You know that moment when you’re booking a flight, and right before you checkout, the airline nudges you to add travel insurance? Most of us just shrug it off, assuming it’s an unnecessary extra. But what if that little checkbox for travel insurance offered more than just convenience—what if it actually made sense?
In this article, we’re diving into the world of airline travel insurance add-ons to see if they’re truly worth your money. We’ll explore what these policies typically cover and compare that coverage with their prices. Let’s find out if airline-offered travel insurance can be both practical and valuable, or if it’s just another upsell you’re better off skipping.
Guide to Airline Travel Insurance in Singapore (2025)
- Best Airline Travel Insurance
- Trip Disruptions and Cancellations
- Missed Flight Connections
- Overbooked Flights
- Medical Coverage
- Pre-Existing Medical Conditions
- Covid-19 Coverage
1. Best airline travel insurance
How good are these airline travel insurance plans? Should you add travel insurance to your trip with your flight?
To answer these questions, we need to look at the cost versus coverage of the travel insurance being offered. High coverage is no good if it also comes with a high cost, and low cost is no good if coverage is inadequate.
But here’s the thing. Most airlines require you to choose your flights and seats before they offer you the option to opt in for their airline travel insurance. It’s basically one of the last things you add on before taking out your credit card to pay, alongside things like in-flight meals and additional baggage. This also means that you don’t know the price of the airline’s travel insurance until you are pretty much ready to check out.
To find out the prices of different airlines’ travel insurance, we pretended to book flights and carried on till we were one page away from making payment. Here’s what we discovered:
| Airline travel insurance | Underwritten by | Cost |
| AirAsia Travel Protection | FWD | $23.80 (Comprehensive Travel Insurance LITE) $28.60 (Comprehensive Travel Insurance PLUS) Note: These appear to be flat fees, based on our testing: Bangkok, Japan, Australia |
| Cathay Pacific: Chubb Premier Travel Cover | Chubb | $262 (7-day trip to London) |
| Emirates: AIG Travel Guard | AIG | $160 (7-day trip to Cambodia or London; they’re the same price) |
| EVA Air travel insurance | Allianz | $68 (7-day trip to Japan) $84 (7-day trip to Toronto) |
| Jetstar Travel Insurance | AIG | $39.20 (7-day trip to Bangkok) |
| Scoot: Scootsurance | MSIG | $46.55 (7-day trip to Bangkok) |
| Singapore Airlines: Travel Protect by Singapore Airlines | Allianz | $44 (7-day trip to Bangkok) $77 (7-day trip to London) |
We wanted to look at prices for both an ASEAN country and one further out, such as the UK or US, but do note that not all airlines offer flights to both of these areas. The table above shows you costs based on the flights we were able to find.
Now let’s look at coverage.
| Airline travel insurance | Trip cancellation | Baggage loss | Overseas emergency medical | Emergency medical evacuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AirAsia | $600 | $800 | $10,000 | $50,000 |
| Cathay Pacific | $15,000 | $5,000 | $1,000,000 | Unlimited |
| EVA Air | $10,000 | $3,500 | $400,000 | $300,000 |
| Emirates | $67,000 | $13,400 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Jetstar | $10,000 | $2,000 | $150,000 | $200,000 |
| Scoot | $1,000 | $2,000 | $70,000 | Covered |
| Singapore Airlines | $10,000 | $4,000 | $500,000 | $300,000 |
Across the airlines, AirAsia provides the least amount of coverage in the areas above, while Emirates is the most generous. That checks out—price wise, these are also the most and least affordable airline travel insurance options.
While AirAsia’s travel insurance will cost you less than $30 for a week-long trip to an ASEAN country, its coverage is lacking. $600 for a cancelled trip? 5 of the 7 airlines above offer $10,000 or more.
Emirates offers very generous coverage amounts, including unlimited coverage for medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation. However, $160 for a week-long trip is steep.
The airline with the second highest coverage amounts is Cathay Pacific—but it’s also the most expensive. If you thought Emirates’ $160 was bad, Cathay is asking for $262 for a 7-day trip to London. Gulp.
EVA Air, Singapore Airlines and (to a more limited extent)Jetstar offer the best value for money out of the airlines above. Scoot is affordable, but its coverage is more limited.
We’ll take a closer look at the individual coverage areas in the next sections, and compare these airline travel insurance plans with standalone travel insurance plans at the end of this article.
