AXA Travel Insurance Review: Is it Worth It?

Whether you’re traveling the world or crossing state lines, travel insurance such as the policies offered by AXA Travel Insurance can offer a safety net in case you have to cancel or interrupt your trip or need support along the way for medical emergencies, lost bags, or missed connections.

For more than 60 years, AXA Travel Insurance has provided peace of mind and financial stability to travelers. With solid ratings and underwriting by Nationwide Mutual Insurance, travel insurance plans sold by AXA are backed by an A.M. Best Excellent financial strength rating. AXA offers travel insurance with trip interruption and cancellation coverage, medical emergency and evacuation benefits, lost or delayed baggage, and more.

Let’s examine AXA’s travel insurance coverage options, benefits, and service and compare it to alternatives such as credit card travel coverage and other travel insurance providers.

Why Get Travel Insurance?

Travel insurance can protect what you’ve invested in an upcoming trip. When the unexpected occurs, such as a trip cancellation or medical need, travel insurance can offer the benefits you need to cover it.

You might choose travel insurance for these reasons:

• Your trip has deposits or payments that you can’t get refunded if you need to cancel your trip.
• The health insurance you use at home doesn’t work at your destination.
• You’re planning activities that aren’t covered by your health insurance.
• Medical care is subpar at your destination and you may need to be evacuated to another location with adequate medical facilities.
• You’re concerned about the possibility of lost bags, delays, or missed connections, especially if you have multiple flights or transfers.

Bottom Line:

Travel insurance isn’t necessary for every trip, such as if you’re traveling domestically where your health insurance works and you don’t have major nonrefundable expenses. But travel insurance is worth it if you’ve got a lot of nonrefundable expenses invested in your trip or you need medical coverage at your destination.

Why Purchase Travel Insurance From AXA?

Any travel insurance company you purchase a policy from should be reputable, reliable, and stable. After all, you’re relying on the company to be there for you when you need it most. It pays to verify reviews and ratings, and AXA Travel Insurance offers good reassurance in this area.

With 67 years in business, AXA has an A+ Better Business Bureau rating. On the travel insurance website Squaremouth, AXA has an overall 4.2 rating out of 5. AXA’s travel insurance plans are backed by Nationwide Mutual Insurance, which has an A (Excellent) financial strength rating from financial rating company A.M. Best. With 6 decades in business and solid ratings, AXA is a travel insurance company you can trust.

AXA offers travel insurance with medical and emergency evacuation benefits, trip cancellation and interruption, baggage loss, and cancel-for-any-reason (CFAR) options.

AXA offers COVID-19 coverage as part of its travel protection plans, including trip cancellation and trip interruption and emergency medical and evacuation coverage.

Types of Policies Available With AXA

AXA offers 5 travel insurance plans: Explorer OnTrip, North America Explorer, Explorer Standard, Explorer Select, and Explorer Elite. Each level offers different limits, but all of AXA’s policies have trip interruption coverage, emergency medical coverage and medical evacuation, and baggage delay coverage.

Let’s compare what you get with each policy:

Explorer OnTrip

Explorer OnTrip starts at $38 and offers benefits while you travel. It does not cover trip cancellation, missed connections, or trip delays, but it does offer up to $2,500 in trip interruption coverage and comprehensive emergency medical and medical evacuation coverage. There’s also a $200 baggage delay benefit after 24 hours.

North America Explorer

North America Explorer has coverage for the U.S. and nearby regions. It adds trip cancellation and trip delay benefits with limits similar to Explorer Standard, but at a lower cost, with plans as low as $11. The main difference is a lower limit for emergency medical coverage, which considers that you are likely covered by U.S. health insurance while traveling domestically.

Explorer Standard

With plans as low as $18 and minimal coverage, Explorer Standard can be good for international travel with higher emergency medical and emergency evacuation limits than North America Explorer. You can use this plan to cover 100% of your trip cost for trip cancellation and 150% interruption coverage. If your travel is delayed, you can get up to $200 per day for expenses, up to $1,000 total, and $300 for delayed baggage.

The $100,000 in emergency medical expense coverage and $150,000 medical evacuation benefit are a step up from North America explorer and can be helpful if your U.S. health insurance doesn’t work at your destination.

Explorer Select

Explorer Select plans start at $26 but add more coverage and are appropriate for cruises or Schengen travel. Like the Explorer Standard plan, the Explorer Select plan offers up to 100% trip cancellation coverage and up to 150% trip interruption coverage. Limits for most coverages are higher, with $250 per day and $1,500 maximum in trip delay coverage and $1,500 for missed connections. Baggage delays offer up to $300 after 12 hours, and you can get up to $1,500 for lost baggage and personal effects.

The health coverage is also much higher at $250,000, and it has a $500,000 medical emergency evacuation benefit. This plan also offers $100,000 for politically related, security-related, or natural disaster evacuation.

Explorer Elite

The Explorer Elite plan, starting at $52, steps up coverage and offers additional options. You get 100% trip cost coverage for trip cancellation and 150% for trip interruption. Trip delay coverage offers up to $300 per day and a $2,000 maximum, plus $1,000 for baggage delays after 12 hours and $5,000 for lost baggage and personal effects.

Emergency medical treatment is $250,000, and you’re covered for $1 million in emergency medical evacuation. Political, security, or natural disaster evacuations have a $100,000 limit. The Explorer Elite plan also adds $100,000 in search and rescue coverage and a $125 pet kennel benefit.

How To Get a Quote

You can get a quote directly from AXA by visiting the AXA Travel Insurance website. The quote form is the first thing you see on the homepage.

