With the coronavirus outbreak spreading to more countries, Australian travellers are being warned they may not be insured if they cancel their trips to some of the hotspots.
South Korea, Japan, Italy and Mongolia have been added to the list of places where travellers are advised to "exercise a high level of caution" by Australia's Smart Traveller.
Travel advice for Indonesia - which includes Aussie holiday favourite, Bali - has also today been upgraded to the same level.
While the status was already in place because of the risk of terror attacks, Smart Traveller has extended its warnings for the country to cover coronavirus.
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Meanwhile, the highest warning level of "do not travel" has now been rolled out to Iran, as well as centre of the outbreak, China.
Experts say that while travellers heading to those two countries can probably cancel their policy if they bought insurance before January 23 when the outbreak became known, anybody with tickets to the new list of countries probably won't be able to get their money back.
Lisa Kable from the Insurance Council of Australia said while individual policies should be checked, most policies won't cover cancellations for trips to those countries unless a "cancel for any reason" policy was bought.
"Unfortunately, no, travel insurance policies don't cover change of mind as a reason for cancellation," she said.
"However, if a 'cancel for any reason' travel insurance policy was purchased they can cancel for fear."
https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1233879766295445506?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwNIB Travel insurance, which also includes Qantas Travel Insurance, says online it is no longer covering coronavirus-related claims for all destinations for policies bought after January 30.
Alllianz also said policies bought after January 30 won't cover coronavirus-related claims.
It advises travellers contact their airline or tour operator about any changes to plans.
Another popular insurer, Medibank, said it won't allow travellers to cancel trips to places outside of China, and has a January 23 cut-off date for claims relating to the virus.
For the latest travel advice, visit smartraveller.gov.au.
Source: 9News https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-travel-insurance-japan-bali-italy-cancel-advice/bd91ba7e-d661-48bb-a507-11ec314b2a79