My Tick Travel Insurance Review After Comparing Coverage

Travel insurance is one of those unglamorous line items you only appreciate when something actually goes wrong. After years of using different providers for trips across Asia, Europe and the United States, I spent time in 2025 and 2026 comparing policies side by side, then bought Tick Travel Insurance for a multi‑country trip. This review walks through how Tick’s coverage really stacks up in the real world, what I liked, what worried me, and when I think travellers can do better elsewhere.

Who Tick Travel Insurance Is Really For

Tick Travel Insurance is an Australia based specialist that focuses on relatively low cost policies you buy direct online. It targets travellers who are price sensitive but still want decent protection for big ticket events like overseas medical emergencies, trip cancellation and lost baggage. If you live in Australia and book your own flights and accommodation with airlines like Qantas or Jetstar and platforms such as Booking.com, Tick is one of the brands that will regularly appear on comparison sites next to 1Cover, Fast Cover and InsureandGo.

In my case, I was looking to insure a three week trip from Sydney to Japan and then on to Germany, with a couple of domestic internal flights on low cost carriers. I compared Tick’s Standard and Top international policies with similar tier products from two other well regarded insurers. At first glance, Tick’s premiums were around 15 to 25 percent cheaper for travellers in their 30s and 40s, and still competitive for my parents in their late 60s. That price gap is often what pulls people in, but the more important question is what you give up in return.

Tick is best suited to travellers who are generally healthy, comfortable buying online and willing to read the Product Disclosure Statement. It also suits those whose trips are built around flights, hotels and standard tours, rather than complex adventure itineraries, volunteer projects or working holidays. If you are planning high risk activities, have a long list of pre existing conditions or want strong cover for things like cruise shore excursions or sports equipment, Tick can work but will usually require careful selection of add ons or, in some cases, a different insurer altogether.

It is also important to be clear that Tick is a brand name. The actual insurance is underwritten by Europ Assistance Australia, which is responsible for paying claims and providing emergency assistance. This is fairly standard in the Australian travel insurance market, but it means your experience in a crisis depends heavily on that back end partner rather than the marketing brand on the website.

Breaking Down Tick’s Coverage Levels

Tick offers four main levels of cover across its international, domestic and cruise policies: Basic, Budget, Standard and Top. The names sound similar to other brands, but the inclusions and limits are not identical, so it is worth looking at the detail. On the international side, all four tiers provide unlimited overseas medical expenses, which is crucial if you are heading somewhere like the United States where a simple overnight stay in a hospital can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The differences really start with trip cancellation, baggage and extras. On the current schedule of benefits, the Basic policy focuses on essential medical cover and emergency assistance. There is no trip cancellation benefit and only modest baggage protection, so it functions more like catastrophic medical insurance. Budget adds cancellation cover up to roughly the cost of a modest overseas trip, along with limited luggage and some additional benefits. Standard increases those limits again and starts to include things like travel delay, higher baggage caps and rental vehicle excess.

The Top policy is where Tick becomes more comparable to comprehensive products from competitors. It combines unlimited medical with relatively high caps for luggage, cancellation and cutting your trip short, plus rental car excess, some cruise related benefits when you buy a cruise policy, and extras like hospital cash and pet care back home. For example, Top currently offers up to around 20,000 Australian dollars for trip cancellation, 7,500 dollars for luggage and 4,000 dollars for rental vehicle excess on many single trip international policies, although the precise figures depend on your trip and you need to check the latest Product Disclosure Statement.

For my Japan and Europe trip, the practical difference was that only Standard and Top felt suitable. The Basic policy would have left me exposed if a family emergency forced me to cancel a 4,000 dollar package of non refundable hotels and internal flights. On the other hand, the Top policy provided enough cancellation cover to comfortably insure the full value of my bookings, while the higher baggage and rental car excess limits made sense once I factored in a week long car hire in Germany and a laptop plus camera gear in my bag.

Real World Scenarios: When Tick Works Well

The clearest way to understand Tick’s strengths is to look at specific situations. Imagine you are on a two week ski trip in Hokkaido that costs around 6,500 Australian dollars for flights, accommodation, lift passes and a rental car. With Tick’s Top policy and the optional winter sports add on, you would have unlimited overseas medical expenses if you broke a leg on the slopes, cover for the non refundable portion of your prepaid ski passes if you were injured early in the trip, and protection for your luggage and sports gear up to the policy limits, provided the items were not left unattended.

