World Nomads Travel Insurance Reviews

I have travelled extensively for the last five years and have always used this insurance. Fortunately up to now I have never had to make a claim .This is where you have failed me. This leads me to believe that your company is basically in the business of selling false security.

I paid $1000 for the upgraded plan to buy me more security but little did I know it was money thrown to the wind.

I was in Indonesia, prepared to come back in June. Unfortunately as you well know due to the pandemic, I had to come home early. I had a scheduled flight booked for March 19th. This flight was from Bali-Taipei-Toronto. I paid $900 for this. 16 hours before my flight was set to depart, Taipei announced that they would be closing borders for transit and my flight was cancelled. This left me with very limited options to return home. Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and a majority of major transit cities were closed. From Bali I quickly caught a flight to Jakarta in hope that once in Jakarta I would be able to book a flight back to Canada. I was able to book the only flight going through Japan that evening. Time was definitely of the essence and at that point cost was negligible to me as my safety was more important. I also had this false sense of security that my insurance provider would come through and cover some of the costs.

I made two calls to the insurance provider while I was abroad, in which two customer relations employees pulled up my policy# and confirmed to me that my trip interruption would indeed cover the costs up to $5,000 as my plan states. I even mentioned the flights that I had booked already. The flight into Indonesia, and the flight going home.

When I got back to Canada I submitted all my documents. I followed up 6 weeks after my submission and got an email back saying they were overwhelmed with claims and to continue waiting. I waited another 6 weeks and followed up, I received the same response that the insurance was receiving a high volume of claims. I continued to follow up and was asked for additional documents for my claim. I continued to follow up every 4 weeks, again with the same response “we are receiving a high number of claims”

It took me posting everything on Instagram for anyone to even bother reaching out to me; definitely very poor customer relations. After 4 months of very little correspondence I was advised that my claim was rejected on the basis that I did not have a return flight. Clearly my submission of information had proof of my return flight through Taiwan, on March 19th that had been cancelled. Definitely confused what a return flight is supposed to look like according to your standards.

To make matters even more frustrating world nomads states in their blog post: if you don’t have a return ticket DON’T WORRY we will cover you for a portion of your flight home. Since when does a portion mean 0$?

Don’t waste your money on this insurance , I’ve had 5 people I’ve talked to not receive anything for the claims they have filed.

I’m still waiting on a claim I filed in September for dental work to be reimbursed.

This company is a complete joke.

I had to travel at no notice so bought World Nomads for a 5 day trip. On day 1, a flight was cancelled and I was stranded en route so needed to make a claim, but as I'd bought it out of Autralia, there's a 4 day wait until the insurance is valid - it's hidden somewhere in the small print. So they charged me for 5 days of insurance, but were actually only covering me for the final day of my trip! Criminal for starters.
Finding this out, I said I wanted to cancel my insurance and get a refund as I too got a 'cooling off period' and would have to get insurance from elsewhere to actually be covered (which I did). I had to follow up twice when I had no response, then after about 3 weeks they asked me to explain in detail my case, which I did. After another 3 weeks and more emails from me, I received an apology for the delay and they asked me to explain in detail my case, again, which I did. Again, I had to wait some weeks and send more follow up emails before being asked to explain my case again. At this point I got angry and pointed out it was all in the email thread. After some discussion, they then wanted me to send on all this personal information (copy of new replacement insurance, passport, itinerary, tickets etc) that they'd never wanted before and I became incredibly suspicious as they wouldn't tell me why they wanted the information. In the end, I chose to abandon my efforts as they refused to take my concerns any further without this information. They were dismissive and obstructive at every turn.
I've used them for years and supported their charity and now I finally need to make a claim get this treatment - took around 5 months to get even this far; it's criminal behaviour. Thank the Lord I wasn't in life-threatening danger as I think they would have happily sat back and enjoyed the show. Not worth it!

