Allianz vs Travel Guard: What is Best in 2023?

So you’ve done your travel insurance research and reached the point of asking “which company is better– Allianz vs Travel Guard?”.

Both companies appear often in searches for travel insurance. You’ll also see both Allianz and Travel Guard sold through travel suppliers like United Airlines & Expedia. I also have complete reviews for both Allianz and Travel Guard.

This page will show you how these two travel insurance companies compare. Which company has the best coverage? How does the cost compare? Are they both reputable companies?

Summary

My analysis shows that Travel Guard is the best choice between Allianz & Travel Guard. They have better cancellation coverage for weather & hurricanes. Their emergency medical coverage is higher than Allianz. They offer the popular Cancel For Any Reason coverage, which I believe is an important choice to have. Allianz might cost a little less, but this is because their coverage is not as good.

Criteria for comparing

For this comparison, we’ll be looking at travel insurance for a single trip such as a family vacation or cruise. Both companies have other plan options, but most travelers buy single-trip travel insurance.

When I compare, I consider the coverage, the amount of coverage, unique features, optional upgrades, and the cost. Finally, I look at value because there’s no need to spend more on coverage you don’t need.

Let’s get started.

Plan Options with Allianz vs Travel Guard

Both Allianz and Travel Guard follow the popular format of “good-better-best” for their travel insurance plans.

This is popular because it gives you insurance options to fit every budget. The lower cost plans will have lower limits, options, and even lack some coverage. The highest cost plans will have high limits, extra coverages, and more options.

The most popular is in the middle. This is where you can find good value. These plans have the right mix of coverage, coverage limits, options, and price.

Here are the plans we’re comparing:

Plan Type	Allianz	Travel Guard
Budget Friendly	OneTrip Basic	Essential
Best Value (Most Popular)	OneTrip Prime	Preferred
Full Featured	OneTrip Premier	Deluxe

Both Travel Guard and Allianz also offer specialty plans.

Allianz has a travel medical plan called OneTrip Emergency Medical, which is for travelers who don’t need cancellation coverage. They also offer annual/multi-trip plans called AllTrips– which also follow the good-better-best format. These are for travelers taking several trips throughout the year that want emergency medical coverage. Finally, they offer a rental car plan called OneTrip Rental Car Protector.

Travel Guard also offers a plan without cancellation coverage called Pack N’ Go, meant for last-minute trips. Finally, they offer and annual plans called Annual Travel Plan.

Winner: This is a Tie. Both Allianz and Travel Guard offer three plans that fit the needs of most travelers taking a trip. Allianz has more options for annual policies, but since we’re focusing on single-trip plans this is a tie.

Trip Cancellation & Interruption Coverage

Both Allianz and Travel Guard will reimburse your trip costs if you need to cancel for a covered reason. They cover 100% of your pre-paid and non-refundable trip costs.

This covers events like getting sick before departure, a death in the family, hurricanes & severe weather, or getting called for jury duty. There is a long list of covered reasons for trip cancellation, but the most common is someone getting sick or injured.

The details are important here. For example, one company covers cancelling for a hurricane warning, and one doesn’t (more below).

Trip interruption coverage reimburses you if the trip is cut short for a covered reason. The reasons are similar– someone getting sick or injured, a parent death back home, a house fire back home, and more.

Both companies cover 150% of your insured trip cost for interruption on their two higher-coverage plans. This is because you can incur extra expenses, such as a last-minute flight back home. Both companies cover 100% of your trip cost for interruption in their lower-cost plans.

Winner: Both companies have similar broad coverage here, but Travel Guard has better hurricane coverage. I’ll go into more detail about this below.

Cancel For Any Reason Coverage

Travel insurance covers a long list of events for cancellation. The most common is someone getting sick before the trip, but it also covers a death in the family, house fire, hurricane, terrorism, and more.

To expand this coverage and give travelers more peace-of-mind, insurance companies came up with Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) coverage. This is an upgrade that costs more, but gives you more coverage.

With CFAR coverage, you can cancel for any reason up until 48 hours before your trip. You will receive up to 75% of your trip cost back. The other 25% acts as a deductible.

Cancel For Any Reason has become more popular, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Travelers want the option to cancel if they feel unsafe, which is not a standard covered reason.

Travel Guard offers this coverage with their Preferred and Deluxe plans for an optional upgrade. CFAR is usually not available on low-cost plans.

Allianz does not offer Cancel For Any Reason with any of their plans.

I believe CFAR is an important option to have. Not all travelers choose to purchase it, but it is always smart to have it as an option.

