Allianz and Trawick are both popular travel insurance companies, but Trawick comes out ahead here
24 March 2022You’ve reached the point of travel insurance research when you’re asking “which company is better– Allianz vs Trawick?”.
These companies show up often in travel insurance searches. In fact, Trawick is our top-selling travel insurance provider in the past year. I also have complete reviews for both Allianz and Trawick you can read.
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?
My analysis shows that Trawick is the best choice between Allianz & Trawick. Even though they have too many plans to choose from, they have offer optional coverage like the popular Cancel For Any Reason upgrade while Allianz doesn’t even have the option. Their medical limits are much higher than Allianz. The baggage and delay coverage is slightly better. Finally, they are competitively priced across the board.
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.
Allianz follows 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 higher cost plans will have higher limits, extra coverages, and more optional upgrades.
The most popular travel insurance plan is in the middle. This is where you can find the best value. These plans have the right mix of coverage, coverage limits, options, and price.
Plan Type | Allianz |
---|---|
Budget Friendly | OneTrip Basic |
Best Value (Most Popular) | OneTrip Prime |
Full Featured | OneTrip Premier |
Trawick has a lot of plans to choose from at six. I would even say it’s too many.
The “good-better-best” model works because it’s easy to understand. You have basic coverage, the best coverage, and the one in the middle has the right mix of coverage and price.
Trawick has six plans, and there’s a lot of overlap in their features. For this review, I’ll just focus on their most popular plans that fit the “good-better-best” format. Rest assured, if one of the other plans had coverage that made them better, I’d show them too.
For the sake of simplicity we’ll focus on the most popular.
Plan Type | Trawick |
---|---|
Budget Friendly | Safe Travels Explorer |
Best Value (Most Popular) | Safe Travels Journey |
Full Featured | Safe Travels Voyager |
Omitted plans | Safe Travels Explorer Plus, Safe Travels First Class, Safe Travels Single Trip |
Winner: Allianz is the winner here because they keep it simple. You have plenty of options with Trawick so you’re not missing anything. They just have too many plans to choose from which makes it confusing.
Both Allianz and Trawick will reimburse your costs if you need to cancel your trip 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.
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.
Policy | Trip Cancellation | Trip Interruption |
---|---|---|
Allianz OneTrip Basic | 100% | 100% |
Allianz OneTrip Prime | 100% | 150% |
Allianz OneTrip Premier | 100% | 150% |
Safe Travels Explorer | 100% | 100% |
Safe Travels Journey | 100% | 125% |
Safe Travels Voyager | 100% | 150% |
Winner: Tie. Both companies have similar broad coverage here, and even though Allianz has higher trip interruption on Prime they lack some other coverage (see below).
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.
Trawick offers the CFAR upgrade with Safe Travels Voyager. It will reimburse up to 75% of your trip cost, and must be purchased within 21 days of your first trip payment.
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: Trawick wins this one. They offer the CFAR upgrade on their top plan, and Allianz does not offer it at all.
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.
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 |
Safe Travels Explorer | $50,000* | $200,000 |
Safe Travels Journey | $150,000* | $500,000 |
Safe Travels Voyager | $250,000 | $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.
Trawick International has higher medical coverage limits on all three plans.
Winner: Because they have higher coverage limits, Trawick wins here. Even though their medical is Secondary coverage, the significantly higher limits make up for it.
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 very common with injuries and illnesses, and is the most common reason people cancel trips.
Both Trawick Travel Insurance 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 Trawick 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. For Covid coverage, Allianz vs Trawick is a tie.
Coverage for hurricanes and severe weather are part of trip cancellation and interruption coverage with travel insurance. If your trip is delayed, canceled, or cut short because of these weather events you are covered.
The details matter a lot because insurance companies are all about definitions. Is a 10 minute delay the same as a 12 hour delay? Of course not. Is a thunderstorm 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.
Every policy has a different amount of time that “triggers” the cancellation coverage. One policy might require a common carrier delay of 6 hours, another might be 48 hours. Shorter is better, because your coverage kicks in sooner.
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.
Neither Allianz or Trawick cover NOAA hurricane warnings. If this is a coverage you want, I recommend Travel Insured International’s plan called Worldwide Trip Protector.
Policy | Delay Trigger | Hurricane Warning Covered |
---|---|---|
Allianz OneTrip Basic | 24 Hours | No |
Allianz OneTrip Prime | 24 Hours | No |
Allianz OneTrip Premier | 24 Hours | No |
Safe Travels Explorer | 24 Hours | No |
Safe Travels Journey | 12 Hours | No |
Safe Travels Voyager | 12 Hours | No |
Winner: The winner here is Trawick. Neither company has the NOAA hurricane warning coverage, but at least Trawick has a shorter delay time trigger.
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 Trawick:
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 |
Safe Travels Explorer | $750 per person |
Safe Travels Journey | $2,000 per person |
Safe Travels Voyager | $2,500 per person |
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 |
Safe Travels Explorer | $200 24+ hours |
Safe Travels Journey | $400 12+ hours |
Safe Travels Voyager | $600 8+ hours |
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 |
Safe Travels Explorer | $150/day $2,000 max 12+ hours |
Safe Travels Journey | $150/day $750 max 6+ hours |
Safe Travels Voyager | $150/day $2,000 max 6+ hours |
Winner: This one is close, but Trawick wins here. They have higher limits for lost baggage across all plans. The baggage delay coverage is similar but the time trigger is less. Their travel; delay coverage is higher, except Journey which for some reason has lower coverage than Explorer.
Travel insurance usually costs 4-10% of your insured trip cost. Here are the factors that determine the cost of travel insurance:
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 Trawick International.
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 |
Safe Travels Explorer | $332 |
Safe Travels Journey | $458 |
Safe Travels Voyager | $624 |
As you can see, the cost of Allianz’s mid-range plan is $430, or a little over 8% of the insured trip cost. Trawick’s similar plan is $458, about the same.
Winner: Here, Trawick is higher for one plan and less for another, but due to their better coverage they have better value.
Both Allianz and Trawick 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.
Trawick started in 1998, focusing mostly on international insurance for students. They have expanded their products over the years and have strong financial backing by underwriter Nationwide Mutual.
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 Trawick are reputable companies that will pay legitimate claims.
Trawick wins pretty much all around. Even though they have too many plans to choose from, they have offer optional coverage like the popular Cancel For Any Reason upgrade while Allianz doesn’t even have the option. Their medical limits are much higher than Allianz. The baggage and delay coverage is slightly better. Finally, they are competitively priced across the board.
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.
Damian Tysdal is the founder of CoverTrip, and is a licensed agent for travel insurance (MA 1883287). He believes travel insurance should be easier to understand, and started the first travel insurance blog in 2006.