Saga Travel Insurance Review: Nice Features and No Upper Age Limit
Saga Travel Insurance Review: Nice Features and No Upper Age Limit
Good for
- Insuring older travellers
- Covering end supplier failure
- International flight delays
- Including baggage, personal belongings, trip delay/cancellation/curtailment
Bad for
- Insuring trips in the UK
- Reimbursing for lost rewards points
The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
Saga has revamped their travel insurance offering, now with 3 different tiers of cover for those over 50 years of age (with no upper age limit!) when you buy direct. We like that Saga includes some catastrophe cover and a higher level of Personal Belongings/Baggage cover on all policies (plus Golf). Another stand-out perk is that certain flight delays will get you access to a LoungeKey airport lounge (part of Trip Delay cover)—if you bought direct from Saga and not via a comparison site. But there's no longer cover for End Supplier Failure. Read this review to learn more.
In This Review
- Overall Review
- Saga Travel Policy Limits and Coverage Options
- Comparing Saga to the Competition
- Saga Travel Policy Wording and Claims
Saga Travel Insurance Review: What You Need to Know
Saga has changed their travel insurance, now offering three distinct tiers of cover. This makes the buying process a touch more cumbersome, as there are choices to be made, but on the other hand, customers are more able to buy a policy specific to their needs. Strong customer reviews make a further case for buying a Saga policy, in addition to some solid features.
The three tiers of cover are Essential, Standard and Plus. All policies include trip cancellation, emergency medical, delayed departure, legal expenses, and lost, stolen or damaged baggage.
Standard and Plus policies also include missed departure, hospital benefit, personal accident, substitute accommodation, and more.
All plans offer some level of golf cover as well, such as up to £250 for pre-booked green fees, which are not refundable, if you are not able to play golf due to injury or illness. But if you want up to £35 a day towards the cost of hiring replacement golf equipment if your golf equipment is temporarily delayed for more than 12 hours on the outward journey, you'll need a Standard or Plus policy.
While all tiers will cover a cruise, only top tier Plus includes cruise-specific features (missed port and interruption). To learn more about market prices please see our article Average Cost of Cruise Travel Insurance UK.
Those who like to ski can add Winter Sports cover for an additional cost. Not surprisingly, the cost of the Winter Sports add on rises quickly with age.
Anyone planning a longer trip can extend the maximum trip length to 90 days, but only if you are travelling outside the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico or any Caribbean Islands. If you’re travelling to those countries then the maximum trip length is 45 days on an Annual, Multi-Trip policy. If you need cover for a longer trip, Saga Plus and Saga Standard single trip policies have a limit of 180 days in Europe and 120 days for the rest of the world.
Those who struggle with sitting in an airport for hours may like Saga's Delayed Flight Assistance (on Standard and Plus policies), which gives you access to an airport lounge if your international flight is delayed by more than the time shown on your policy schedule (e.g. 2 hours). This feature provides a bit of peace of mind and comfort for international travel—be sure to pre-register your flights with Saga ahead of time to be eligible for this perk—but this is only available on policies bought direct from Saga, not a comparison site.
Does Saga Travel Insurance Cover Trips in the UK? Holidays in the UK are covered under Saga policies, so long as you stay in pre-booked holiday accommodation or the accommodation of a relative or friend who resides in the Channel Islands for at least one night (this has dropped from two nights, which is good). However, note that some features are not offered for UK trips and coverage limits may be lower.
Pre-Existing Conditions: Saga may be able to offer cover for your pre-existing medical conditions, buy you may pay a higher premium. Pre-existing conditions are only covered if they've been declared by you and accepted by Saga. As part of the online quote process you can declare your conditions to see if cover can be offered, and for what cost.
Over 65s: There is no upper age limit for Saga Travel Insurance policies; there is, however, a lower age limit of 50 years of age. This age limit only applies to the main policy holder—other travellers you add to your policy can be of any age. There is no upper age limit for Winter Sports cover, but Winter Sports premiums will rise with age.
Covid Cover: Saga now offer cover for cancellation or abandonment if you receive a positive test result in writing for Coronavirus within 14 days of your trip’s departure date, as well as emergency medical cover and repatriation if you fall ill with COVID-19 while on your trip.
Covid-19 Cover
Saga now offers cover for cancellation or abandonment if you have a positive Coronavirus test result within 14 days of your departure date. Or if you're certified as too ill to travel due to you still suffering from COVID-19, by a medical practitioner.
Plus you get emergency medical cover and repatriation if you fall ill with Coronavirus while you're on holiday. Read more here about Saga's Covid cover.
