Westpac Amex black - no Covid19 travel insurance cover on Allianz insurance? Anyone else in this boat that goes no where?

[nomad52]

I have read carefully the Westpac Trael insurance PDS that comes with the Amex Black card.
I find no reference in it to pandemic exclusions.
But there website and phone message declares they offer no cover for anything related to Covid 19 as it is a pandemic and pandemics are excluded.
I note that all other Amex card travel insurances are covered for covid 19 because hey are underwritten by Chubb.
does anyone have any further info about this? I can't be the only one caught out with grounded flights in Europe and no recourse to a refund.
Any suggestions appreciated.
I'll ditch this card now. the insurance is a smokescreen.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have read carefully the Westpac Trael insurance PDS that comes with the Amex Black card.
I find no reference in it to pandemic exclusions.
But there website and phone message declares they offer no cover for anything related to Covid 19 as it is a pandemic and pandemics are excluded.
I note that all other Amex card travel insurances are covered for covid 19 because hey are underwritten by Chubb.
does anyone have any further info about this? I can't be the only one caught out with grounded flights in Europe and no recourse to a refund.
Any suggestions appreciated.
I'll ditch this card now. the insurance is a smokescreen.

I had a look at the policy.

The policy defines natural distaster as:

“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.​

​

In the body of the policy they make various references to when you will be covered... for example your flights are cancelled because of a natural disaster.

However, as pandemics are excluded from natural disasters, that may bring you outside the scope of the policy (ie, it's not a covered event)

However, if your flights in Europe are grounded, you should be able to get a refund directly from the airline, no need for travel insurance.

 

[Lomandriel]

I tossed up this up back in Feb before we left on our holidays around Valentines. Back then it was a China only issue with some surrounding asian nations like HK etc. scaring us. I found that the Westpac card, along with ANZ's reward travel card all were underwritten by Allianz. We used both for 2 x insurance and both were useless when asking about the pandemic. We were told pretty much that tough luck if we got sick on the off-chance, we were on our own due to the virus.

Pretty much useless insurances when you need it.Someone at work checked theirs and if you had the policy before hand on the cut off date when stuff got realserious then you were still covered - which is much more reasonable. We got these in June/july 2019 back when riots in hk and coronavirus weren't even big. The fact that we were then not covered is a load of bs. I'll be reviewing pds for sure next time. Got caught out even on ouraccommodation in Zermatt. Interhome (kind of like the Stayz of europe) - wouldn't refund us as we could "get to Zermatt" even though it was stupid/discouraged all aroundat the time.If you cancelled you lost your 100% and you take it up with their ERV insurance. Who when rung had the same "pandemics due to coronavirus are not covered, don't bother continuing this call" style recorded message.

When i continued anyway they said "epidemic" which are specifically mentioned in their 'coverage' were fine. But as WHO just declared it an "pandemic" worldwide a day or so before, it was not an"inclusion". it wasn't an 'excluded' item either. Just it wasn't written in the "inclusions"unlike an epidemic.

Total load of cough. And a common sense rort. It's why i look low on these extended warranty purchases, insurance etc. Even with life and income protection you hear stories of people who pass and don't ever realise that their insurers worm their way out. There should be a standardization or reign in of these industries and clauses. Like a forced standard as it's complete and utter bs.

 

[VZ1_60]

I used my credit card insurance paperwork in lieu of the toilet paper shortage

cheers, John