Planning a big overseas adventure from New Zealand or a quick break somewhere closer to home is exciting, but it also comes with risk. Flights get cancelled, bags go missing, people fall ill in unfamiliar countries, and major events can derail even the best planned itineraries. AMI travel insurance is one of the better known options for Kiwi travellers, but understanding exactly what you are buying and how to get the right cover for your trip is essential before you click “purchase”.
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Who AMI Travel Insurance Is For
AMI is a long-standing New Zealand insurance brand and a division of IAG New Zealand, the country’s largest general insurance group. Its travel policies are designed primarily for New Zealand residents heading overseas or travelling domestically, and are administered by Cover-More New Zealand, with Zurich New Zealand as the underwriter. In practice, that means you are dealing with AMI for sales and customer service, a specialist travel insurer for claims handling, and a large international insurer in the background providing the financial backing.
The typical AMI travel insurance customer is a New Zealander taking a one-off trip to destinations such as Australia, the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia or Europe, or someone taking multiple shorter trips in a year and looking for a multi-trip or frequent traveller style policy. For example, a Christchurch couple flying to the Gold Coast for ten days with their two children might buy a single-trip international policy, while a Wellington consultant who flies to Sydney six times a year could find better value in an annual multi-trip option.
AMI also offers cover for domestic travel within New Zealand, which can appeal if you have pre-paid non-refundable accommodation in places like Queenstown or Rotorua, or if you are travelling with expensive sports equipment. Domestic policies can be helpful if, for instance, you have booked a week-long ski holiday in Wānaka and want cancellation cover if you fall ill before departure or if a family emergency forces you to abandon the trip.
Inbound visitors to New Zealand may sometimes be able to get AMI-branded cover on a case-by-case basis by contacting the insurer directly, but these policies are not as prominently advertised as those for New Zealand residents. In most cases, AMI is best suited to people who live in New Zealand, already have another type of policy with AMI, and want to keep their insurance with one brand.
Understanding AMI’s Main Travel Policy Types
AMI’s core offering is split between overseas and domestic travel. For international trips, you will generally choose between a more comprehensive product that covers a wide range of events and a more basic “essentials” style plan that focuses on medical and a few key benefits at a lower premium. Domestic plans mirror this logic with comprehensive cover or cancellation-only options.
For example, a comprehensive international policy will typically include cover for overseas medical and evacuation costs, trip cancellation and curtailment, lost or delayed baggage, personal liability, and in some cases additional benefits such as rental vehicle insurance excess cover. A basic or “essential” plan might still include emergency medical expenses and some cancellation cover, but with lower benefit limits and fewer extra features. A traveller flying to London and Europe for four weeks with several connecting flights and a lot of pre-paid tours usually benefits from comprehensive cover, while someone hopping across the Tasman for a long weekend in Melbourne might accept lower limits to keep the premium down.
On the domestic side, a comprehensive New Zealand policy might cover cancellation, changes to travel plans because of illness or accidents, lost luggage or sporting equipment, and some rental vehicle excess. A cancellation-only plan is usually cheaper and aimed at travellers who are mainly worried about losing the money they have already spent on flights and accommodation if something stops them from going. For instance, if you have booked non-refundable flights from Auckland to Queenstown and paid in full for a boutique lodge, cancellation-only cover could protect those prepayments, while you may decide self-insuring for lost bags on a short domestic flight is acceptable.
AMI’s relationship with Cover-More means its benefits and structure are broadly similar to other Cover-More distributed brands in New Zealand, and it also means access to a dedicated 24/7 emergency assistance team while you are overseas. That assistance can organise hospital admissions, medical evacuations, or translations, which matters more than many first-time travellers realise until something goes wrong in a foreign country.
Key Benefits to Check Before You Buy
Before purchasing AMI travel insurance, it is important to look closely at the benefit limits and how they line up with your specific trip. The biggest item for most people is overseas medical and evacuation cover. Policy limits here are usually very high, often running into the millions of dollars, because even a few days in a private hospital in the United States or an air ambulance from a Pacific island can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you are visiting countries with expensive healthcare, such as the United States, Canada, Japan, or parts of Europe, you want to confirm that your chosen plan’s medical limit is comfortably above any realistic costs.
Next, consider cancellation and curtailment cover. This pays you back for pre-paid non-refundable costs if you have to cancel or cut short your trip for reasons covered by the policy, such as serious illness, injury, or certain family emergencies. As a rough real-world example, a family of four from Auckland booking return flights to Los Angeles in school holidays, plus a Disneyland package, rental car, and accommodation, could easily pre-pay over NZD 15,000. You would want a cancellation limit that can cover that amount. If the default limit on a chosen AMI plan is lower than your total spend, you may need to adjust the sum insured or look at an alternative plan.