Another example is a classic European summer itinerary. Suppose you have booked flights from Melbourne to Rome, then a small ship cruise in the Greek Islands and boutique hotels in Santorini and Paris, with a total prepaid cost around 9,000 dollars. If a close relative in Australia fell seriously ill before departure and you had to cancel, Tick’s trip cancellation benefit on the Standard or Top policies could help reimburse the non refundable portions of those bookings, assuming the situation fit one of the listed insured events and you provided medical reports and booking confirmations.

Tick can also perform well for more everyday mishaps. For instance, a traveller from Brisbane flying to Bali on a low cost carrier might arrive to find that their checked bag never left Australia. Under a Standard or Top policy, Tick could cover the cost of essential clothing and toiletries after a covered delay, up to the specified travel delay and baggage limits. When I ran sample quotes in mid 2026, that kind of cover often cost less than what you would pay to add the airline’s own basic protection, while offering broader benefits.

In my personal experience, Tick’s online purchase process and documentation were clear, and I appreciated the ability to dial back or increase cover via different tiers rather than paying for a one size fits all bundle. For a straightforward leisure trip with regular airlines and hotels, it felt like a good balance of price and protection, especially if you are disciplined about reading the section on insured events for cancellation and the list of general exclusions.

Where Tick’s Fine Print Can Catch You Out

All travel insurance policies have fine print, but Tick’s value orientated positioning means it is particularly important not to skim over the exclusions and conditions. Several themes came up repeatedly when I compared the Product Disclosure Statement with independent reviews and customer experiences on sites like ProductReview and Trustpilot. The first is strict triggers for some benefits. For instance, travel delay expenses typically require a minimum delay period, often around 12 hours, before you can claim meals and accommodation. A 6 hour delay that forces you to sleep on the floor at Changi Airport may still fall below the threshold.

Another area to watch is how Tick treats unattended belongings and high value items. Like most insurers, Tick will not cover luggage that is left unattended in a public place, on a beach towel while you swim or on the back seat of a rental car in an unsecured parking lot. There are also single item limits within the overall baggage cap, so a 3,000 dollar camera body may only be covered up to a lower amount unless you buy additional specified items cover and list it when you purchase the policy. A common real world example is a traveller whose suitcase is stolen from the lobby of a hostel while they are checking in. If they walked away from their bag, the insurer may consider it unattended and decline the claim.

Pre existing medical conditions are another frequent flashpoint. Tick explicitly excludes undeclared pre existing conditions, and certain conditions may be excluded altogether or require medical assessment and additional premiums. If you have, for example, a history of heart problems or recent surgery and suffer complications on a cruise in Alaska, you may find that the resulting hospital bills are not fully covered unless you disclosed everything and received written confirmation of cover prior to departure. That means travellers with complex health histories should treat the medical declaration and any follow up questions very seriously.

Finally, Tick has similar exclusions to other insurers around government travel advisories, pandemics and war or civil unrest. If you fly into a country that is subject to a formal “Do not travel” warning from the Australian government at the time your trip begins, or you ignore specific medical advice not to travel, your cover for certain events may be void. Practical example: choosing to book a holiday to a destination with active armed conflict or severe travel warnings and expecting full cover if flights are cancelled due to escalating violence is unrealistic with Tick and most other mainstream insurers.

How Tick Compares With Other Travel Insurers

To put Tick in context, I compared its Standard and Top international policies with similar offerings from two other well known Australian providers in mid 2026. Across multiple sample trips with destinations including the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe, Tick’s premiums were consistently at the cheaper end of the spectrum while still including unlimited overseas medical cover on all tiers above bare bones Basic. That makes it appealing when you are trying to keep the cost of a big family trip under control, particularly if you have already absorbed higher airfares and hotel rates.

However, price is not the whole story. Some competitors offer slightly more generous cancellation limits on their mid range plans, more flexible coverage for pre existing conditions or broader automatic cover for activities such as trekking to moderate altitudes without needing specific adventure add ons. For example, on one comparison a rival insurer priced only around 10 percent higher than Tick’s Standard policy but included a larger cap for cutting your trip short and more detailed provisions for missed connections on complex itineraries with multiple airlines.

Service and claims handling also matter, and here Tick’s record is mixed. Public reviews in recent years show many travellers praising quick refunds for relatively simple baggage or cancellation claims, particularly when documentation was complete and the situation clearly matched the listed insured events. Others, however, report long assessment times, extensive back and forth requests for extra paperwork and detailed scrutiny that eventually led to partial payouts or outright declines. This pattern is not unique to Tick, but it reinforces the importance of matching your expectations to the wording of the policy rather than assuming any misfortune will automatically be reimbursed.

