FWD Travel Insurance Singapore Review (2026)

FWD travel insurance is one of those affordable, go-to options that many Singaporeans pick without thinking twice. Known for its value-for-money plans, it’s often seen as a no-frills travel insurance choice for budget-conscious travellers.

However, while FWD is often seen as a basic, no-frills choice, it actually offers more than just budget-friendly plans. For one thing, did you know that, FWD is one of the few insurers in Singapore whose flight delay coverage on selected plans pays out $50 for every 3 hours of delay instead of offering a per 6 hour rate?

In addition to its standout flight delay coverage and regular things like medical coverage and coverage for travel inconveniences, FWD travel insurance also offers add-on protection for pre-existing medical conditions, pets, sports equipment, and car rental excess. Maybe it’s time we gave it a closer look—after all, it's always prudent to know what exactly you're paying for.

Let’s explore what FWD travel insurance has to offer.

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1. FWD travel insurance summary

What is it and where is FWD from? FWD is actually an insurance company founded by Hong Kong businessman, Richard Li—you might know him better as the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing's son. FWD's headquarters are based in Hong Kong, but it operates insurance in numerous ASEAN countries in the likes of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and so on.

FWD insurance launched in Singapore in 2016, which means it's been in operation here in Singapore for 10 years now. Some of the most popular FWD insurance plans in Singapore include the FWD car insurance, FWD travel insurance, and FWD life insurance.

FWD's travel insurance is offered across 3 plan tiers for both single and annual travel insurance. In order of least to most coverage and premium, we have:

The most affordable FWD travel insurance plan is FWD Premium. It's a great choice if you're on a budget.

As with all travel insurance plans, your premiums (the price you pay) largely depends on the country you're travelling to:

• ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
• Asia including ASEAN: ASEAN Countries, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), East Timor, Fiji, India, Japan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan
• Worldwide excluding USA: All countries except USA and any of its territory
• Worldwide: All countries except the excluded countries below
• Countries not covered: Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Libya, Liberia, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, The territories of Crimea including Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson

Source: FWD FAQ, FAQ policy wording

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2. FWD Travel Insurance Coverage

What does each tier of FWD travel insurance cover? And how much does each cost? Let's compare them:

Comparison of FWD travel insurance prices vs other travel insurance providers

For a 7-day trip around ASEAN, FWD costs $37.08 for Premium, $50.81 for Business and $66.08 for First, before discounts.

Here’s how other insurers price the same trip, also before discounts. Allianz travel insurance runs from $59 to $126, so FWD Premium is about $22 below Allianz’s cheapest plan, and FWD First costs just over half of Allianz’s top tier. Tiq travel insurance ranges from $42 to $95, putting FWD Premium roughly $5 under Tiq’s entry price.

DirectAsia travel insurance is the one that undercuts FWD, at $26 to $33. Its plans are built differently, though: adventure activities sit under a separate Adventure Cover add-on, while FWD includes them in every tier.

Comparison of FWD travel insurance coverage vs other travel insurance providers

Coverage wise, FWD's travel insurance offers very good coverage for areas such as overseas medical expenses and travel inconveniences. The latter includes coverage for trip cancellation, travel delay, and baggage loss. It recently enhanced its travel delay coverage too—now, its Business and Premium plans offer $50 per 3 hours of delay instead of $100 for every 6 hours.

However, FWD doesn't fare so well for baggage delay. You're looking at coverage limits of $150 to $900, with a compensation rate of $150 for every 6 hours of delay.

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3. FWD Travel Insurance: Covid-19 Coverage

FWD travel insurance does not automatically include Covid-19 coverage. Instead, you'll need to purchase an add-on Covid rider on top of your travel insurance policy.

Here's the prices and what you will be covered for in the event that you decide to purchase the FWD Covid-19 rider for your holiday:

Source: FWD COVID-19 Enhanced Travel Benefits insurance policy wording

At $4.47 to $10.55 a week, FWD's Covid rider is about as affordable as a hawker meal these days. It’s a separate policy with a single benefit table, so the cover is the same whether you’re on Premium or First. You get $200,000 for medical treatment overseas or within 14 days of coming home, another $200,000 for emergency evacuation, and up to $5,000 each for trip cancellation and trip disruption.

That flat structure is what sets FWD apart. Tiq also sells COVID-19 cover as an add-on, but its limits rise with the plan. Medical cover runs from $100,000 on Tiq Entry to $300,000 on Tiq Luxury, and evacuation from $200,000 to $500,000. So FWD’s rider offers double Tiq Entry’s medical cover and trails only Tiq Luxury’s..

Tiq does have two things FWD’s rider doesn’t. It covers postponing your trip because of COVID-19 ($500–$1,500), and it pays $100 a day in quarantine against FWD’s $50. Its quarantine cap is $500 on Entry and $1,500 on Luxury, while FWD tops out at $700 over 14 days.

Starr takes the opposite approach and builds COVID-19 cover into its plans, so there’s nothing extra to buy. The limits are much lower, though. COVID-19 medical cover is $15,000 on Starr Bronze and $65,000 on Starr Gold. Cancellation and curtailment due to COVID-19 are only available on Silver and Gold, up to $500 on Gold. If COVID-19 cover matters to you, FWD’s rider buys considerably higher limits than Starr’s built-in cover

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4. FWD travel insurance: Extreme sports coverage

While FWD travel insurance's policy wording does not explicitly state if its coverage extends to outdoor adventure and extreme sports or not, there is a FAQ blog article found on the FWD website that tells us that FWD Travel Insurance covers most recreational and licensed outdoor adventure activities.

Considering that most outdoor activities are covered, their lowest tier plan (FWD Premium) is very good value for money.