Saga Travel Insurance Key Points
- Travel insurance for those at least 50 years of age (no upper age limit)
- Annual, Multi-Trip cover for trips up to 45 days each
- Single Trip cover up to 180 days (Europe) or 120 days (rest of world)
- All policies include trip cancellation, emergency medical, delayed departure, legal expenses, and baggage.
- Optional extras: Winter Sports
- Choice of excess on direct policies
Saga Insurance Customer Reviews
| Saga Travel Insurance Ratings & Customer Reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot customer service rating (for Saga plc) | 3.8 out of 5 | |
| Reviews.co.uk | 3.8 out of 5 | |
Over 39452 customers have awarded Saga plc a solid 3.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Common themes amongst the comments were good value (cheap prices), easy-to-use website and friendly/knowledgeable staff on the phone lines. This rating reflects Saga as a whole, not just their travel insurance.
Here is a sample of the mostly positive experiences:
"What a quick, simple process. I had been told by friends this was the case and that I should try Saga for travel insurance first. They were absolutely right. I have already recommended Saga to my partner. In, fact, I would recommend Saga to anyone who asks."
"I got my requested travel insurance at a fair price. I did have a bit of trouble with the web site, which might have been due to a poor connection. I used the 'chat' feature and got prompt and helpful advice."
"I was so relieved that Saga made the application for travel insurance quite easy to do. I panicked when it directed me to open my banking app but I was successful with their directions and it was approved. I’m not that good on the internet and am 75 years old but got this done so am very happy."
"Just organised travel insurance through Saga. So easy. Competitive pricing. Covers exhausting health issues. Excellent Service from Samuel. Have a policy that caters for my needs. It was easy to purchase. Samuel gave me sound advice. He was patient and courteous. Excellent customer service all round. I do have other insurance products with Saga. I do recommend their services both to family and friends. Thank you Samuel. You were outstanding. Good luck in your future career with Saga"
"Fantastic service all round and great prices."
"Excellent, as ever. Always good price and great service."
"Brilliant trustworthy and always give the maximum help when you contact them. I will never change back to other insurers.... you need someone who really has your best interests at heart when things are difficult and are prepared to really listen and give support in any form. Top rating and then some!!"
"I have tried to ring them 9 times, waiting in the phone for over 35 mins. Sent emails asking for someone to ring, that was 3 weeks ago, still waiting!"
"We made a claim earlier this year for the theft of luggage on the travel policy. The amount offered in settlement we believe was unrealistic and unfair. After lodging a complaint and receiving a decision from Collinson Insurance, who act for SAGA we have made no progress towards a increased settlement figure. Perhaps we should have insured with Zurich as our traveling companions did who made a virtually identical claim and received a prompt and realistic settlement to their claim. Not recommended."
"We had a travel insurance policy with SAGA Services, which we had to claim under due to C-19 in April 2020. On 11th June 2020, SAGA agreed the claim, by email, in full and promised to pay the amount due within 5 days. After 6 days we called them as no money had been received , they confirmed the claim and apologized for the delay. After 10 days we called back and they then said they had made an error , and despite them having sent an email agreeing the claim they were no longer going to pay it, as it had been an error. Since then I have written to the CEO's office twice and received two letters claiming it isn't their problem , as the mistake is with the insurance company. In short you can't rely on anything they say..."
Saga Travel Insurance Prices
While travellers of any age can get a Saga travel insurance policy, premiums rise significantly as travellers age—especially for worldwide coverage including the USA. To get an understanding of how age affects prices, we gathered sample quotes of Saga Travel Insurance across various age groups (50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 years of age) for their standard cover.
Insurance quotes can vary significantly from day to day and according to your individual details, so please just use the pricing data in this article for general educational purposes only; your quotes may reflect a large degree of variation to quotes listed here.
Premiums with Pre-Existing Conditions
Travellers with Pre-Existing Conditions will pay more for travel insurance, in nearly all cases. The additional premium will depend on a lot of factors, such as your age, the geographic coverage (e.g. it's more expensive to cover medical conditions in USA than Europe), type of pre-existing condition (some are riskier than others), health history (e.g. were you a smoker? are you on new medication?), etc. Trips to Europe are more cost effective than the USA, when you have pre-existing conditions.
For instance, our data analysis of prices from the Saga website shows that common conditions of high blood pressure and cholesterol cost 38% or 51% more for a 70 year old going to France or the USA, respectively. And for someone who's had a heart attack, stent and heart bypass, the premium increases are 74% and 151%, respectively.
