical reason; or
5. At 23:59 on the 180th day of the trip

Trip cancellation

In terms of trip cancellation, AIG covers a pre-departure COVID-19 diagnosis, plus the usual reasons like death or serious sickness, witness summons, and natural disasters affecting your destination. 

However, Allianz provides a much wider range of covered reasons (16 in total), including a COVID-19 diagnosis, a traffic accident on departure date, getting laid off from work, securing a new job, or having your travel documents stolen. 

However, note that neither policy covers trip cancellation resulting from border closures or additional quarantine requirements (so they wouldn’t cover the current situation with Italy, for example).

Coverage of airline miles

Speaking of trip cancellation, AIG’s policy explicitly states that it will not cover the loss of air miles used to pay for the trip. 

On the other hand, Allianz’s policy is silent about this subject; the only line I can find that refers to air miles is this:

I take it to mean they will cover such claims, insofar as they relate to the redeposit of airline miles. 

Here’s the thing though. There are only two scenarios where you could lose your KrisFlyer miles due to a cancelled trip:

1. You booked a Spontaneous Escapes award, which is strictly non-refundable
2. Your airline miles have already expired at the time of refund (remember: miles validity is different from ticket validity; if this concept confuses you, read this article)

(1) isn’t an issue right now, because Singapore Airlines has suspended Spontaneous Escapes. With regards to (2), Singapore Airlines has granted extensions to all KrisFlyer miles so the earliest any will expire is April 2022. 

In all other situations, you can pay a penalty fee to recover the miles used for your booking, as shown below. 

Even if you miss your flight (i.e. no show), the miles are still recoverable. For example, if you made a Business Saver reservation and missed your flight, you’d pay a US$300 no show fee, plus a US$75 fee to change your dates. 

Therefore it might not be all that important for travel insurance to cover miles at this juncture, since there’s no Spontaneous Escapes nor expiry. 

Conclusion

Unless I’m missing something, Singapore Airlines’ new Allianz travel insurance policy looks to be every bit an improvement over the previous AIG one. Travellers enjoy more generous coverage for a lower fee, and this will more than satisfy the requirements for countries with mandatory COVID-19 travel insurance requirements (e.g. South Korea, Thailand).

Anything else you spotted in the policies worth flagging?