Travel Insurance from White Sky Travel

On the day you book, not the week you fly. Cancellation cover starts from the date you book the trip or the date you pay the premium, whichever is later — so every day you wait is a day your deposit is unprotected. Cover also cannot begin more than 24 hours before your booked departure, and it cannot start at all once you have left the UAE. If you have already travelled, it is too late. You get five calendar days from purchase to change your mind and get a refund, provided the trip has not started and you have not claimed.

No. The policy wording is explicit: cover cannot start after you have left your home area, and it cannot begin more than 24 hours before your booked departure either. Once you are through the airport it is too late — there is no backdated cover and no grace period for a policy you meant to buy. This is the single most common thing people get wrong. If you travel next week and have not arranged cover, message us now rather than at the gate.

Five things, and each one changes either the price or whether a claim would be paid. Your destination and any country you transit through, because cover is sold by zone and a claim outside the zone shown on your certificate is not paid. Your exact travel dates, because cover ends on the last day you paid for. Every traveller’s age, because the age bands change what you actually receive. Any medical condition treated or advised on in the past two years, or hospitalised for in the past five. And anything active you plan to do — trekking altitude, diving depth and engine size all sit in different brackets. A quote given without these is a guess.

Not by choice. There is no option to buy an extension mid-trip. If you simply stay longer than the days you paid for, you are uncovered from the last paid day onward. The one exception is automatic and free: if circumstances beyond your control that are covered by the policy stop you getting home on time, cover extends by up to 10 days at no charge, and possibly longer at the insurer’s discretion if you are unable to return for a covered medical reason. This is why we ask for your real return date, including any buffer, before you buy.

It depends entirely on the activity, and there are three brackets. Covered as standard: hiking or trekking up to 15 miles a day and up to 4,000 m, scuba diving to 30 m if you are qualified or supervised, bungee jumping once, surfing, snorkelling, golf, and motorcycling up to 125cc if it is not your main transport — though that last one carries no personal liability cover. Covered only if you buy the hazardous activities upgrade, capped at 17 days: trekking between 4,000 m and 5,450 m, rock climbing, paragliding, off-road mountain biking, caving, kite surfing and grade 4–5 white water rafting. Never covered, no matter what you pay: skydiving, base jumping, scuba past 30 m, trekking above 5,450 m, off-road motorbiking, mountaineering with ropes or guides, canyoning, boxing, rugby and all motor sport. Snow sports need a separate winter sports extension, also capped at 17 days. Tell us what you plan to do — the difference between 3,900 m and 4,100 m on a trek is the difference between covered and not.

The policy wording does not address remote working either way, so we will not tell you it is covered. What we can say is that the standard policy is a leisure travel policy, and business travel is handled by a separate business cover extension. If you are travelling to work rather than to holiday — even informally — tell us, and we will get a written answer from the insurer before you buy rather than guessing.

USD 100 on most sections that carry one, rising to USD 250 for emergency medical on a 92-day policy. Personal accident, loss of passport, visa rejection, personal liability, legal expenses, bail bond, home away protection, domestic help and pet care carry no excess. Delay benefits use a time excess instead of money — four hours for travel and baggage delay, 48 hours for the hospital allowance. An excess waiver can be added for an extra premium, though it does not apply to the delay benefits.

The insurer does. Qatar Insurance Company assesses and settles every claim, and we cannot overturn a decision. What we do is make sure the claim is submitted properly and inside the deadlines, which is where most refused claims are actually lost: a police report not obtained within 24 hours, a Property Irregularity Report missed at the airport, a hospital admission where nobody called the assistance line before the bill passed USD 250. Message us and we will walk you through the documents in real time. If you disagree with an outcome, the insurer runs a complaints process and we will help you use it.

As many as you like within the policy year, provided no single trip exceeds 92 days. If you travel more than twice a year it is usually cheaper than buying single-trip cover each time — send us your travel pattern and we will tell you honestly which works out lower. Note that if a new medical condition develops during the policy year, trips already under way stay covered but future trips will not cover that condition.

Yes, but it is a different policy. Outbound cover is for GCC residents and nationals travelling abroad. A visitor coming into the UAE on a visit visa needs the inbound policy, which provides AED 200,000 of medical cover with direct billing through AXA’s UAE hospital network, extends automatically through the 10-day visa grace period, and can be extended if the visa is. We can arrange the visa and the insurance together — see UAE tourist visa charges.