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5. FWD vs Starr travel insurance

Starr makes a useful comparison because the two insurers handle COVID-19 in opposite ways. Starr builds it into every plan, while FWD sells it as a separate rider. Both offer three tiers, from FWD Premium to First, and Starr Bronze to Gold.

FWD wins on price at every tier. Premium costs $21.26 less than Starr Bronze, and First is $24.87 cheaper than Starr Gold. Even after adding the ASEAN COVID-19 rider, FWD still comes in $16.79–$20.40 below Starr. That rider buys $200,000 of COVID-19 medical cover, far above Starr’s $15,000–$65,000. Travel delay also favours FWD’s upper tiers: Business and First pay out every 3 hours, and First’s $1,500 cap is nearly double Starr Gold’s $800. FWD is also the only one of the two with a pre-existing conditions add-on.

Starr wins in other areas. Its baggage delay caps are higher at $400–$1,200, and Bronze pays every 6 hours, whereas FWD Premium pays only once. Starr’s post-trip medical cover runs from $15,000 to $50,000, against FWD’s $6,000–$30,000. Its top-tier personal accident cover is $500,000, versus FWD’s $400,000, and car rental excess cover goes up to $1,200. Starr also includes COVID-19 medical cover without an extra step at checkout.

If you want the lowest price, strong COVID-19 and delay cover, or protection for a pre-existing condition, FWD is the better fit. Starr suits travellers who’d rather pay more for higher baggage delay and post-trip medical limits, with basic COVID-19 cover already included.

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6. FWD travel insurance promotion

Buying FWD travel insurance through MoneySmart gets you 30% off Single Trip and 25% off Annual plans with code FWDHOLIDAY, valid from 20 to 25 Oct 2026.

FWD is also giving out eCapitaVouchers: $30 with Premium, $40 with Business, and $60 with First, valid until 31 Oct 2026.

You can also win up to $500 cash via PayNow as a trip rebate. To qualify, be the first to submit your MoneySmart claim form at 8 pm on any day of the promotion, follow MoneySmart Singapore on Instagram, and comment on the giveaway post tagging three friends.

*The Revolut reward is for new Revolut customers only. You’ll need to sign up through MoneySmart’s link, tick the Revolut marketing consent box in the claim form, and top up and spend at least $30 within the qualifying period. Each account can receive one reward.

The promotion runs from 15 to 31 Oct 2026. Submit your MoneySmart claim form by 1 Nov 2026, and your rewards will be sent 1 month after 31 Oct 2026. T&Cs apply.

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7. FWD travel insurance emergency hotline and claim process

FWD emergency hotline: +65 6322 2072

FWD Online claims: Fill in this FWD claim form online and upload the supporting documents online.

Things to note: Claims must be made within 30 days of the event or incident. Refer to FWD’s claims guide for what documents to submit for each type of claim.

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8. Conclusion: Should I get FWD Travel Insurance?

In general, the FWD travel insurance plans are good value for money.

One of the best things about FWD travel insurance is that they automatically cover activities like scuba diving and tandem skydiving.

It’s particularly useful for those planning to go for outdoor activities like skydiving and hot-air balloon rides—unlike some other insurance companies that claim to protect you on your travels, but sneakily classify all your planned activities as “dangerous” and therefore excluded.

Another boon is the good trip cancellation coverage. The world is full of threats to your imminent holiday, and FWD Premium has an above-average benefit for trip cancellations.

Maybe I have the attention span of a millennial, but when I buy insurance from FWD I don’t find it horribly tedious. I appreciate that the whole user experience is mobile-optimised, fast and relatively painless.

If we just look at the numbers, there isn't a lot to dislike about FWD travel insurance. Who wouldn't be happy with good coverage at an affordable price—even after you add the COVID-19 rider? The one negative thing I've heard about FWD travel insurance is that claims can be slow or inadequate for some of my friends. But then again, I also have a good number of friends who reported a speedy, seamless claim process.

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About our scale and rating system

• We compiled the prices and coverage limits for 60 travel insurance plans from 22 different providers in Singapore in a massive spreadsheet.
• For each price/coverage category (e.g. trip cancellation, travel delay, etc.), we determined the minimum, median, and maximum values across all travel insurance plans. These values then form scales showing the lowest, highest, and average price/coverage amounts for different travel insurance plans in Singapore.
• Finally, we plotted where each travel insurance plan stands on those scales and assigned a star rating for the provider based on the results.
• To arrive at an overall score reflecting price versus coverage, we take the average of the 5 coverage components, then average that figure with the price. The final score is rounded to the nearest whole number.

Notes:

• The star ratings are flipped for the Price component—for this, the lower the better.
• For all components, we will also award bonus or penalty stars to recognise special features of plans that may be non-quantifiable, as well as the best and poorest performing plans in Singapore:
  • Add a bonus star if one of the plans is the best in Singapore.
  • Deduct a penalty star if one of the plans is the worst in Singapore.
• For travel delay, most insurers offer $100 for every 6 hours.
  • ADD a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is higher. For example: a shorter time interval ($50 for every 3 hours) or larger compensation amount ($200 for every 6 hours)
  • DEDUCT a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is lower. For example: a longer time interval ($100 for every 8 hours) or smaller compensation amount ($50 for every 6 hours)
• For baggage delay, most insurers offer $200 for every 6 hours.
  • ADD a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is higher. For example: a shorter time interval ($100 for every 3 hours) or larger compensation amount ($250 for every 6 hours)
  • DEDUCT a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is lower. For example: a longer time interval ($200 for every 8 hours) or smaller compensation amount ($150 for every 6 hours)

Still looking to buy travel insurance? Compare all the best travel insurance in Singapore.