Why SafetyWing Insurance Is Actually NOT Travel Insurance (and Kind of Scammy)

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.

Original Post: Why We Booked SafetyWing Travel Insurance for our Trip to Asia

The first time I ever bought travel insurance was when I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, for a few days in 2018. It wasn’t because I was afraid anything would happen — it was because travel insurance was required for my visa! That was a new experience for me, but luckily I found a company that made it easy to get the insurance I needed for a good price.

Since then, I’ve used the same company for other situations when I’ve wanted travel insurance. But for our long trip to Asia, we went with a company called SafetyWing instead. Here’s what you need to know about travel insurance and SafetyWing.

How Travel Insurance Works

If you’ve ever bought an international flight, you’ve probably seen the option for “protect your trip” with some sort of travel insurance offered by Allianz. I’ve never selected this option — partially because it always seems soooo expensive. Also, I’m not sure whether it’s trustworthy.

Obviously, the point of travel insurance is to protect you if something goes wrong while you’re on your trip. Whether that’s helping you get a refund if you miss a flight, covering the cost of your medical care if you need to go to the doctor/hospital while traveling, or even getting you back to your home country if you die. (RIP.)

Matt and I typically would only buy travel insurance in a couple situations: one, if we were going somewhere for a long period of time (like when we went to Ecuador for two months); or two, when we were traveling in the first few years after COVID (like when we went to the UK and Ireland in 2022).

Why We Chose SafetyWing Travel Insurance This Time

When it was time to plan our honeymoon trip to Asia, we knew we would get travel insurance — it meets our qualifier of being a “long trip” and we’re also visiting three countries that neither of us have ever been to. Better to be safe than sorry if any surprises pop up.

I went to the website we usually use to get our travel insurance policy and then realized something pretty important: it’s not available for residents of Spain.

Fortunately, I was aware of another company, called SafetyWing. SafetyWing has a different target market than what we usually use — it’s designed for remote workers who are based outside the U.S. and even has the goal of building a “global social safety net.” While I’ve known about SafetyWing for a few years, this was actually my first time booking a policy with them. We got the “Nomad Insurance Essential” plan.

I felt pretty happy with the price of our coverage for two people, for nearly six weeks: $161. Total!

Of course, I can’t say at this point how their claims process works compared to what I experienced with other companies. So I’m interested to see how it goes! (Though I certainly hope we don’t have to use it. 😉)

Edit: Yes, we had to use it, and it was absolutely worthless if you don’t need medical insurance.

Have you ever bought travel insurance? Which companies have you used — and would you recommend them or not? Let me know in the comments!

-Cathy

 

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Originally Published on August 23, 2025.