Goose Travel Insurance Review 2024

Goose began offering travel insurance via its mobile app in 2018. Since then, the Vancouver-based company has added life insurance, cancer insurance and critical illness insurance, and will soon add property insurance and mobility insurance to its portfolio.

Travel insurance is sold by Goose Insurance and administered by North American Air Travel Insurance Agents Ltd., doing business as TuGo.

Here are the key types of travel insurance coverage offered in Goose Travel Insurance plans:

• Emergency medical insurance: If you get ill or are injured on your trip, travel medical insurance can pay for emergency medical expenses, up to the coverage limits in your plan. These expenses can include doctor and hospital bills, medication and lab work, as well as medical evacuations, repatriation and arranging for a bedside companion if you are hospitalized.
• Trip cancellation insurance: If you cancel a trip for a reason listed in your travel policy, such as you or your travelling companion becoming ill, weather conditions cause a massive delay or you lose your job, trip cancellation insurance can reimburse you for prepaid, non-refundable costs.
• Travel interruption or delay insurance: Trip interruption insurance can pay for a last-minute flight home in an emergency and reimburse money that you lose by cutting a trip short due to a covered reason, including non-refundable activities and hotel stays. If your flight is delayed, your insurance can cover the cost of incidentals, such as meals or accommodations, after a specified period of time, such as six, 10 or 12 hours.
• Baggage insurance: Baggage travel insurance can compensate you up to your policy limits if your luggage is lost or stolen. It will reimburse the depreciated value of your suitcases and what you packed. If your bags are delayed, it can reimburse you for the cost of the necessities you’ll have to buy to tide you over. It also extends to your personal belongings, if they are lost, damaged or stolen.

Goose Travel Insurance offers three core plans for travelling outside of Canada, plus an annual COVID-19 insurance plan for travelling within and outside of Canada.

Emergency Medical Insurance: This plan includes $10 million coverage for unforeseen medical emergencies. You can choose between a Worldwide and a Worldwide Excluding USA plan.

Eligible emergency medical expenses include:

• Hospital accommodation up to a semi-private room
• Outpatient treatment provided by a hospital
• Physician fees
• Ground, air or sea ambulance
• X-rays and diagnostic laboratory tests
• Prescription drugs, up to 30-day supply after release from hospital
• Lost, stolen or damaged prescription drug replacement, up to $200
• Essential medical appliances, such as a wheelchair, crutches or cane
• Private duty nursing
• Fracture treatment, up to $1,250
• Paramedical services offered by a physiotherapist, chiropractor, chiropodist, osteopath, podiatrist, optometrist or acupuncturist, up to $700 per practitioner
• Emergency dental treatment due to a blow to the face, up to the policy limit, plus continued treatment up to 30 days when you return home
• Emergency dental due to pain, up to $700
• Unexpected birth of a child outside of the nine weeks before or after your expected delivery date
• Remote non-medical evacuation, up to $6,000

Medical benefits also include meals, hotel accommodations and associated expenses if your travelling companion is hospitalized and/or if a medical delay prevents you from returning home, repatriation expenses and return of your remains if you die.

Goose also offers a Medical Follow-Up in Canada benefit if you have been returned home on medical reasons, with the following coverage limits:

• Up to $1,000 for a semi-private room in a hospital, rehabilitation centre or convalescent home
• Up to $100 per day for home care nursing
• Up to $300 for licensed ambulance services
• Up to $300 to rent or purchase essential medical appliances

You can choose the Family & Friends plan option when you purchase emergency medical insurance with the following criteria:

• This option is available for up to two adults 59 years old and under and up to six dependent children.
• The adults do not need to be the parents or guardians of the children.
• All insured are covered under one policy.
• Insureds do not need to be travelling together.

Trip Cancellation & Interruption: This coverage option reimburses you for insured non-refundable travel expenses (such as hotels or prepaid excursions) if you have to cancel, interrupt, or delay your trip due to a covered reason.

Trip Interruption Only: This coverage option kicks in once you have left on your trip and you need to interrupt your trip due to a covered reason.

COVID-19 (Pandemic) Insurance: This multi-trip annual plan covers emergency medical costs related to COVID-19 up to $500,000, up to $2,800 of quarantine benefits and up to $2,500 of trip cancellation and interruption benefits.