Winner: Travel Guard is the obvious choice here. This is an important (and popular) option to have, and Allianz does not have it with any of their plans.

Medical & Evacuation Coverage

Emergency medical coverage pays for emergency medical expenses that happen on your trip. This could be a slip & fall, a stroke, food poisoning, and anything else. This is important when you leave your home country, because your insurance from home might not cover you.

Evacuation coverage pays medical transport expenses. This might be a local ambulance, a rescue flight from a remote location, or a medical flight back home. Even if your insurance from home covers medical expenses, it won’t cover evacuation costs.

Coverage Comparison

Policy	Emergency Medical	Emergency Evacuation
Allianz OneTrip Basic	$10,000	$50,000
Allianz OneTrip Prime	$50,000	$500,000
Allianz OneTrip Premier	$50,000	$1,000,000
Travel Guard Essential	$15,000*	$150,000
Travel Guard Preferred	$50,000	$500,000
Travel Guard Deluxe	$100,000	$1,000,000

* Coverage is Secondary. This means the coverage pays after any other insurance you might have. The other plans are Primary, meaning it pays first. Either way you are covered, but Primary is easier. Many low-cost plans have Secondary medical coverage.

Travel Guard has higher coverage limits on their low and high end plans. Both companies are the same with the middle level plan

Winner: Because they have higher coverage limits on a couple plans, Travel Guard wins here. Even though their Essential plan has Secondary coverage, most travelers will be using Preferred which is Primary coverage.

Covid Coverage with Allianz vs Travel Guard

Travel insurance covers cancellation if you, a family member, or traveling companion get sick prior to departure and a doctor advises they don’t travel. This is common with injuries and illnesses, and is the most common reason people cancel trips.

Both Travel Guard and Allianz treat Covid-19 like any other illness and cover it.

Travel insurance has emergency medical coverage, which pays medical expenses if you get sick or injured on your trip.

Both Allianz and Travel Guard cover Covid-19 as they would any other illness.

Winner: Tie. Both companies treat Covid-19 as they would any other illness for both trip cancellation coverage and emergency medical.

Hurricane & Weather Coverage

Coverage for hurricanes and severe weather are part of trip cancellation and interruption coverage. If your trip is delayed, canceled, or cut short because of these weather events you are covered.

But the details matter. It’s not enough to just say “it’s covered” and call it a day. Insurance companies are all about definitions. Is a 10 minute delay the same as a 12 hour delay? Of course not. Is heavy rain the same as a category 3 hurricane? Same thing.

The two main factors I look at are: 1) the length of delay before the coverage is in effect, and 2) the events that are covered.

Delay “trigger”

Every policy has a different amount of time that “triggers” the cancellation coverage. One might say a common carrier delay of 6 hours, another might say 48 hours. Shorter is better, because your coverage kicks in sooner.

Covered events

Most plans will list hurricane, severe weather, or inclement weather that causes a delay and causes you to cancel your trip.

But imagine a hurricane is heading towards your destination in the Caribbean. It is not affecting your departure city, so there’s no coverage there. And for the coverage to kick in at your destination, the hurricane needs to strike and cause damage closing your resort.

The best plans cover hurricane warnings from the NOAA. This way, even if it never strikes your destination, you have coverage if your destination is included in a hurricane warning. This expands your coverage, and gives you more ways to cancel and get your money back.

Policy	Delay Trigger	Hurricane Warning Covered
Allianz OneTrip Basic	24 Hours	No
Allianz OneTrip Prime	24 Hours	No
Allianz OneTrip Premier	24 Hours	No
Travel Guard Essential	12 Hours	No
Travel Guard Preferred	Any length of time	Yes
Travel Guard Deluxe	Any length of time	Yes

As you can see, Travel Guard’s top two plans cover canceled flights due to weather after a delay of any length. They also include NOAA hurricane warnings as a covered reason for cancellation.

Winner: The clear winner here is Travel Guard. The extra coverage with weather and hurricanes expands your coverage, and protects your trip investment better.

Baggage & Delay Coverage

The two main areas of travel insurance coverage are trip cancellation/interruption, and emergency medical/evacuation. We covered that above.

Travel insurance also covers your baggage and travel delays. Here’s how the coverage compares with Allianz vs Travel Guard:

Lost, stolen, or damaged baggage

This covers your baggage throughout the trip. Airlines may reimburse you for lost bags on flights, but they wouldn’t help you once you left the flight. This coverage has a per/traveler limit.