Baggage cover is another key benefit. AMI policies will usually specify a total baggage limit and sub-limits for certain items such as electronics, cameras, and jewellery. If you are travelling with high value items like a new MacBook, professional camera equipment, or a specialized mountain bike, you should read these sub-limits carefully. In practical terms, if your laptop is worth NZD 3,000 and the single item limit for electronics is NZD 1,500, you either accept that you are only partially covered or you look into specifying that item separately if the policy allows it.
Many AMI policies also provide rental vehicle excess cover, which can be especially useful if you are hiring a car in places like Australia, the United States, or Europe where rental companies often charge an excess of NZD 3,000 to NZD 7,000 after any accident. By relying on the policy’s rental vehicle excess benefit, you can often avoid paying the daily excess reduction fee at the rental desk, which can add hundreds of dollars to a two-week hire. Always check the maximum excess amount covered and whether certain vehicle types, such as campervans or motorcycles, require an add-on or separate approval.
COVID-19, Pre-existing Conditions and Common Exclusions
COVID-19 cover remains a major concern for many travellers. AMI, through its partnership with Cover-More, offers a level of COVID-19 related benefits, but these vary by plan and are subject to conditions. Typically, there may be cover if you or a travelling companion are diagnosed with COVID-19 and cannot travel, or if you become ill with COVID-19 during your trip and need medical treatment or to extend your stay in isolation. However, border closures, government travel bans, or fear of travelling due to outbreaks are far less likely to be covered. Travellers planning a cruise or visiting countries with fluctuating restrictions should read AMI’s current COVID-19 benefits guide and pay close attention to Destinations and SafeTravel advisories at the time of booking.
Pre-existing medical conditions are equally important. Most travel insurers, including AMI, treat some stable conditions differently to others. Common issues such as well-controlled high blood pressure or mild asthma may be automatically covered if you meet certain stability criteria and have not had recent hospitalisations. More complex conditions, such as heart disease, recent cancer treatments, or ongoing investigations, may require a medical assessment and an additional premium, or might be excluded entirely. For instance, a 68-year-old traveller from Dunedin with a recent heart bypass should expect to complete a medical assessment and may find that travel to high-altitude destinations or remote locations comes with additional conditions.
Standard exclusions are also crucial to understand so you do not assume you are covered when you are not. Almost all policies exclude claims arising from travelling against government “Do not travel” advice, participating in high-risk activities without the appropriate add-on (such as off-piste skiing, technical mountaineering, or motorsports), and events related to intoxication or drug use. If you plan to ski in places like Niseko in Japan or Whistler in Canada, you may need to add winter sports cover. Similarly, if you are planning a cruise through the South Pacific, check whether you need a specific cruise extension to ensure medical and evacuation cover applies while you are on the ship.
Non-covered events around pandemics and epidemics can be particularly confusing. Policies are usually more willing to cover you if you personally catch an illness like COVID-19 and need treatment, but far more restrictive if a government decides to close borders or airlines cancel routes for broad public health reasons. When in doubt, it is wise to ring AMI’s travel team or send an email describing your scenario before you rely on the policy to respond.
What AMI Travel Insurance Typically Costs
Travel insurance pricing changes regularly and depends heavily on your age, destination, trip length, and chosen level of cover, so it is impossible to give exact figures that will apply in every case. Nevertheless, real-world quotes obtained in mid-2026 for typical trips can provide broad guidance. A healthy 32-year-old Aucklander taking a ten-day trip to Fiji with a comprehensive AMI international policy might see premiums in the low hundreds of dollars, while a family of four travelling to Europe for a month over December and January could easily face a premium closer to NZD 600 to NZD 900 depending on ages and options selected.
Domestic policies are usually cheaper. A five-day trip from Wellington to Queenstown with comprehensive domestic cover might cost roughly what you would pay for a dinner out for two, especially if you are relatively young and do not add high-risk sports cover. Older travellers, particularly those aged in their late sixties or seventies, or those with significant pre-existing conditions, should expect noticeably higher premiums. An otherwise healthy 72-year-old planning a three-week tour of the United States will likely pay substantially more for AMI cover than a 28-year-old going on the same itinerary, reflecting the higher risk of large medical claims.
One relevant feature as of 2026 is that AMI offers a substantial discount for existing AMI customers on new travel policies when using a current promotional code. At the time of writing, AMI advertises a 30 percent discount for customers who already hold another AMI policy and purchase a travel policy within specific promo dates. In practice, this can be significant. For a NZD 400 comprehensive international policy for a family, the discount could reduce the premium by around NZD 120, which may be enough to cover some additional add-ons like winter sports cover or higher baggage limits.
