Insurance Claim for a cancellation of award travel

[albatross710]

Just forming ideas around a requirement to cut short a planning European business trip to attend a 3 day conference. Details are as follows:

Booked & paid Travel
*A J/F/J redemption BNE-FRA-ZRH
*A F redemption ZRH-BNE

Each sector is done as a qualifying purchase using Westpac Krisfler Platinum card and KF miles.

Insurance Event:
The event is as described in the T&Cs. I rang Zurich and confirmed that the cover includes the Brisbane floods.(http://www.westpac.com.au/docs/pdf/pb/SIA_plat_insurance.pdf)

“natural disaster”means any event or force of nature
that has catastrophic consequences such as avalanche,
earthquake, flood, tsunami and volcanic eruption, but
not epidemics or pandemics

The Insurance Cover
The relevant section of the policy shows:

Part A – The limits that apply and a summary of
the cover.
3. Unexpected cancellation of travel arrangements and other unexpected
expenses.
Unlimited for covered events, except for travel agent’s cancellation fee, which is limited to an amount equal to the lesser of A$500 or 15% of the value of the travel arranged by the agent

If you continue your travel
You may decide to continue your cancelled travel arrangements. If you do this at the earliest possible opportunity after cancellation, we will,at our option, either:
pay for any part of your cancelled travel arrangements that:
– you have paid for but are unable to use; and
– that are non-refundable; or

pay the costs of a higher class of travel, or increased seasonal rates for travel, if that is the only class or rate available. We will pay these costs minus the
amount of any refundable part of your cancelled travel arrangements. We will only pay to upgrade your travel on the type of transport you chose in your cancelled travel arrangements.

Options.

1. Cancel the journey as is with refund of points back to my KF account. I would pay the cancellation fee ~US$50 and claim that on insurance along with some prepaid hotels..

2. Ideally I need to attend the conference which was the original reason for the travel, however I can forgo the final two days of the currently booked itinerary and return home two days earlier. There is no convenient award availability. My preference is to return to BNE two days earlier and not spend 24 hours in SIN

3. Reschedule as best can via SQ website/call centre, probably going SQ J and Zurich will pay any costs for changes.

What are the chances of Zurich paying for a SQ F fare ZRH-SIN-BNE ~$12.500?

Can anyone suggest a strategy to approaching this?

I appreciate people's experiences on these claims.

Alby