2. Trip disruptions and cancellations
Most people make their first travel insurance claim not because they need to be air lifted home after a tragic accident, but because their trip gets disrupted due to a mishap or ran into a cancelled flight.
| Airline travel insurance | Trip disruption or curtailment | Trip cancellation |
|---|---|---|
| AirAsia | Up to the cost of the AirAsia ticket | $600 |
| Cathay Pacific | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| EVA Air | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Emirates | $67,000 | $67,000 |
| Jetstar | $1,000 | $10,000 |
| Scoot | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Singapore Airlines | $10,000 | $10,000 |
Are there any caveats to these airline travel insurance plans’ trip cancellation and trip disruption coverage? Here’s the coverage we found in the policy wordings:
- Jetstar: Jetstar will not cover trip cancellation if it is caused directly or indirectly by government regulations, control, or if the cancellation is caused by Jetstar Air Carrier or any other provider of travel and/or accommodation. Additionally, trip cancellation is also not covered if the insurance was purchased less than 3 days before the departure date.
- EVA Air: Only covers the non-refundable portion of your airfare and other trip costs if cancellation is due to covered reasons (e.g., serious sickness or death). Pre-existing medical conditions of family members are not covered.
- AirAsia:
- Travel cancellation is not covered if the cancellation results from government regulations, or if caused by an airline or any provider of travel and/or accommodation—that includes AirAsia themselves.
- If the policy is purchased less than three days before departure, trip cancellation and disruption will not be covered.
- No coverage for cancellations or disruptions resulting from an epidemic.
- Singapore Airlines: Coverage for cancellations due to epidemics or pandemics is only included if the quarantine specifically names you or your travelling companion as individuals to be quarantined due to an epidemic or pandemic, and it does not apply broadly to a population segment, geographical area, building, vessel, or as a general restriction based on travel routes.
- Emirates: Will not cover cancellations due to travel advisories related to epidemics or pandemics, or if the cancellation results from border closures or other government directives.
- Scoot: Will not cover loss of vouchers, reward points or holiday points (other than what is covered under Section 14 – Loss of Frequent Flyer Points) that you used to pay for your flight. Scoot also won’t cover you if you purchased the policy less than days before the start of your trip.
- Cathay Pacific: Coverage does not apply if the trip cancellation or disruption results from the financial failure of a travel agent or tour operator.
3. Missed flight connections
Are you about to miss your connecting flight?
You must be wondering what to do, and if your airline will pay for the missed flight connection—and if they do cover, how much?
Generally, if you missed your fight due to your airline’s bad scheduling or late arrival, the airline should automatically book you on another flight (and cover your hotel airport stay if it’s the next day).
| Airline travel insurance | Missed flight connection |
|---|---|
| AirAsia | $200 ($100 for every 6 hours of delay) |
| Cathay Pacific (Chubb) | $500 ($200 for every 6 hours of delay) |
| EVA Air | – |
| Emirates | $2,680 |
| Jetstar | – |
| Scoot | $600 ($100 for every 6 hours of delay) |
| Singapore Airlines | – |
However, if you missed your connecting flight due to public transport (eg. moving from Haneda to Narita airpot via bus to catch your next flight), it gets a little complicated.
You need to get an official letter from your transport company that your bus, train, or taxi was indeed cancelled or delayed indefinitely (or more than 6 hours). They must state the reason why the transport was late or delayed, and state their alternative transport details and timing they offered to you. This is essential for you to obtain so you can submit your claim to the insurer.
4. Overbooked flights
What are overbooked flights in travel insurance? If your flight is overbooked and you’re not allowed to board the flight (and no alternatives are offered within X number of hours) you’ll get paid a small amount of cash by your travel insurance plan.
| Airline | Overbooked flights |
|---|---|
| AirAsia | $100 |
| Cathay Pacific (Chubb) | N/A |
| EVA Air | N/A |
| Emirates | N/A |
| Jetstar | N/A |
| Scoot | N/A |
| Singapore Airlines | N/A |
- AirAsia: $100 cash payout. Covers if you were denied boarding your flight due to overbooking (from Singapore), and the airline couldn’t offer you an alternative flight within the next 6 hours.
Most airline travel insurance plans do not protect you from flight overbooking.
However, you can try to make a claim under one of the other categories like travel delay, but take note that they’ll usually require the delay to be due to some natural disaster, civil unrest and so on before they’ll let you receive a payout.
5. Medical and coverage
Most of us, perhaps, buy travel insurance from airlines primarily for flight cancellation and disruption coverage. Overseas medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation? Not really thinking about that, but great if it’s included.
