International Travel Insurance

I recently travelled to India via Emirates Airlines and booked the tickets via Discovery Bank, which qualifies me for travel insurance. As an added precaution, I took out additional insurance with Old Mutual Travel Insurance, which is underwritten by Europ Assistance. Whilst on the return journey, Emirates Airlines (Dubai) asked most of the passengers on Economy Class to check in their carry-on luggage.

Unfortunately, the carry-on bag did NOT arrive with the Emirates flight upon arrival at OR Tambo. As I fell ill during a part of the journey, I had my normal chronic medication as well as other medication in the carryon bag. As the bag was delayed by 3 days (eventually delivered to me in PE), I had to buy new medication (anti biotics, as well as the chronic meds). I then purchased the medication from the chemist and submitted the claim with the supporting invoices to both Discovery and Europ Assistance. In both cases, the travel insurance cover was requested from the departure date and ONE DAY AFTER the return date.

It seems that you need to understand the terms and conditions of travel insurance cover as in my instance, clearly, there was NO cover, despite paying for the policy. So consumers need to know that cover is not applicable on the return journey.