To get an accurate sense of cost, it is worth comparing an AMI quote with at least one or two other New Zealand brands that also use Cover-More or Zurich as underwriters, as well as with competitors underwritten by other insurers. Products from AA Insurance or Tower, for example, can be useful reference points. When comparing, look beyond price to financial strength, available benefits, and customer service ratings, as some travel insurers have won recent awards from independent reviewers for value and claims service.
Financial Strength, Claims and Customer Experience
One of the advantages of buying AMI-branded travel insurance is the backing of large, established insurers. AMI sits under IAG New Zealand, which holds an AA financial strength rating from Standard & Poor’s in 2025 and 2026, indicating a very strong claims-paying ability. This is not a guarantee of perfection, but it does provide reassurance that the insurer is well capitalised and closely supervised by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. After the lessons of the Christchurch earthquakes, regulators and rating agencies place significant emphasis on insurers maintaining robust solvency margins.
Claims for AMI travel policies are administered online through Cover-More’s digital claims portal. In practice, that means you can often lodge a claim from your phone or laptop while still overseas, upload supporting documents such as medical reports, airline letters and receipts, and track progress without waiting on international phone lines. For example, if your bag is delayed on arrival in Singapore and you need to buy clothing and toiletries, you would keep your receipts and a property irregularity report from the airline, then submit these through the online portal once you have internet access at your hotel.
Customer feedback for AMI across its broader insurance offerings in New Zealand is generally mixed to positive, with many policyholders appreciating New Zealand based customer service and the ability to speak with staff by phone or in branch. Some independent comparison sites rate AMI as a mid-range option on price but highlight its financial strength and claims stability. There are also online reviews and forum posts describing both smooth claim experiences and frustrations over premium increases or disputed claims, which is typical across most large insurers.
When evaluating AMI for travel insurance, it can be helpful to check how responsive the company is to queries before you purchase. Calling the AMI travel insurance line or using email to ask specific questions about your destination, pre-existing conditions, or planned activities can give you a sense of how clearly they communicate and how willing they are to confirm points in writing. Clear, prompt responses at the pre-purchase stage are often a good sign of how issues will be handled if you ever need to make a claim.
How to Buy AMI Travel Insurance the Smart Way
Buying AMI travel insurance is usually straightforward, but a bit of preparation can ensure you get the right cover rather than just the quickest quote. Before you start, list your destinations, travel dates, approximate total pre-paid costs (including flights, accommodation, tours and deposits), ages of travellers, and any known medical conditions. Having this information ready will allow you to answer the questions in the online quote tool accurately or provide clear details if you speak to an AMI representative by phone.
When the quote appears, pay particular attention to the plan type (comprehensive versus essentials or cancellation-only), the destination region classification, and trip duration. For example, if you are travelling to Singapore and then on to Germany and Italy for a month, make sure the trip is classed as worldwide or includes Europe, rather than just Asia. If you plan multiple entries to different countries over several months, compare a single-trip policy with a multi-trip or frequent traveller option; the latter can sometimes be cheaper overall if you are making three or more international journeys in a 12-month period.
Before you pay, download or open the full policy wording and search for key terms that relate to your trip, such as “cruise,” “ski,” “pregnancy,” “motorcycle,” or the name of any high-risk activity you plan to do. If the wording is unclear, call AMI for clarification. As a real example, a couple planning to rent a scooter in Bali should confirm what engine capacity is covered, whether both riders need motorcycle licences, and whether claims will be declined if they are not wearing helmets. Similarly, someone planning to ski off-piste at a Canadian resort should verify if that is covered under a standard winter sports add-on or excluded without a specialist policy.
Once you buy, store your policy schedule, emergency assistance contact details, and claim portal information somewhere you can access offline, such as a printed sheet in your passport wallet or a screenshot saved on your phone. Share these details with your travelling companions so everyone knows how to call the emergency assistance line if the policyholder is incapacitated. It also pays to set a calendar reminder a week before departure to re-check any travel advisories for your destinations; if a country moves to a higher risk category or “Do not travel” level before you leave, you may want to contact AMI to understand how that affects your cover.
The Takeaway
AMI travel insurance offers New Zealanders a familiar brand, very strong financial backing through IAG and Zurich, and the practical benefits of 24/7 emergency assistance and online claims via Cover-More. For many travellers, particularly those who already hold other AMI policies and can access a loyalty discount, it can be a competitive and convenient way to protect an upcoming trip.
At the same time, like any travel policy, AMI’s cover is detailed and conditional. The value you get depends on choosing the right plan type, setting realistic sums insured for cancellation and baggage, declaring pre-existing medical conditions honestly, and understanding key exclusions, especially around COVID-19, high-risk activities, and government travel warnings. Taking an hour to read the policy wording, confirm tricky points with AMI in writing, and compare at least one or two alternatives can save you significant stress and expense if your journey goes wrong.