Most airlines’ travel insurance offers overseas medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation coverage. The terms and conditions are largely similar as well:
| Airline travel insurance | Overseas emergency medical | Emergency medical evacuation |
|---|---|---|
| AirAsia | $10,000 | $50,000 |
| Cathay Pacific | $1,000,000 | Unlimited |
| EVA Air | $400,000 | $300,000 |
| Emirates | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Jetstar | $150,000 | $200,000 |
| Scoot | $70,000 | Covered |
| Singapore Airlines | $500,000 | $300,000 |
You may wonder about coverage for alternatives treatments, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The good news is some of the airlines do cover this:
- Scoot: pays up to $750 for TCM treatment.
- Singapore Airlines: TCM is covered up to $350 for KrisFlyer members.
- Cathay Pacific: Includes Alternative Medical Expenses up to $750.
6. Pre-existing medical conditions
In a perfect world, we’d all be in great health, everyone would look like a supermodel and nobody would photoshop their Instagram photos. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and the fact is that as you get older the likelihood of pre-existing medical conditions rises.
Well, guess what, most travel insurance will not cover medical expenses arising from pre-existing medical conditions —much less airline travel insurance.
There are only a handful of insurance companies with travel insurance for pre-existing medical conditions; these include NTUC Income and MSIG.
These plans are more expensive than their basic plans, but they’re still better than going uninsured. If you have specific needs for your travel, making sure you compare travel insurance policies before you travel is of utmost importance.
7. How does airline travel insurance compare to standalone travel insurance?
Since we also review standalone travel insurance in Singapore, we have an idea of what their coverage plans. Here’s our coverage table again, but this time with the lowest, median, and maximum coverage values from standalone travel insurance providers in Singapore:
| Airline travel insurance | Trip cancellation | Baggage loss | Overseas emergency medical | Emergency medical evacuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AirAsia | $600 | $800 | $10,000 | $50,000 |
| Cathay Pacific | $15,000 | $5,000 | $1,000,000 | Unlimited |
| EVA Air | $10,000 | $3,500 | $400,000 | $300,000 |
| Emirates | $67,000 | $13,400 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Jetstar | $10,000 | $2,000 | $150,000 | $200,000 |
| Scoot | $1,000 | $2,000 | $70,000 | Covered |
| Singapore Airlines | $10,000 | $4,000 | $500,000 | $300,000 |
| Minimum among standalone travel insurance plans in Singapore | $1,500 | $1,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Median among standalone travel insurance plans in Singapore | $10,000 | $5,000 | $500,000 | $1,000,000 |
| Maximum among standalone travel insurance plans in Singapore | $20,000 | $10,000 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
- Trip cancellation: AirAsia and Scoot have relatively low coverage, while the others fare well. Special mention goes to Emirates, which travel insurance plan’s trip cancellation coverage of $67,000 knocks the standalone insurers out the park.
- Baggage loss: Considering the median coverage value for this among standalone travel insurance plans is $5,000, only Cathay Pacific and Emirates are comparable. (Okay, that was an understatement for Emirates, which once again seriously outperforms standalone insurers.) However, Singapore Airlines is also pretty decent at $4,000 worth of coverage.
- Overseas medical expenses: EVA Air, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Emirates offer good coverage amounts of at least $400,000. In fact, Emirates offers unlimited coverage. At the other end of the spectrum, AirAsia offers a meagre $10,000—a fifth of the lowest coverage standalone travel insurance plan in Singapore we found.
- Emergency medical evacuation: This is one coverage area in which standalone travel insurance plans are usually very generous. Out of the 63 plans we surveyed, 27 of them have unlimited coverage for emergency evacuation that’s a good 40%. Among our airline travel insurance plans,Cathay Pacific and Emirates offer the same. Singapore Airlines, Jetstar and EVA Air offer around $200,000 to $300,000, which is on the lower end already, while AirAsia offers just $50,000.
All in all, Emirates offers very high coverage across the board, beating even out standalone travel insurance plans. However, it also comes with a $160 price tag for a week-long trip, so this travel insurance is as expensive as it is generous. Cathay Pacific also offers good coverage, but it was even more costly than Emirates.
AirAsia‘s coverage is generally low. Although it’s very affordable, we wouldn’t recommend choosing it. At around $23.80 – $28.60 for a week-long trip, you could get much higher coverage from budget travel insurance providers like FWD.
Among the airline travel insurance plans we looked at, EVA Air and Singapore Airlines offer a good middle ground. These plans will cost you between $44 to $84 for a 7-day trip. However, the premiums depend on where and how long you travel. We recommend you compare their price and coverage with that for standalone travel insurance plans to see which is more value for money for you. Use our travel insurance comparison tool to make this seamless.
At the end of the day, remember that protecting your trip is the most important factor. Airline travel insurance is fast and convenient, but you don’t want to be stranded at an airport with your luggage missing and find that your travel insurance doesn’t have your back.
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