Notable Features
After reading through the Saga travel insurance policy documents, we feel these are the most notable features. In addition, standard features like Medical and Personal Liability are also included on Saga policies, limits for which can be found below. For more complete details like inner limits and exclusions, please see the policy documents.
| Saga Travel Insurance Features | |
|---|---|
| Catastrophe | A catastrophe (e.g., volcanic eruption, earthquake, storm, etc.) is only covered if it occurred within 20km of your booked accommodation or your trip start date is not within 14 days of the event date; also, such catastrophe must be declared by Saga or the appropriate government department |
| Personal Belongings/Baggage | Personal belongings and baggage are covered on all policies |
| Golf | Up to £250 as part of Baggage cover (up to £35 a day) towards the cost of hiring replacement golf equipment should yours be temporarily delayed more than 12 hours on your outward journey (Standard and Plus only); up to £250 for pre-booked, non-refundable green fees should you not be able to play due to illness or injury (part of Medical cover) |
| End Supplier Failure | no longer covered |
| Trip Cancellation/Curtailment | Cover for irrecoverable unused travel and accommodation expenses (including excursions) if you have to cancel the trip before you leave home or cut the trip short in case of unexpected emergency/circumstances outside your control (including Catastrophes like ash clouds and storms) |
| Delayed Flight Assistance | DIRECT POLICIES ONLY. Complementary access to a LoungeKey airport lounge if your flight is delayed a certain amount. You must pre-register your flights with Saga and be able to receive SMS text messages and emails with PDF email attachments on your phone. |
| Missed Departure | Cover for travel and accommodation expenses for missed international departure of aircraft, ship or train resulting from public transport failure/delay (including connecting flights), breakdown of or accident involving your vehicle or being denied boarding due to overbooking (including Catastrophes like ash clouds and storms) |
| Winter Sports | OPTIONAL extra cover available on Multi-Trip policies bought DIRECT for up to 21 days or for the length specified on Single Trip policies; no upper age limit but expect premiums to rise with age; ski equipment is reimbursable after making an allowance for wear and tear (e.g., 90% of purchase price for equipment up to one year old, 20% of purchase price for equipment up to four years old, etc.); losses of Winter Sports equipment from a motor vehicle are not covered |
| Hire Car Excess Waiver | no longer offered |
| Substitute Accommodation | Should fire, flood, storm, explosion, landslide, avalanche, hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption or an outbreak of food poisoning or infectious disease make your accommodation uninhabitable after you've arrived, cover for additional accommodation and transport costs; trips part of a package holiday are not covered, nor are costs you can recover elsewhere (e.g., the transport operator, the accommodation provider or your credit/debit card issuer) |
Types of Saga Travel Insurance Policies
Saga offers one level of travel insurance cover when you buy direct, and they offer one level of cover when you buy from a comparison site—but the limits vary between these two options. Policies bought direct are expected to be more expensive, because they have higher cover limits across many categories.
Regardless of where you buy, you can purchase as an Annual, Multi-Trip policy or a Single Trip policy.
Saga Single Trip: Saga Single Trip travel insurance covers trips up to 120 days abroad (or 180 in Europe).
Saga Annual Multi-Trip: Saga Annual, Multi-Trip policies cover trips up to 45 days in length (with the option to extend to 60 or 90 days on policies excluding travel to USA, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean Islands).