In practice, my view after comparing and reading broadly is that Tick occupies a middle ground: better value than some big bank branded policies and airline add ons, but not necessarily the best choice for travellers with complex needs or those who prioritise highly responsive claims support over a lower upfront premium. If you are the type who wants phone based pre trip advice, the ability to tailor long stay or multi trip annual cover, or extra generous conditions for sports and adventure, it is worth obtaining quotes from a few more comprehensive focused brands as well.

My Personal Experience Buying and Using Tick

For my own trip, I purchased a single trip international Top policy covering three weeks across two regions, including flights, mid range accommodation and a hire car segment. The online quote tool was straightforward: I entered my destinations, dates, ages, and trip value, then toggled between Standard and Top to see how much extra I would pay for the higher limits and additional benefits. On that particular itinerary, upgrading from Standard to Top added roughly the cost of a nice dinner for two in Tokyo, which felt reasonable given the extra cancellation cover and rental car excess protection.

The policy documents arrived by email within minutes, including the Product Disclosure Statement and a summary schedule that laid out the main benefits and limits. I spent an evening going line by line through the sections that mattered most to me: overseas medical, cancellation, cutting your trip short, baggage, rental vehicle excess and the general exclusions. This is the part many travellers skip, but it is where you understand, for example, that trip cancellation is limited to certain defined reasons and that things like a change of mind or a vague feeling of unease are not covered causes.

During the trip I did not need to make a major claim, but I did have a minor incident that put Tick to a practical test. A checked bag was delayed on the Japan leg and arrived more than 24 hours after I did. I kept every receipt for toiletries and a couple of basic clothing items I bought at a department store in Sapporo. When I returned home, I submitted a small claim online with flight details, the airline’s delayed baggage report and scanned receipts. The claim was processed and paid to my bank account within a few weeks. It was not a stressful scenario, but it did show that, for routine events where the paperwork is clear, Tick can function smoothly.

What the experience really highlighted, though, was how much responsibility still sits with the traveller. If I had thrown away the baggage delay report or failed to keep the receipts, the outcome would probably have been different. Reading wider customer reviews shows that many rejected claims involve missing documentation, misunderstandings of what counts as an insured event, or situations squarely excluded in the general conditions. Tick’s policies are not unusually harsh by industry standards, but they are not forgiving if you do not meet the requirements.

Key Things To Check Before You Buy Tick

After comparing Tick’s coverage and putting it through at least one real world test, I have a checklist I now run through for myself and recommend to other travellers. The first item is making sure the policy type matches the way you actually travel. If you are taking a domestic road trip across New South Wales, a domestic policy with cancellation and luggage cover might be enough. If you are booking a cruise in the Mediterranean, you will generally need a cruise specific policy to ensure onboard medical and missed port benefits are included.

The second is setting the right trip value. With Tick, the cancellation limit is capped at a certain dollar figure depending on the tier. You need to enter an amount that reflects the non refundable portion of your flights, hotels and tours. If you underdeclare to save a few dollars on the premium and later have to cancel a 10,000 dollar trip when your policy only covers 5,000 dollars, you will be left to absorb the difference yourself. On my Japan and Europe trip, I took the time to total up exactly how much was prepaid and non refundable, including internal trains and special event tickets, then rounded up slightly to avoid being underinsured.

Third, I carefully review the sections on pre existing medical conditions and activities. If I am planning something like off piste skiing, a multi day trek or motorbike hire above a certain engine size, I check whether that is automatically covered, requires an add on, or is excluded entirely. Tick’s winter sports add on, for example, is a must if your main reason for travel is skiing or snowboarding. Likewise, if you take expensive electronics, musical instruments or camera equipment, it is worth calculating whether the base baggage limits and single item caps are enough or you should pay extra for specified items cover.

Finally, I save Tick’s emergency assistance number and email in both my phone and a printed copy with my passport. In serious situations such as a car accident, sudden illness or the need to cut a trip short due to an incident back home, the Product Disclosure Statement often requires that you contact the insurer as soon as reasonably possible. Doing so not only helps you get practical support, like coordinating with hospitals, but also protects your position when you later submit a claim.

The Takeaway

After comparing Tick Travel Insurance with other options and using it on a multi stop international trip, my overall impression is that Tick offers solid value for many Australian travellers, particularly those taking straightforward holidays with standard flights and hotels. Unlimited overseas medical cover across its main tiers, the availability of meaningful cancellation and baggage limits on Standard and Top, and add ons like winter sports and natural disaster cover make it a viable choice if you are willing to do your homework.

At the same time, Tick is not a magic shield for every possible problem. Its strengths lie in covering clearly defined insured events within well described limits. Travellers with complex pre existing conditions, highly customised itineraries or a low tolerance for claims friction may prefer to pay more for an insurer known for more flexible underwriting or more hands on customer service. Many of the complaints levelled at Tick stem from misunderstandings of what was actually covered, or from situations that no mainstream insurer would likely have paid.

