Virgin Money credit card travel insurance: what does the High Flyer actually cover?

Covers the non-refundable portion of prepaid travel and accommodation you cannot recover any other way, up to $25,000 per cardholder or spouse, with dependants sharing that limit. The trigger is broad: any cancellation, disruption or rescheduling caused by circumstances not expected or intended by you and outside your control. It also pays out the value of Velocity Points, air miles and vouchers lost on a cancelled booking, plus travel agent's cancellation fees to $2,000 or the agent's commission, whichever is lesser. A $600 excess applies to each claim.

Reimburses reasonable medical expenses you incur overseas after an injury or sickness, up to $20 million, until you get back to Australia. Treatment must be given or prescribed by a medical adviser, and Allianz Global Assistance will issue payment guarantees straight to the hospital if you call them. Where a sickness or injury stops you returning home, the policy pays medical expenses incurred during the 12 consecutive months after the sickness was first diagnosed or the injury happened. A $600 excess applies to each claim.

A separate $20 million limit covers overseas emergency assistance, including medical evacuation and repatriation, with no excess. Allianz Global Assistance pays the reasonable cost of transferring or evacuating you to the nearest suitable hospital, or bringing you home on the reasonable advice of a medical adviser. The same section covers Personal Safety Evacuation to the nearest place of safety if civil unrest, political instability or a natural disaster makes it unsafe for you to stay. Repatriation of remains is covered separately under Funeral Expenses, up to $60,000.

Pays up to $2,000 per person for emergency dental treatment to relieve sudden and acute pain to natural teeth, including teeth with a filling, cap or crown. The scope is narrow by design: it covers spontaneous toothache, not dental work arising from an injury, which is handled under the overseas medical benefit instead. A $600 excess applies, so on a $700 dental bill you would recover $100.

Pays $100 per person per day if you are admitted to hospital overseas as an inpatient for a continuous period of more than 48 consecutive hours, up to a total of $15,000 per cardholder or spouse. The payment applies to each day beyond the first 48 hours, so a five-day admission pays for three days. It is spending money on top of the medical benefit, meant for incidentals rather than treatment, and there is no excess.

The largest limit in the policy at $200,000, covering reasonable additional travel and accommodation costs when your journey is derailed. It applies when injury or sickness stops you continuing, when you need a relative or friend flown out to stay with you after a hospital admission, when a travel companion is incapacitated, and when you have to cut the trip short and fly home on medical advice. It also covers disruption from a strike, riot, hijack, civil protest, weather, natural disaster or an accident affecting your transport, plus quarantine, a stolen passport, or your home being made uninhabitable by fire, explosion, earthquake or flood. A $600 excess applies.

Once your transport is delayed 6 consecutive hours, and again for each subsequent 24 consecutive hour period, the policy pays up to $500 per person for meals and accommodation, capped at $2,000 per cardholder or spouse. There is no excess. Note what is missing: this benefit covers meals and accommodation but not onward transport, which sits under Alternative Transport Expenses instead.

Pays up to $3,250 per cardholder or spouse for alternative transport when a delay to your scheduled transport threatens a connection or a pre-paid arrangement you have to reach on time. Dependants share that limit. A $600 excess applies, which means short domestic-style rebookings overseas often fall below the threshold where a claim is worth lodging.

Covers the cost of returning home and then resuming your journey, but only when a relative dies or is admitted to hospital, and only up to $5,000 per cardholder or spouse. Most travellers read resumption of journey as covering any family emergency; the wording is narrower than that, and the trigger list stops at death or hospital admission. Resumption is genuinely included rather than a one-way flight home, and there is no excess, but $5,000 does not go far on two long-haul sectors booked at short notice.

Recommended : A$12,000

Pays up to $500 once your luggage has been delayed, misdirected or misplaced by the carrier for more than 10 consecutive hours, then a further $1,000 if the delay passes 72 consecutive hours, for a total of $1,500 per cardholder or spouse. The money is for essential clothing and personal items you have to buy while you wait, and there is no excess. A 10-hour trigger is better than the 12 hours most card policies use. Anything paid here is deducted from a later lost-luggage claim on the same items.

