What Is The Definition Of A Travelling Party?
You don’t have to be throwing a ‘Party’ to be part of a ‘Travelling Party’. A ‘Travelling Party’ is a term which is widely used by travel insurance providers to define what you and your family, friends or business colleagues may be insured for before or during a domestic or overseas leisure or business trip.
The exact definition of ‘Travelling Party’ can vary by insurer and some insurers may instead refer to a ‘Travelling Companion’ in their Product Disclosure Statements (PDS).
However, generally speaking a ‘Travelling Party’ is often listed as other people who are travelling with you for at least 50 per cent of a trip.
Are my children insured as part of my Travelling Party?
If you are completing a trip with a partner or children where you are departing from and returning home together, they would be classified as being part of your travelling party.
However, being part of a travelling party does not mean they themselves are insured for things like overseas medical expenses, lost luggage, cancellation costs, travel delay, personal liability and much more.
If you take out a singles travel insurance policy, only you would covered for these things.
If you are travelling as a couple or family, you need to take out an appropriate couples of family travel insurance policy. Alternatively, you can each take out your own singles policies to ensure you are all covered if something does go wrong during your family holiday.
What is a Travelling Party relevant to my travel insurance?
Issues arise before and during domestic and overseas trips – and they are not always to do with you as an insured traveller. There are a range of issues that could arise with a member of your travelling party which could cause your trip to be cancelled at late notice, see your trip be interrupted or cut short or cause your trip to be extended due to exceptional circumstances. Even if a member of your travelling party does not have their own travel insurance or if they take out insurance with a different travel insurance provider, you could be covered for your own expenses incurred by issues which a travelling party member encounters.
These could include:
- Cancellation Costs: If a member of your travelling party or a direct relative of theirs suffers death, injury or illness before a trip which causes you to cancel or reschedule your trip, you could be covered for reasonable non-refundable cancellation or rescheduling costs.
- Additional Travel and Accommodation: If your travel companion is unable to continue their journey due to injury or sickness that requires immediate and continued treatment from a medical professional, you could be covered for reasonable additional travel and accommodation expenses to remain with your travel companion.
- Return Home: If your travel companion or a relative of your travel companion dies unexpectedly or is admitted to hospital with a serious injury or illness, you could be covered for reasonable travel and accommodation expenses to return to home to Australia.
- Covid-19: Some insurers will reimburse you for non-refundable travel costs incurred if a member of your travelling party is diagnosed with coronavirus and is deemed medically unfit to travel after you have purchased your policy. Some insurers will also cover you for reasonable additional travel and accommodation expenses if a member of your travelling party is diagnosed with coronavirus while overseas and is unable to return home as planned.
What is meant by 50 per cent of a trip?
Many insurers define a Travelling Party as you and any travel companions who have made arrangements to accompany you for at least 50 per cent of the duration of your trip.
To ensure insurance coverage, it is important you make sure you meet this requirement.
For example, if you are travelling with a friend to Japan for seven days and your friend has booked to travel onward to South Korea for a further eight days, you would not be defined as a ‘Travelling Party’ and would therefore not be covered for some of the insurance benefits under this umbrella.
However, if you and a friend booked a trip to New Zealand for a week together and you were booked to return home to Australia but your friend had booked a detour to Fiji for four days, you would be defined as a Travelling Party given more than 50 per cent of the duration of the planned trip was to be spent travelling together.
Group Travel Insurance for a Travelling Party
If you are travelling as part of a large travelling party, it could be worth considering group travel insurance.
Some insurance providers will let you insure up to 25 travellers who are part of a travelling party, who each receive the same benefits that they would receive from a singles policy.
Group travel insurance policies can be cheaper and provides identical levels of cover for each member of the travelling party so you know what you are all covered for before you travel.
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Travel insurance documentation can be quite complex and difficult to understand. If you have a query we are only too willing to find the answer for you.