We’ve highlighted the key benefits of Goose Travel Insurance for the three base single trip plans to help you identify which coverage is the best fit for you.

The price of a Goose Travel Insurance plan depends on factors such as the cost of your trip, your age, your answers to a medical questionnaire, if required, and the amount of coverage you choose.

Here are some examples of the cost for Goose Travel Insurance single trip plans for healthy travellers based in Ontario assuming a $0 deductible:

You can also choose a deductible, or the amount you pay out of pocket before your emergency medical coverage kicks in, of $300, $1,000 or $5,000 USD.

Here’s how the cost of the emergency travel medical coverage compares with the different deductible options:

Travel Guard Travel Insurance Review

Emergency medical: $10 million/Unlimited
Cancel For Any Reason: Yes, 75%
Baggage insurance (maximum): $1,000

Related: Travel Guard Travel Insurance Review

CAA Travel Insurance

Emergency medical: $5 million
Cancel For Any Reason: Yes, 50% to 75%
Baggage insurance (maximum): $1,500

Related: CAA Travel Insurance Review

TuGo Travel Insurance

Emergency medical: $10 million
Cancel For Any Reason: Yes, 50%
Baggage insurance (maximum): $500

Related: TuGo Travel Insurance Review

Goose offers the following add-ons to its travel insurance:

Baggage Insurance: This optional coverage can be purchased as an endorsement to the emergency medical plan with the following limits:

Unstable Pre-existing Medical Condition Coverage: This option can be purchased as an endorsement to the emergency medical plan and provides coverage for unexpected medical expenses related to a pre-existing medical condition that is stable on or within the seven days before you leave on your trip.

No.

Yes. You can buy multi-trip annual insurance if you travel more than once a year for multiple individual trips. Goose offers 10, 20, 35 and 60-day annual plans for emergency medical coverage.

Here’s how the cost compares for a single-trip emergency medical plan and the four multi-trip annual plans using the example of the solo traveller visiting the UK:

OneWorld Assist doing business as Claims at TuGo is the claims and assistance provider for Goose Travel Insurance.

Worldwide emergency travel assistance is available 24/7 by calling the number listed in your policy (depending on where you are in the world) or online at tugo.com/claims. It’s important to contact Claims at TuGo as soon as possible if you’re faced with a medical emergency that may require hospitalization as some procedures require pre-approval by the insurer.

When you have a travel medical emergency, the following assistance services may be available:

• Communicating between you and the hospital regarding insurance coverage and procedures
• Medical consultative and advisory services including a review of appropriateness and analysis of medical care
• Monitoring of your progress during treatment and recovery
• Establishing contact with your family, personal physician and/or employer
• Multilingual capabilities
• Coordination of payments
• Special assistance respecting claims
• Management, arrangement and authorization of emergency medical evacuation
• Arrangement and coordination of repatriation of remains
• Interpretation of policy wordings
• Assistance in locating the nearest and most appropriate medical care
• Travel arrangement assistance for family members
• Legal referral services

Travel Assistance will also communicate with:

• Consulates
• Travel agents
• Embassies
• Tour guides
• Airlines
• Police
• Foreign affairs department

Yes. Goose Travel Insurance offers an optional Cancel For Any Reason upgrade for the Trip Cancellation & Interruption Plan.

If you decide to cancel your trip for any reason other than a covered reason, Goose Travel Insurance will reimburse you up to 50% of either (whichever is less):

• Prepaid travel costs that are non-refundable or non-transferable
• Up to the sum insured chosen before you leave on your trip

Here’s how the cost compares between a standard trip cancellation & interruption plan and the same plan with the CFAR optional upgrade:

No.

In general, a pre-existing condition is defined as any sickness, injury or medical condition that existed before the start of your coverage, whether or not diagnosed by a physician, that you showed signs or symptoms of or received medical attention for.

Goose Travel Insurance has the following stability requirements for pre-existing medical conditions:

A medical condition is considered stable when all of the following are true:

• There has been no deterioration of the medical condition as determined by a physician or other registered medical practitioner.
• There have been no new symptoms or more frequent or severe symptoms.
• There has been no change in treatment or alteration of medication.
• There has been no new treatment received, prescribed or recommended by a physician or other registered medical practitioner.