Covers luggage, clothing, personal valuables and portable electrical equipment that is stolen, accidentally damaged or permanently lost, up to $15,000 per cardholder or spouse. Per-item sub-limits do the real work: $4,000 for computers, cameras and video cameras, and $1,000 for everything else including mobile phones. A camera with its lenses, tripod and accessories counts as one item, as does a set of golf clubs with the buggy. Depreciation is applied to anything owned 12 months or more. Items left in a vehicle are only covered during daylight hours, must be in a concealed storage compartment of a locked vehicle with signs of forced entry, and cap out at $5,000. A $600 excess applies.

Two separate $5,000 limits with no excess: one for the cost of reissuing or replacing lost or stolen passports, travel documents, transaction cards and travellers cheques, and one for fraudulent use of those cards or cheques after the loss. Dependants share the cardholder or spouse limit. Losing a passport also opens up Additional Expenses, which covers the travel and accommodation costs of sorting it out.

Personal liability cover of $2,500,000 per event for a cardholder or spouse, with dependants sharing that limit and no excess. It responds when you are held legally liable for injury to someone else or damage to their property while travelling. A separate $15,000 covers legal expenses. This is the benefit people never think about until a bicycle collision overseas turns into a claim, and $2.5 million sits at the market benchmark for card policies.

Pays a $50,000 lump sum to your estate if you are injured during the period of cover and die from that injury within 12 consecutive months, or if the transport you are travelling on disappears, sinks or crashes and you are presumed dead. A spouse is covered for $50,000 and each dependant for $25,000, with a total family cap of $150,000. A separate Permanent Disability benefit pays $50,000 for permanent loss of sight in one or both eyes, or the use of a hand at or above the wrist or a foot at or above the ankle. There is no excess on either.

If an overseas injury needing medical treatment leaves you disabled and unable to work, the policy replaces your verified weekly income up to a total of $13,000, for a cardholder or spouse only. Two conditions do the filtering: the disablement has to continue more than 30 consecutive days from the date you get home, and payment only starts from the 31st consecutive day after your return. You must also be under the regular care of a medical adviser who certifies in writing that the disablement prevents gainful employment. Dependants get nothing under this section, and sickness is not covered, only injury.

A separate Domestic Travel Insurance section covers interstate trips, with cancellation up to $3,000 for all claims combined and a $75 excess. The trigger mirrors the overseas wording: cancellation, disruption or rescheduling from circumstances not expected or intended and outside your control, including an epidemic or pandemic diagnosis. It also pays the value of lost Velocity Points and vouchers, and travel agent's fees. Activation differs from the overseas cover: charge the entire return domestic flight ticket to the card, or $250 of prepaid travel costs plus hold a return domestic flight ticket. Cover runs a maximum of 28 days per journey.

Once a domestic flight departure is delayed 4 hours or more and the carrier provides no alternative transport, the policy pays $125 per person for reasonable additional meals and accommodation, capped at $300 for all claims combined. There is no excess. The 4-hour trigger is the most generous in the policy, but $300 total across every claim on the journey is thin: it covers a meal and a taxi, not an overnight hotel in Sydney.

Recommended : A$500

Covers reasonable additional travel and accommodation on an interstate trip, up to $3,000 for all claims combined with a $75 excess. It responds to your own incapacity from injury or sickness, a travel companion's incapacity, an early return home on medical advice, and repatriation of dependants left without supervision. It also covers disruption from cancelled or diverted transport due to strike, riot, hijack, civil protest, weather, natural disaster or accident, unknowingly breaking a quarantine rule, a stolen passport or travel documents, and your home being made uninhabitable by fire, explosion, earthquake or flood. There is no domestic medical benefit here, because Medicare applies within Australia.

Domestic luggage cover pays up to $750 for each covered item, to a total of $2,000 for all claims combined, with a $75 excess. The same rules as the overseas section apply: depreciation for anything owned 12 months or more, no cover for valuables left in a vehicle or checked into the cargo hold, and items left in a vehicle only covered during daylight hours from a concealed compartment of a locked vehicle showing forced entry. A camera with its lenses and tripod counts as one item, so the $750 cap applies to the whole set.

If the carrier delays, misdirects or misplaces your luggage on a domestic trip for 12 hours or more, the policy pays $150 per person towards essential clothing and personal items, capped at $400 for all claims combined. There is no excess. The trigger is longer than the 10 hours the overseas section uses, and anything paid here is deducted from a later domestic lost-luggage claim on the same items.

Recommended : A$500