If you approach the purchase carefully, AMI travel insurance can shift many of the financial risks of travel away from your savings and onto an insurer with the scale and resources to help. That peace of mind lets you focus less on what might happen and more on the experiences you are planning to have once you leave New Zealand.
FAQ
Q1. Does AMI travel insurance cover COVID-19 related claims?
AMI travel insurance generally provides some cover for COVID-19 related events, such as if you or a travelling companion are diagnosed and cannot travel or require medical treatment while overseas, but it is unlikely to cover broad disruptions like border closures or changes in government policy. Exact benefits and limits depend on the plan you choose and the conditions in place at the time you buy, so you should always check AMI’s current COVID-19 benefits guide and policy wording before purchase.
Q2. Can I buy AMI travel insurance if I am already overseas?
Typically, AMI travel insurance is intended to be purchased before you leave New Zealand, and many policies either exclude or tightly restrict cover bought after departure. If you have already left and realise you need insurance, you should contact AMI directly to ask whether they can offer cover and on what terms, but you should not assume that a standard online policy will apply once you are already overseas.
Q3. How does AMI handle pre-existing medical conditions?
AMI, working with Cover-More, assesses pre-existing conditions based on their type, severity and recent history. Some common and stable conditions may be automatically covered if you meet specific criteria, while more serious or unstable conditions may require a medical assessment and extra premium or be excluded. When you generate a quote you will usually be asked questions about your health, and it is important to answer these accurately and disclose all relevant conditions so AMI can confirm what is covered in writing.
Q4. Is AMI travel insurance good value compared with other New Zealand insurers?
AMI is generally positioned in the middle of the New Zealand market on price, with stronger value for existing AMI customers who can use current promotional discounts on travel policies. Whether it represents the best value for you will depend on your age, destination, trip length, medical history and preferred benefit levels. It is sensible to obtain quotes from AMI and at least one or two competitors, then compare not only the premiums but also medical limits, cancellation cover, baggage sub-limits, and recent customer reviews.
Q5. Does AMI travel insurance cover cruises and ski trips?
Many AMI policies can cover cruises and ski holidays, but you often need the right add-on or cover variation selected at purchase. For cruise trips, especially those outside New Zealand waters, you may need a specific cruise extension to ensure you are covered for medical treatment and evacuation while at sea. For ski trips, winter sports or snow cover may be required to include skiing and snowboarding, and certain high-risk activities like heli-skiing or off-piste skiing might still be excluded or require a specialist policy.
Q6. What financial strength rating does AMI have behind its travel insurance?
AMI is a business division of IAG New Zealand, whose general insurance operations hold an AA financial strength rating from Standard & Poor’s, indicating a very strong capacity to pay claims. The travel policies themselves are underwritten by Zurich New Zealand, a large international insurer with its own strong financial ratings. This structure means that when you buy AMI travel insurance, you are effectively relying on the financial backing of major insurers rather than a small standalone company.
Q7. How do I make a claim on my AMI travel insurance policy?
Claims on AMI travel policies are usually made online through Cover-More’s claims portal, where you complete a form and upload supporting documents such as receipts, medical reports and airline confirmation letters. In an emergency overseas, you should first contact the 24/7 emergency assistance line so they can help coordinate treatment and provide guidance on documentation. Once you are safe and have internet access, you can submit the formal claim, after which an assessor will review it and may ask for further information before making a decision.
Q8. Does AMI travel insurance cover rental car excess?
Most comprehensive AMI travel insurance plans include a benefit to cover the excess charged by a rental car company if the vehicle is damaged or stolen, up to a stated limit. This can allow you to decline the car hire company’s daily excess reduction fees, which can significantly increase the total cost of your rental. You should check the policy wording for the maximum excess covered, any vehicle type restrictions, and whether you need to be listed as the main driver on the rental agreement.
Q9. Can I change or cancel my AMI policy if my plans change?
AMI policies generally allow a short cooling-off period after purchase, provided you have not started your trip or made a claim, during which you can cancel for a refund. If your plans change after that, options may be more limited, but in some cases AMI may allow you to change travel dates, destinations, or sums insured, possibly with an adjustment to the premium. Because terms can vary, it is best to contact AMI as soon as your plans look likely to change and ask what can be amended on your policy.
Q10. Does AMI domestic travel insurance make sense for trips within New Zealand?
Domestic travel insurance can be worthwhile when you have significant non-refundable costs for flights, accommodation or tours within New Zealand, or when you are travelling with valuable baggage or equipment. An AMI domestic policy may help if illness, accident or certain unforeseen events force you to cancel or cut short a trip to places like Queenstown, Nelson or the Bay of Islands, or if your bags are lost or delayed. For simple, low-cost trips where most bookings are flexible or refundable, some travellers choose to self-insure instead, but it is still worth getting a quote so you can weigh the potential benefits against the relatively modest premium.