Save money on flights and the unexpected with Kiwi.com and AXA travel insurance! Our World Travel Hackers tell us about their travel mishaps; the times when they were covered, and the times they were less fortunate
Article Published in Association with AXA.
Anything can happen to you on vacation. Sure, anything could happen to you even when you’re not on vacation, and how would you feel going about your day-to-day life without any kind of insurance — health, contents, car, life — having your back? If you can help it at all, you certainly wouldn’t take that chance. When you’re off discovering another corner of the world, you lose that familiarity of home that brings you mental security. That’s part and parcel of what makes taking a trip so exciting. Here at Kiwi.com, we’ll always encourage you to see new places, try new things, and have unforgettable experiences. But with it comes vulnerability, and together with AXA travel insurance, we find you the best flight deals and we counter that vulnerability with complete peace of mind in just a few clicks, all for a very reasonable price!
@kiwi.com Adrian shares his stories of unexpected travel mishaps and the solutions that saved the day! 🌪️🚑
Real stories of how travel insurance works
Last summer, our World Travel Hackers booked cheap flights around the world with Kiwi.com, and while we all enjoyed following their incredible journeys, not everything was documented — it wasn’t all sunshine, rainbows, and delectable street food. Now that they’ve had a few months of life back to normal, we probed Nathanael and PG for their stories of misfortune on their trips, and how their travel insurance helped them out. First off, we asked them what made them decide to include insurance in their flight bookings.
Nathanael: “The main reason I tend to buy insurance is that I don’t like to play it safe on my trips. I like to do fun stuff, explore, and be active when I’m on vacation. But with that, there’s also more of a risk of something bad happening, like tripping over while hiking or getting injured while playing sport. I want to do these things without stressing about how much it would cost if something goes wrong, so in this way, having insurance enables me to enjoy my activities more.”
PG: “We [Orshi and I] thought it was important to have our belongings and even our flights protected so we wouldn’t have to pay if we couldn’t travel due to illness, for example. In particular, we feared that our whole trip would be ruined if we had our belongings stolen in South America.”
With their trip protected, PG and Orshi could enjoy South America even more.
See, these guys are smart, and straight away, they were perfect candidates for AXA travel insurance — AXA travel insurance covers missed or delayed flights, lost or stolen belongings, and medical assistance. Nathanael and PG then went on to tell us the most important things they consider, personally, when choosing an insurance package.
Nathanael: “It’s very important to me that my travel insurance provides coverage for lost or stolen baggage.”
PG: “For us, being able to get assistance 24/7 was important to us — we wanted to make sure that we had complete transparency from the provider.”
Well, AXA travel insurance offers around-the-clock emergency assistance over the phone in multiple languages, so you can be sure that whenever you need help abroad, there’ll be someone there for you. Now, here comes the drama: exactly what kind of calamity can happen on vacation, and how can AXA travel insurance put things right?
Nathanael: “When I worked as a World Travel Hacker, I had a couple of issues. I lost some hard drives on a plane, and thankfully, my insurance covered them. But when I was in Southeast Asia, I was really happy I had insurance. I got scratched by a stray dog so I had to go to a doctor to get shots to prevent me from getting rabies. I also got sick multiple times because of some kind of bacteria I wasn’t used to, and I had to get medication for this.”
PG: “We lost some documents during our trip — we think they were stolen from our bag. Since we had insurance, we were taken to the consulate and issued with new documents, and had all those costs covered.”
Yikes, no wonder they were glad to have those safety nets! But had the guys ever had anything unfortunate happen abroad when they weren’t covered by travel insurance?…
PG: “On one trip, we had a flight that was significantly delayed. This was a time when we had travel insurance from another provider, and their hidden conditions made it irritably difficult to get any sort of compensation.”
@kiwi.com this is Sabina’s view on travel insurance! do you agree?👀
We can’t help with personal relationships, but we can prevent travel heartbreak!
Nathanael: “On a short trip to Italy, I got sick, and even now, I don’t know how it happened. Since I didn’t have travel insurance back then, I just carried on with my vacation and went to the doctor once I got back home. I do not recommend doing this — always visit a doctor as soon as possible!”
Yep, wise words from Nathanael: if you don’t take out insurance and you fall ill on your trip, the best thing that can happen is that your experience is “just” ruined. But even worse, if it’s something that requires urgent medical attention, you’ll be left out of pocket, as well. Meanwhile, when it comes to flight delays and lost baggage, according to PG, some insurance companies won’t make it easy for you to claim compensation. This means you can end up spending hundreds of euro on the spot, without any promise of a reimbursement.
Booking with Kiwi.com and AXA travel insurance guarantees you protection against all of these nightmare scenarios. Better yet, it’s cheap, quick and easy to set up — find out what our two packages, Travel Basic and Travel Plus, can offer you, as well as how to add either of them to your flight booking.
Take Nathanael’s advice and don’t end up out of pocket — you might need that cash!
Finally, Nathanael had some parting words of wisdom, simplifying the art of taking the stress out of travel.
Nathanael: “The last thing I’ll say is: ALWAYS get travel insurance. It’ll save your trip if something goes wrong, and it’ll save you financially if something really bad happens. Don’t risk going into debt on vacation because you didn’t get insurance!”
For more top travel tips, visit Kiwi.com Stories.