I have been loyal to WN over many years, always using them for all my travels.
They are very competitive price wise but thats where any positivity begins and ends.
I have had to make a claim for a cancelled trip and it has been nothing short of a protracted nightmare dealing with these bunch of inept #$%*&!!!!
I gathered together all the required paperwork which was sent to them, some time went by when I called to follow up as I had heard nothing from them.
Despite sending it to them they claimed they had no record of it arriving, telling me it may have been re-directed to Melbourne as they were handling claims along with Sydney which is where I had sent it.
Luckily i had copied everything I had sent, so I went about emailing all of it again.
At each step of this process I get told it will be another 10 days to have it reviewed (another 10 days on top of another and another... you get the picture)
Despite providing them with all the requested documents I've had repeated requests to supply documents they have been provided with twice.
So again I went about emailing it through AGAIN (only to be told another 10 days...)
I have spent countless hours on the phone dealing with these idiots, not to mention the time wasted in having to re-screenshot, attach and email the same stuff over and over again.
I've been told numerous times someone will call me back, no surprise that never happens.
I get flimsy excuses like they can see my email but their internal IT systems have blocked the attachments blah blah blah so I need to re-send it all one by one.
Their customer service is worthy of minus stars if I could.
Never again will I even consider using this company again, I will be telling all my friends who travel to avoid them like the plague.
I will happily pay a premium to get insurance through a reputable company who don't turn the most straight forward cancellation claim into an absolute nightmare.
Avoid at all costs!
You've been warned.

Please. Save your money and do not follow through with this insurance company. They are not responsive, and do not cover you for anything. I filed a claim with the company in March, and still have yet to hear anything from them. Two months of waiting, and this insurance company just won't respond to me. I also had multiple claims to file, but only one was technically "approved". So much for feeling comfortable and safe while traveling.

I purchased trip insurance in late Feb 2020 for a trip to Italy scheduled for early June. When the Covid crisis hit, i cancelled all of my travel and attempted to cancel the trip policy since I wasn't traveling. All of the other companies I dealt with were efficient: AA, Airbnb, etc. However, I spent over 2 months writing 20+ emails, filling out numerous web forms and leaving 10+ voice mails trying to cancel my policy with zero response.

I protested the charge via my credit card and received a response within 24 hours.

Coverage may be good, and they may have a good reputation in this space, but when customer service was at its most important, they completely blew it. I makes more sense to self-cover or go with a different company if you want trip coverage.

We bought the most expensive package for a 3 week trip to Europe. When we could not go because of cancelled flights and cruise, they would not even respond to our emails or calls. We got refunded through our credit card company. Don't waste your time.

Whats the point of insurance if it does not pay up? Skiing shortened by airline rescheduling, as good as cancellation. Actually had another policy, elsewhere which was faster and produced claim monies.

Absolute terrible company. Can not use the insurance because of COVID19 but will not refund the money. Stay away!!! I just thank my lucky stars I did not have to use them in an emergency

This company is a complete scam. They make it IMPOSSIBLE to file claims. You can't do it online and they send you INCORRECT forms after days/weeks of no correspondence, seemingly purposely until you go away. I've been trying to simply file a claim for over a month with no luck.

We bought their insurance specifically to cover Do Not Travel warnings for a few countries we were visiting. This was specifically based on some advertising they ran selling this product with lots of nice graphs and tick boxes highlighting just how much was covered. When such a warning came out (Bolivia) they hid behind some minute policy detail and refused to pay for the flights we had to cancel. Please note our tour company gave a full refund immediately. They were quite responsive in their denial and claimed it had all gone to various review departments so it all seems quite sophisticated. Seems like quite a few others have had similar experiences. Don’t make our mistake and just use another company.

I had my luggage and valuables stolen in the train at Barcelona. Made a claim in accordance with their instructions and submitted all required documentation which took a very long time. They required further information and/or documentation until they come across one which you cannot produce, at which point they refuse assess your claim and do not pay you. They took an average of 10 working days to reply to each of my emails (which is the maximum time requirement for them to reply to you). In my case, they are now refusing to assess my claim as I cannot submit my train ticket which was inside the stolen luggage. This is ridiculous. I cannot stress enough for any potential customers to avoid World Nomads at all costs. It is very easy to pay for the travel insurance with World Nomads as is the process to make a claim because their website is very easy to use. However, the claim process takes a very long time, and in the end, if you are not frustrated into giving up the claim, they always find a way to not settle the claim and do not pay out. If this is not an example of a scam, I don't know what is. Please read the other reviews very carefully - most of the good reviews on World Nomads is in regards to how easy it is for you to use their website to pay and make a claim, not getting your claim paid out. Avoid at all costs.

Don't book with this company!
We got caught by a cyclone in Fiji and had to evacuate the small islands to the mainland. All our trip was pretty much changed, delayed or canceled. A series of unfortunate events and we thought we were covered.
Been two months back and forward with a claim and they keep sending emails asking over and over for the same documents, creating excuses, delaying and avoiding paying.
Every time we contact them, the person in charge of claims is not available, they say will contact us back in 4 business days and nothing, every email takes around 10/15 business days to be answered, everything is just long and unnecessary.
Just giving 1 rating because is not possible to give 0!