Cover Limits for Policies Bought Direct (Single-Trip)
| SAGA Single Trip Cover Limits | SAGA Essential | SAGA Standard | SAGA Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancellation | Up to the amount shown in your policy Schedule | Up to the amount shown in your policy Schedule | Up to the amount shown in your policy Schedule |
| Abandonment (Curtailment) | £2,500 | £5,000 | £15,000 |
| Missed departure | £500 | £1,000 | |
| Delayed departure | £35 for first 12-hour period , £15 for each 12-hour period after that (up to £215 max) | £35 per 12 hour period up to £215 | £50 per 12 hour period up to £300 |
| Delayed baggage* | £150 | £400 | |
| Dental emergencies* | £300 | £400 | £500 |
| Lost, stolen or damaged baggage | £1,750 (£400 single article limit) | £3,000 (£600 single article limit) | £7,500 (£1,000 single article limit) |
| Emergency medical and associated expenses | £2,000,000 | £5,000,000 | £15,000,000 |
| Hospital benefit* | £30 per 24 hour period up to £1,000 | £50 per 24 hour period up to £1,500 | |
| "Personal accident - Permanent Total Disablement" | "£20,000 (Death benefit – £10,000 if aged over 70, £1,000 if aged under 16)" | "£30,000 (Death benefit – £15,000 if aged over 70, £1,000 if aged under 16)" | |
| Criminal injury benefit* | £20,000 | £30,000 | |
| Substitute accommodation | £1,500 | £5,000 | |
| Enforced stay | £1,500 | £2,000 | |
| Loss of passport* | £250 | £500 | £750 |
| Personal money | £250 (£175 cash limit / £50 for under 16's) | £500 (£500 cash limit / £200 for under 16's) | £750 (£500 cash limit / £200 for under 16's) |
| Pet care* | £100 | £200 | |
| Hijack / Mugging* | £50 for each 24-hour period (£1,000 maximum) | £50 for each 24-hour period (£1,000 maximum) | £50 for each 24-hour period (£1,000 maximum) |
| Air rage* | £1,000 | £1,000 | |
| Personal liability | £2,000,000 | £2,000,000 | £3,000,000 |
| Legal expenses* | £50,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 |
| Cruise - Missed Port | £100 per port, up to a maximum of £300 | ||
| Cruise - Interruption | £1,000 |
Cover Limits for Policies Bought Direct (Annual)
| SAGA Annual Trip Cover Limits | SAGA Standard | SAGA Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Cancellation | Up to £10,000 | Up to £20,000 |
| Abandonment (Curtailment) | £10,000 | £20,000 |
| Missed departure | £750 | £1,500 |
| Delayed departure | £35 per 12 hour period up to £215 | £50 per 12 hour period up to £300 |
| Delayed baggage* | £150 | £400 |
| Dental emergencies* | £400 | £500 |
| Lost, stolen or damaged baggage | £5,000 (£750 single article limit) | £10,000 (£1,250 single article limit) |
| Emergency medical and associated expenses | £10,000,000 | £20,000,000 |
| Hospital benefit* | £30 per 24 hour period up to £1,000 | £50 per 24 hour period up to £1,500 |
| "Personal accident - Permanent Total Disablement" | "£20,000 (Death benefit – £10,000 if aged over 70, £1,000 if aged under 16)" | "£30,000 (Death benefit – £15,000 if aged over 70, £1,000 if aged under 16)" |
| Criminal injury benefit* | £20,000 | £30,000 |
| Substitute accommodation | £1,500 | £5,000 |
| Enforced stay | £1,500 | £2,000 |
| Loss of passport* | £500 | £1,000 |
| Personal money | £500 (£500 cash limit / £200 for under 16's) | £1,000 (£650 cash limit / £200 for under 16's) |
| Pet care* | £150 | £350 |
| Hijack / Mugging* | £50 for each 24-hour period (£1,000 maximum) | £50 for each 24-hour period (£1,000 maximum) |
| Air rage* | £1,000 | £1,000 |
| Personal liability | £2,000,000 | £3,000,000 |
| Legal expenses* | £50,000 | £50,000 |
| Cruise - Missed Port | £100 per port, up to a maximum of £300 | |
| Cruise - Interruption | £1,000 |
Please read some of our Travel Insurance Guides if you're trying to decide between Single Trip or Multi-Trip policies, learn about What May Not be Covered by Travel Insurance or decide if you Need Travel Insurance or Not.
How does Saga Travel Insurance Compare to Competitors?
To better understand the value of Saga travel insurance you need to look at it in the context of other available options. We compared it to other plans in the market so you can see which may be more suitable for you.
Saga Travel Insurance vs Direct Line Travel Insurance
Direct Line travel insurance plans include cover for End Supplier Failure and Natural Disasters, plus cover for the replacement cost of used points or miles in case of Cancellation/Curtailment for a trip bought with air miles or another rewards structure. While prices are a bit higher than average, according to our analysis, you are getting these extra cover features. One surprising extra is Baggage—you'll need to pay extra to cover your personal belongings as they're not included as standard. There is an upper age limit of 75 years old for Direct Line Multi-Trip policies; there is no upper age limit on Single Trip policies.
Bottom Line: If you book trips with miles, Direct Line might offer better cover since they reimburse for used miles/points if your trip is cancelled or curtailed.
Saga Travel Insurance vs AXA Travel Insurance
In our opinion, AXA travel insurance offers solid cover for reasonable prices. Insolvency, Baggage, Cancellation/Delay/Curtailment and Catastrophe are included on all plans. Single trip policies an upper age limit of 80 years; the age limit for travellers on multi-trip policies is 75 years old. There is no upper age limit for Winter Sports cover, other than the policy age limits mentioned above. AXA is another provider for which you can select your pre-existing conditions online without calling in to customer service.
Bottom Line: AXA might be another solid option for travellers in their 50s, 60s and 70s, who can benefit from a simply online system for notifying of pre-existing conditions.