Is climate change affecting the way we travel? Yes!

Date: 28/08/2025 by Southern Cross Travel Insurance

The SCTI team was recently asked if we’re seeing changes in the way our customers are travelling and claiming when things don’t go according to plan.  Check out what we had to say here.

Is Southern Cross Travel Insurance seeing more travel insurance claims due to heatwaves, wildfire or extreme weather in Europe (or elsewhere)?

It certainly feels like we are.

We ran a search on climate-related claims from SCTI customers holidaying around the world from 1 July 2024 through to 30 July 2025.

At one point during our customer response to Cyclone Alfred in Australia, we had received 65 claims from New Zealand customers with the vast majority concerning cancellation and changes to journey before a customer has left. Of the 65 claims received at that time, SCTI had paid more than $29,635, with more than $100,000 likely to come. These sums are not insignificant.  We also assisted another 44 travellers with queries about their situation – as they were uncertain of what to do and how to cope with disruption.

In our own backyard, major weather events have resulted in multiple claims e.g., Auckland Anniversary floods 1,425 claims totalling $816,086 and 722 totalling more than $479,000 for Cyclone Gabrielle. 

One standout case is a family attempting to return to New Zealand from Japan. Their flights were cancelled due to the Auckland floods affecting the airport on the 28th of January 2023. They couldn’t get hold of their airline to reschedule, due to heavy demand. They did manage to stay an extra night in their hotel in Tokyo but were very worried about having no accommodation or flights to get back to New Zealand. They were told this wasn’t possible on their airline before mid-March. 

To get home, the family then had to buy tickets to Auckland via Kuala Lumpur to transit in Malaysia for two weeks with the plan to fly home mid-February. This was the earliest flight they could secure for the whole family. Then, bad luck struck again with that flight cancelled due to Cyclone Gabrielle. They were eventually rebooked and flew on the 17th of February from Kuala Lumpur back to New Zealand.

All up, Southern Cross Travel Insurance covered accommodation and airfare costs to the tune of more than $25,000.

Other examples of weather-related claims paid include:

$830: Due to a severe lightning storm our travellers’ flight was cancelled, and they were required to stay an extra night in Sydney.

$23,103: Our travellers were booked on a cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. There was terrible flooding, and the Danube River was closed. The cruise was cancelled a day after they had boarded the vessel, and they were asked to leave.

$3,752: Major flooding in New South Wales, Australia significantly disrupted our customers’ plans to travel from Sydney to Brisbane, forcing them to extend our accommodation in Sydney and change flights to return to New Zealand via Sydney.

$1,310: Thanks to the snowstorm “Cora” our travellers’ flights had to be changed. They were originally supposed to fly home to New Zealand from Buenos Aires to Miami, to Dallas, then to Auckland. As a result of the snowstorm, their flights were changed to go through Los Angeles, requiring a stay in a hotel overnight. They incurred costs including hotel, transport, food, and changed flights from Auckland to Wellington flight, as they arrived a day later than planned.

Have climate-related risks started to affect what's covered (or not covered) in travel insurance policies?

We are not seeing this yet – but like all insurers it is something we are keeping an eye on. Insurance is there to support you for the unexpected. And weather events like flash floods and storms are tending to happen quickly, sometimes without notice.

It is important that customers understand what they should do:

• Purchase a policy when you first make your travel arrangements – not when you are aware an event has occurred.  Insurers like SCTI are likely to cover any claims for travellers already in an affected area, who had departed on their journey or who had already purchased a policy for travel to the region before the event was known. However, you must be directly impacted e.g. you’ve been evacuated from your accommodation or had scheduled transport interrupted. SCTI always advises customers to follow advice from New Zealand’s MFAT SafeTravel website.   
• If you’re on holiday and a disaster strikes, the most important thing to keep in mind is your safety. Follow the instructions of any officials or emergency personnel and seek medical attention if you need it. 
• If you need to change travel plans to get home, contact your airline or tour operator in the first instance. If you’re concerned about what costs you’re covered for, it’s important where possible to speak to your travel insurance provider before making any changes. If there are costs that your airline can’t reimburse you for, get in touch with your travel insurer to find out what they can cover. 
• To make things easier, keep any cancellation notifications from your airline, including emails, along with receipts for any expenses incurred by the event, such as accommodation and meals. You’ll need to submit these with any claim. 

Are travellers more aware of the climate-related risks than they were before when buying travel insurance? What can you observe?

We know travellers are more aware. There’s significant media coverage (traditional and social) – and our customers are experiencing extreme weather events first hand.

Our own research shows in our Future of Travel report earlier this year, that nearly three in four New Zealanders agree travel insurance is more important now that climate change has made weather patterns unpredictable and natural disasters more likely.

If we throw other risks and uncertainties into the mix like conflict, an aging population and multiple travel disruptions, nearly four in five New Zealanders (78%) say that travel insurance is a high priority now (compared to 76% the previous year).

Are they asking different questions or choosing different times to travel?

Travellers are asking more questions about their cover, and we encourage this. This means they know how we can support them if things go wrong – exactly what travel insurance is designed to do.
We are seeing the ‘traditional’ shoulder seasons with cooler weather have more appeal for travellers, especially older customers – e.g., spring and autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.  But as anyone knows these times of the year are unpredictable in Aotearoa, and other parts of the world are seeing unusual weather patterns too.