Insurance companies could face their highest number of claims since the COVID-19 pandemic, due to property damage and canceled flights caused by Typhoon Gaemi, Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) statistics showed.
Nearly 400 international flights were canceled or delayed on Wednesday and Thursday last week due to the typhoon, affecting almost 60,000 insured passengers, with total eligible compensation exceeding NT$1 billion (US$30.46 million), the statistics showed.
“In the past, few Taiwanese bought travel insurance, but that changed during the pandemic,” a source said on Saturday.
Photo: Daniel Ceng, EPA-EFE
“Now we are seeing many people purchase travel health insurance plans, as well as inconvenience insurance for inclement weather or other contingencies that result in delayed or canceled travel,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Such insurance plans have become the top-selling products in the property and casualty insurance industry, largely due to their cheap premiums, the source said.
There were more than 2 million online purchases of travel insurance in the first half of this year, up from 1.23 million over the same period last year, the statistics showed.
Travel insurance premiums totaled NT$621 million over the period, an increase from NT$380 a year earlier.
Online travel insurance purchases account for more than half of all travel insurance purchases, industry estimates showed.
The top-grossing travel insurance providers are Fubon Insurance, Tokio Marine Holdings and Cathay Century Insurance Co, which together account for 65 percent of the market.
Common travel-related claims that companies face include those related to trip cancellations, flight delays, baggage losses or delays, and losses of travel documents, the statistics showed.
The eligibility conditions for claims related to flight delays are the most relaxed, the source said.
“As long as the departure time of a scheduled flight is delayed by more than four hours, the insurance company would pay the claim after obtaining a certificate from the airline,” they said.
However, companies commenting on claims related to Typhoon Gaemi have said they would allow claims for flight changes or cancellations, as long as the passenger had purchased travel inconvenience insurance.
“The free comprehensive insurance Taiwanese automatically receive when purchasing flight tickets using a credit card issued by a Taiwanese bank cannot be used in this case,” the source said. “The conditions of that free insurance typically apply only to flights departing from airports overseas.”
Companies said that losses from payouts related to Typhoon Gaemi would be abnormally high, but due to the generally low loss rate on such insurance, the payouts would be well within what the industry could bear.
“Many people are becoming mroe interested in inconvenience insurance as it significantly reduces losses when the unexpected happens,” the source said.
“However, it is important to remember that companies can only sell you inconvenience insurance after you have already purchased a regular travel insurance plan,” they said.
Travel insurance can be purchased up to one hour before departure, but travel inconvenience insurance purchased after the Central Weather Administration has issued a typhoon warning is not valid, the source said.
“So, companies recommend that people purchase insurance as soon as possible after confirming their overseas travel itinerary,” they said.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS