Travel insurance for Norfolk Island trip

[The black sheep]

Hi all,
am now a long term lurker
I need some travel advice regarding insurance. Today I took advantage of a Qantas awards promo thing - essentially less points for domestic travel - and have booked a family trip to Norfolk Island for mid-year. Have never been there, but when booking accomodation, etc, somewhere I saw the advice to have good travel insurance, as sometimes flights are cancelled due to weather. This makes me nervous, so I am wondering if anyone can suggest what I should be doing with travel insurance. I have previously held policies with Travel Insurance Direct. I got an online quote for this family trip and it comes in as $154 (for family of three). Is this ok? Will this protect me if the flights get cancelled? What is the detail in the policy I should be really looking at - am hopeless with insurance.
Absoultely any advice truly appreciated.

 

[The black sheep]

"Bump"

Not sure if I posted this in the right place. But any advice to travel insurance for my Norfolk trip much appreciated

 

[henrus]

Will this protect me if the flights get cancelled?

You'll need to read the PDS for the specific product.

What is the detail in the policy I should be really looking at - am hopeless with insurance.

So I can't speak for anything else but I do hold an annual policy with covermore, in the PDS it states:

"We will pay Your reasonable Additional accommodation expenses (room rate only) and Additional transport expenses, at the same accommodation standard and fare class as originally booked, incurred on the Journey due to an unforeseeable circumstance outside Your control and resulting from: ...

... Your scheduled transport being delayed for at least 12
hours due to severe weather conditions. We will pay
up to $300 providing confirmation from the Transport Provider has been obtained."

You'll need to look for something similar that states they over if your transport is delayed due to severe weather. Although do note that in my case I've got a plan with $250 excess and that only covers $300 so if the room rate is less than $250 one would just buy it themselves.

Many travelling to Norfolk Island don't bother with insurance because the main benefit of travel insurance (medical cover) is a moot point on Norfolk Island. Domestic medicare covers the island and if you're sick enough that the local hospital can't help then the federal government will cover a medivac back to Brisbane.

In the last 3 months just one Qantas flight hasn't been able to land, in this case it was a SYD-NLK flight that eventually diverted to Brisbane. They stayed the night in Brisbane (unclear if Qantas paid) and then continued the next day. As for those on the island, they just have to wait an extra day (and pay their own accommodation for an extra night).

 

[The black sheep]

Thanks henrus, your post gave me much to think about, and allayed many fears. Specifically your point about still being covered by medicare, etc. I was mainly fearful of simply losing the whole trip, but your stats on how often this actually happens was very comforting. Losing a "few hundred bucks" of hotels, cars, flights is really not a huge thing I suppose. It is not like we are doing a $20,000 holiday Rambing on sidewards, my daughter has a fear of flying - this would be a first for her for many years, and I am so pissed off about the media attention given to a similar 737 over-the-sea Qantas flight :/