To start your quote, fill out the quote form, including your state of residence, destination country, travel dates, age, and whether you want trip cancellation coverage.

Once you fill out the form, you’ll be presented with plan options. For a 45-year-old visiting Japan and spending $2,500, we were offered an Explorer Standard ($87.09), Explorer Select ($115.88), or Explorer Elite ($154.73) plan.

If you select an Explorer Select or Explorer Elite plan, you can add rental car or CFAR coverage.

With your plan and add-ons selected, the next and final step to secure coverage is entering your traveler information including your name and contact information, then making your payment for the policy.

How AXA Compares: Summary

AXA is good for travel insurance, but it’s not your only option. Let’s see how AXA compares to the coverage you can get from popular travel credit cards and travel insurance competitors.

AXA vs. Credit Card Travel Insurance

Many travel credit cards offer travel insurance as a complimentary benefit, whether it’s car rental collision waivers, trip cancellation coverage, or emergency medical and evacuation benefits. This coverage can be helpful if you’re using your card to pay for your travel expenses, but it’s often not as comprehensive as the coverage you can get from a travel insurance policy like what AXA offers.

Let’s compare AXA’s best travel insurance policy against the Platinum Card^® from American Express and the Chase Sapphire Reserve^®, which both offer some of the best travel protections available with card benefits.

Unless you’re taking a trip with expenses higher than $10,000, the trip cancellation coverage should be about the same whether you’re using an Amex Platinum card, Chase Sapphire Reserve card, or the AXA Explorer Elite plan. However, the AXA Explorer Elite plan comes out ahead with 150% of your trip cost for trip interruption.

We see a major difference in coverage for emergency medical treatment and evacuation. The Amex Platinum card doesn’t offer emergency medical coverage, but you can arrange an emergency medical evacuation using the Premium Global Assist Hotline. The Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers up to $2,500 in emergency medical coverage and $100,000 for emergency evacuation. Neither of these offerings compares to the $250,000 in emergency medical coverage and $1 million in emergency medical evacuation coverage you can get from AXA Explorer Elite.

Bottom Line:

Credit card travel insurance coverage is complimentary if you already have the card, but it is lacking in some areas. It’s a good idea to use your card’s travel insurance as a backup for trip cancellation, interruption, travel delays, or lost baggage, but use the AXA Explorer Elite plan for its superior emergency medical and evacuation coverage.

AXA vs. Other Travel Insurance Companies

It’s always a good idea to compare travel insurance quotes across multiple providers so you can find the best price and coverage. We used Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison website, to see how AXA’s policies compare to those of other companies.

As with the initial price quotes we pulled from AXA’s website, our sample trip on Squaremouth had:

• 1 traveler
• Age 45
• Traveling to Japan a month from now
• Trip cost: $2,500
• Initial trip deposit paid within the last 24 hours
• State of residence: Texas

We limited results to policies that offer at least as much coverage as the AXA Explorer Elite policy does on major benefits:

• Minimum $250,000 emergency medical benefit
• Minimum $1 million emergency medical benefit
• 100% trip cancellation
• 150% trip interruption

Each policy offered nearly identical coverage for these major benefits, and IMG iTravelInsured Choice had the lowest cost at $89.24, followed by $104 WorldTrips Elevate plan for $104 and Travel Insured FlexiPAX for $107. All of these quotes were less than the AXA Explorer Elite plan for $154.73.

If you’re mainly concerned with full coverage for trip cancellation and interruption along with $250,000 in emergency medical and $1 million for emergency medical evacuation, you can save if you go with IMG.

However, the higher-priced policies offer additional coverage and options. For example, AXA Explorer Elite offers the option to add CFAR coverage and includes nonmedical emergency evacaution.

Bottom Line:

AXA Explorer Elite has a higher cost than competitors but offers more robust coverage. If you’re mainly concerned with major coverage for trip cancellation and interruption, emergency medical, and emergency evacuation, other travel insurance companies may offer a better quote. But if you want additional coverage and options such as nonmedical evacuation and expanded cancellation reasons, check out the details on what AXA Explorer Elite offers.

How To File a Claim With AXA Travel Insurance

You can file a claim with AXA in a few ways:

• Using the claim administrator portal
• By phone
• By email
• By mail

If you’d like to file your claim online, you can visit the portal for Co-Ordinated Benefit Plans and enter your policy number and last name to get started.

Alternatively, you can call AXA toll-free at 888-957-5015 or collect at 727-450-8794.

If you’d like to submit your claim via email or mail, you can download claim forms on the AXA website.

Once you download the claim form, you’ll get a list of documents required for submitting your travel insurance claim, along with mail or email information. For example, on a trip interruption claim form, AXA requires you to send in:

• Completed claim form
• Policy verification
• Booking confirmation, such as a ticket or proof of purchase
• Your original unused, nonrefundable tickets
• Your new ticket with confirmation of early return
• A cancellation statement from travel suppliers
• A medical report or physician statement if you interrupted the trip for a medical necessity
• Death certificate, if applicable
• Documentation of circumstances that led to trip interruption
• Documentation of reimbursement request expenses, such as receipts or credit card statements

You can email the form and other required documents to AXAClaims@cbpinsure.com.

Final Thoughts

AXA Travel Insurance is a reliable insurer with more than 6 decades of experience and solid ratings. There are 5 levels of coverage to choose from — Explorer OnTrip, North America Explorer, Explorer Standard, Explorer Select, and Explorer Elite — that offer varying levels of coverage and add-ons. AXA Travel Insurance isn’t the cheapest insurer, but it offers robust coverage and reputable service, so it can be a good choice if you’re looking for strong travel protection.