Not a fan of this super smug rejection. Like, oh I’m sorry it would be expensive for YOU to approve claims.
Update: November 3, 2025 (What Our Claim Experience Was Like)
I had originally written this post about three months ago, before our big trip to Asia. While I was of course hoping I wouldn’t have to make a claim with SafetyWing travel insurance, we unfortunately did have to submit a claim.
Briefly, here’s what happened: Our flight from Tokyo to Paris was canceled, and we weren’t able to get re-booked until the following day. Since we were connecting in Paris for a flight back to Madrid, and then a train from Madrid to Alicante, everything got messed up. Air France took care of getting us back to Madrid, but our missed train wasn’t part of their responsibility after getting us to our final flight destination of Madrid.
That’s where I called on SafetyWing, to cover the rest of our travel issues. All I requested was that they cover the cost of the new train tickets from Madrid to Alicante, which were a direct result of a canceled/delayed flight, as well as the taxi we had to take between the airport and the train station.
I submitted my receipts and documentation, only for SafetyWing to reply and say my claim was REJECTED because they don’t cover flight/train tickets due to cancelations or delays.
It turns out that they are only an international medical insurance company, despite their description saying they offer “Global medical AND travel coverage.” This lends credence to the idea that they offer travel insurance for the things that many people actually get travel insurance for — like delayed/canceled flights — but this is apparently untrue. In their Essential Plan, which we bought, it says that they cover “Lost luggage, travel delays, and emergency evacuations.”
Again, this would lead you to believe they are a travel insurance provider. But this is simply not the case. I personally believe they are misrepresenting themselves in the travel insurance space because they are truly for medical insurance only.
If that had been clear from their branding/messaging, I wouldn’t have booked a policy with them and been in this situation. So unfortunately, I cannot recommend them.
But for my U.S. based friends, other companies don’t have silly policy exclusions and are an actual travel insurance company. In fact, we’ve made two different types of claims with other companies before — medical as well as travel delay/cancellation — and they paid both, no questions asked.
SafetyWing is dead to me. 💀
Disclaimer: Policies and coverage terms can change over time. Always review the official policy wording directly from the insurer before purchasing. [Read more…]