Policy	Baggage loss, damage, theft limit
Allianz OneTrip Basic	$500 per person
Allianz OneTrip Prime	$1,000 per person
Allianz OneTrip Premier	$2,000 per person
Travel Guard Essential	$750 per person
Travel Guard Preferred	$1,000 per person
Travel Guard Deluxe	$2,500 per person

Delayed baggage

This covers extra expenses caused by a delayed bag. For example: If you’re attending a wedding and your suit is in the delayed bag, you can get a new suit and shoes. This coverage has a per/traveler limit, as well as a minimum delay time trigger.

Policy	Delayed bag limit/time trigger
Allianz OneTrip Basic	$200 24+ hours
Allianz OneTrip Prime	$300 24+ hours
Allianz OneTrip Premier	$600 24+ hours
Travel Guard Essential	$200 24+ hours
Travel Guard Preferred	$300 12+ hours
Travel Guard Deluxe	$500 12+ hours

Travel delay

This covers extra expenses caused by a delayed trips. For example: If your departure is delayed for a covered reason, it would pay costs for extra hotel stays and meals. This coverage has a limit, as well as a minimum delay time trigger.

Policy	Delayed bag limit/time trigger
Allianz OneTrip Basic	$150/day $300 max 6+ hours
Allianz OneTrip Prime	$200/day $800 max 5+ hours
Allianz OneTrip Premier	$200/day $1,600 max 3+ hours
Travel Guard Essential	$100/day $500 max 12+ hours
Travel Guard Preferred	$200/day $800 max 5+ hours
Travel Guard Deluxe	$200/day $1,000 max 5+ hours

Winner: This one is a Tie. Travel Guard has better coverage for baggage and baggage delay. Allianz has better coverage for travel delays.

Cost of Allianz vs Travel Guard

Travel insurance usually costs 4-10% of your insured trip cost. Here are the factors that determine the cost of travel insurance:

• Trip cost
• Number of travelers
• Ages of travelers
• Trip length
• Coverage limits
• Optional upgrades

Depending on various factors or optional upgrades like CFAR, the cost can be over 10%. Let’s look at how the costs compare with Allianz vs Travel Guard.

Sample trip: The following quote is for two travelers, both 70 years old. They are taking a two week trip to Spain. The total trip cost they are insuring is $5,000.

Policy	Travel insurance cost
Allianz OneTrip Basic	$332
Allianz OneTrip Prime	$430
Allianz OneTrip Premier	$672
Travel Guard Essential	$410
Travel Guard Preferred	$531
Travel Guard Deluxe	$740

As you can see, the cost of Allianz’s mid-range plan is $430, or a little over 8% of the insured trip cost. Travel Guard’s similar plan is $531, or a little over 10% of the trip cost. These quotes are at the higher end due to the age of the travelers.

Winner: Here, Allianz has slightly lower-cost plans. This because they have lower coverage in many areas, and don’t offer upgrades like Cancel For Any Reason insurance.

Reputation & Trust

Both Allianz and Travel Guard are reputable companies that have been in business for a long time.

Allianz is one of the largest insurance companies in the world and has tremendous financial backing. This would explain their partnerships with so many travel suppliers, which is why you see them in the checkout process as an add-on purchase.

Travel Guard started as a private company, and was purchased by AIG – also one of the world’s largest insurance companies. They are financially sound, and will not be disappearing anytime soon.

Claims

Travel insurance policies are contracts, just like any insurance policy. You make a promise to the company to pay a premium, and they make a promise to meet the terms of their coverage.

This does not mean every claim is paid. Insurance companies receive many claims that are not legitimate and cannot be paid.

Even though mistakes are made, most denied claims with travel insurance happen because travelers don’t understand what is covered. The most common misunderstanding here is covered reasons for trip cancellation. Travelers think they can cancel if “something happens”, but that something needs to be a covered reason.

Winner: Tie. Both Allianz and Travel Guard are reputable companies that will pay legitimate claims.

Final Thoughts: Allianz vs Travel Guard

Travel Guard wins pretty much all around. They have better cancellation coverage for hurricanes and weather. They offer the Cancel For Any Reason upgrade while Allianz doesn’t even have the option. They have higher limits for medical coverage.

Allianz is slightly cheaper, but the coverage is lower in many ways. I also think the lack of Cancel For Any Reason as an option is a deal-breaker.

Quote & Purchase

I am a licensed travel insurance agent. If you found this comparison helpful and are ready to purchase, consider using my link below. I earn a commission, but it does not cost you anything because the company pays that. Insurance is regulated, and you won’t find the same plan available anywhere else for less.

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Travel Guard

• Covid covered for sickness cancellation and emergency medical
• Great medical limits
• Cancel For Any Reason available
• Weather coverage includes NOAA hurricane warnings