If you decide to go with Tick, treat the low premium as a starting point, not the only reason for your choice. Read the latest Product Disclosure Statement, double check that your main risks fit comfortably within the listed benefits and exclusions, and keep meticulous records of bookings, receipts and correspondence. Do that, and Tick can be a reasonable, cost effective way to protect the time and money you invest in seeing the world.

FAQ

Q1. Does Tick Travel Insurance cover COVID 19 related claims?
Tick’s Standard and Top international policies include cover for overseas medical expenses if you are diagnosed with COVID 19 while travelling, and limited cover for cancellation or trip disruption related to COVID 19, subject to specific conditions and caps. However, coverage can change over time and may exclude certain scenarios, so you should always check the latest Product Disclosure Statement for current wording before you buy.

Q2. Who underwrites Tick Travel Insurance and why does that matter?
Tick Travel Insurance policies are underwritten by Europ Assistance Australia. This matters because the underwriter is ultimately responsible for assessing claims, paying benefits and providing emergency assistance. In practice, your experience in a crisis depends on how efficiently that underwriter operates, so it is worth considering both the brand and the company standing behind it.

Q3. Is Tick cheaper than other travel insurers?
In many of the sample quotes I obtained for trips to Asia, Europe and North America, Tick’s premiums were often lower than or comparable to other major Australian travel insurers for travellers without complex medical histories. Savings in the range of tens to a couple of hundred dollars per policy were not unusual. That said, price varies based on age, destination, trip length and options selected, so it is important to compare live quotes rather than assuming Tick will always be the cheapest.

Q4. How good is Tick at paying claims?
Customer feedback on Tick’s claims process is mixed. Many travellers report straightforward experiences for clearly documented claims such as delayed baggage or cancellations that fit well defined insured events. Others describe long processing times and strict interpretation of the policy wording that led to partial or rejected claims. This pattern reinforces the need to keep thorough documentation and to understand what is and is not covered before you travel.

Q5. Does Tick cover pre existing medical conditions?
Tick may cover some pre existing medical conditions, but undeclared conditions are generally excluded and certain diagnoses may require medical assessment or an additional premium, or may not be insurable at all. If you have a history of heart disease, respiratory issues, recent surgery or other serious conditions, you should complete the medical questionnaire accurately and obtain written confirmation of what is covered before relying on the policy.

Q6. Is Tick a good option for cruises?
Tick sells cruise specific policies that include benefits such as onboard medical cover, missed cruise departure and cabin confinement, along with standard trip cancellation and baggage protection. For typical leisure cruises from Australia to the South Pacific or around Europe, these products can be competitive on price. However, travellers on longer or expedition style cruises, or with significant pre existing conditions, should compare the cruise cover and medical provisions against more specialised cruise insurers.

Q7. What sports and activities does Tick cover?
Tick’s base policies cover many low risk leisure activities, but higher risk sports such as skiing, snowboarding and certain adventure pursuits may require optional add ons like winter sports cover or may be excluded outright. For example, a week of resort skiing in New Zealand would normally be covered if you purchase the winter sports option, while off piste backcountry skiing or mountaineering could remain excluded. Always check the activities list in the Product Disclosure Statement for your specific plans.

Q8. Can I buy Tick Travel Insurance after I have already started my trip?
Tick’s single trip policies are generally designed to be purchased before you leave Australia, and buying or changing cover once you are already overseas may not be permitted or may come with significant restrictions. If you are already travelling and realise you need insurance, it is important to contact Tick directly or review the latest policy wording to see what is possible, and to be aware that any issues that have already occurred are unlikely to be covered.

Q9. What documents do I need to make a claim with Tick?
The documents you need depend on the claim type, but common requirements include your policy schedule, proof of travel, booking confirmations, medical reports for illness or injury, police reports for theft, airline reports for lost or delayed baggage, and original receipts for expenses you want reimbursed. Providing clear, complete documentation upfront can significantly speed up the claims process and reduce the risk of disputes.

Q10. How do I decide if Tick is right for my next trip?
Start by listing the biggest financial and health risks for your specific itinerary, such as expensive non refundable flights, a cruise component, planned adventure activities or known medical issues. Then obtain quotes from Tick and at least one or two other reputable insurers, and compare not just the price but the key benefits, exclusions and claim limits. If Tick’s coverage aligns well with your risks at a competitive premium, and you are comfortable with its conditions, it can be a sensible choice. If there are gaps around medical conditions, activities or the value of your trip, a different insurer may be a better fit.