Business travel insurance (otherwise known as corporate travel insurance) is an important investment for both business owners and employees because travel can be unpredictable, even if you have meticulously planned the whole trip.
If you’re up in the air for work-related trips, or regularly send your best and brightest interstate or overseas to push company growth, this type of cover can safeguard your business against delayed or cancelled flights, ill or injured staff and lost or stolen luggage.
Business travel insurance is a little different to standard travel insurance policies for domestic and international trips. Types of policies available include:
This can be the most suitable policy if you have one employee travelling either once or multiple times over 12 months. You can choose single or annual insurance depending on the frequency of your business trips.
Instead of taking out an individual policy for each jet-setting worker within one organisation, you can take out one policy for multiple employees. This can cover either a single trip or several journeys. However, there can be a cap on how many employees you can have on the one corporate travel insurance policy.
For both individuals and groups, a basic policy can cover transport delays and cancellations within Australia. With domestic travel insurance, providers will only cover employees when they’re travelling a certain distance (usually 250km) from their home.
Many business travel insurance policies include leisure travel cover for directors, nominated executives and their accompanying spouses and dependant children. These policies may also have a cap on trip length, with some insurance providers allowing a maximum of 45 days.
Business travel insurance policies typically offer the same levels of coverage as standard travel insurance policies, with a few additions for your peace of mind. You can typically be covered for:
Travel insurance for your business trip may not cover some injury, loss or damage relating to your profession if these are covered under any workers compensation legislation. This is known as extraterritorial workers compensation. It’s typically only available when an employee is temporarily carrying out their duties away from the state or territory where they are employed.
As always, check your policy’s Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to know what’s included in your cover. If you’re taking out a group policy, ensure each traveller has also read the PDS.
There are some limits to corporate travel insurance that both you and other insured workers should be aware of before travel commences. Claims resulting from the following are often excluded:
Some corporate travel insurance policies may have age limits that exclude senior travellers or attract higher premiums, as well as reduced timeframes for trips in an annual multi-trip policy. If this is the case, you might be required to purchase travel insurance that covers over 50s or over 65s.
Many travel insurance providers nowadays may automatically cover certain pre-existing medical conditions. Many providers will also assess other medical conditions and potentially allow you to include cover for these.
Even if your condition is automatically included in your travel policy, you still need to declare it to your insurance provider when taking out cover; this is true also for a company taking out a policy on behalf of their employees.
Typically, business travel insurance doesn’t cover most pregnancy-related claims because pregnancy is generally considered a pre-existing condition. A corporate travel insurance policy can still insure pregnant staff, but the insurance may only cover medical expenses that aren’t related to the pregnancy, as well as other claims outlined in the policy.
Whether for corporate travel or a personal holiday, travel insurance usually won’t cover a destination if that country or region has an active travel warning. These travel warnings can change based on the situation within that country, so it’s essential to regularly check the warnings for your destination.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) or Smartraveller will usually list any warnings for the countries you need to travel to before planning your trip. If you take out business travel insurance prior to a travel warning being issued (e.g. due to a natural disaster or armed conflict), you can still be covered for any cancellations or changes. It’s also a good idea to check the policy’s PDS for any excluded countries.
Unfortunately, you cannot claim business travel insurance as a tax deduction.1 However, you can claim some other business travel expenses such as:
Private expenses that aren’t related to the business trip (like souvenirs, sightseeing or entertainment) aren’t covered.
If your family travels with you on a business trip or you have staff travelling abroad with their family, they can be covered by business travel insurance. Different policies will have varying degrees of cover, but typically medical costs, luggage and cancelled flights are covered for the employee’s family members.
Check your PDS for the exact details on what you’re covered for.
If you do not need the specific additional cover that business insurance provides and your trip is predominately a leisure trip with some business included, a standard travel insurance policy might be suitable. If you do need the specific business additional cover then it is best that you contact a business insurance provider directly.
If you find the usual benefits of a standard travel insurance policy are suitable for your jet-setting employee, our free comparison service is here to help. You can compare the prices, excesses and other features of a range of travel insurance policies. If you want the full details of a policy, you can click through to the PDS before you continue to purchase.
1 ATO – Claiming a tax deduction for business travel expenses. Last updated August 2019. Accessed May 2022.