To shorten your stability period to seven days, you can purchase the Unstable Pre-existing Medical Condition Coverage as an endorsement to the emergency medical plan.

In addition to pre-existing condition exclusions, there are a number of scenarios not covered by travel insurance and it’s critical to know what not to do before you make a claim. The following are general exclusions to coverages provided by Goose travel insurance:

• Your participation in and/or voluntary exposure to acts of war or terrorism
• Death, disablement or injury caused by radioactive contamination or the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons
• Any medical condition that is the result of you not following prescribed treatment
• Consumption or use of illegal or controlled drugs
• Your participation, training or practicing in any area that is closed to public access while engaged in backcountry skiing or snowboarding, downhill freestyle skiing or snowboarding in an organized competition, high risk snowmobiling, ice climbing, mountaineering or rock climbing
• Your participation, training or practicing the following activities: Barrel racing, bronc riding, bull riding, chariot racing, chuck wagon racing, harness racing, rodeo bareback racing, rodeo clowning, rodeo team roping, steer wrestling/chute dogging or trick riding
• Any medical condition where the purpose of your trip is to seek advice or services
• Routine prenatal or postnatal care
• Pregnancy, delivery or complications of either arising in the nine weeks before or after your expected date of delivery
• A child born during the trip, unless covered by the Unexpected Birth of a Child benefit
• An abortion or related complications
• Suicide, attempted suicide or self-inflicted injury
• Your commission or attempted commission of a crime or illegal act
• Non-emergency, elective or experimental treatment, including ongoing care, chronic care, rehabilitation and check-ups
• Cosmetic surgery or any complications
• Any medical condition where it was reasonably expected you would need care during your trip

In addition to these general exclusions, here are some examples of exclusions for emergency medical insurance coverage:

• Any claim incurred after a physician or registered medical practitioner advised you not to travel
• A trip that is taken after the diagnosis of a terminal condition
• A trip that is taken while receiving palliative care or after palliative care is recommended
• Any medical condition where diagnostic tests were scheduled but not completed before the start of your trip
• Any medical condition related to COVID-19
• The cost of any mandated test required for travel
• Any medical condition where medical procedures, surgeries, referrals to a specialist or follow-up tests were scheduled or recommended but not completed before the start of your trip
• Any cancer (other than basal cell, squamous cell skin cancer or cancer in remission) for which you received or were recommended active cancer treatment in the 90 days before departure
• Any expenses incurred once your medical emergency ends
• Any expenses if the insurer recommends a transfer or return home and you refuse
• An official travel advisory stating to “avoid all travel” or “avoid non-essential travel” before your policy takes effect
• Loss, theft or breakage of prosthetic devices or dentures
• Your participation, training or practicing the following activities: Backcountry skiing or snowboarding, BASE jumping, boxing, downhill freestyle skiing or snowboarding, downhill mountain biking, hang gliding or paragliding, high risk snowmobiling, ice climbing, mixed martial arts, motorized speed contests, mountaineering, parachuting, skydiving, tandem skydiving, rock climbing, scuba diving or freediving over 40 metres, class VI white water sports or wingsuit flying
• Your participation, training or practicing as part of a registered team, league, association or club if you’re 21 years or older for the following: Football (American and Canadian), ice hockey or rugby

To be eligible for Goose emergency medical travel insurance you must:

• Be a Canadian resident
• Not be travelling against a physician’s advice
• Not have been diagnosed with a terminal condition
• Not be receiving palliative care or palliative care has not been recommended

To be eligible for Goose trip cancellation & interruption travel insurance you must:

• Be a Canadian resident

Trip cancellation coverage is only valid if you purchase it before you leave on your trip.

You can file a claim by visiting the tugo.com/claims website and downloading a medical, dental and/or trip cancellation & interruption form. All required documentation must be received within one year of the claim event, though provincial and territorial health insurance plans have their own deadlines for claim submission.

To qualify for reimbursement, you’ll need to provide original itemized receipts and additional documentation as requested.

If you are making an emergency medical claim, you must provide original receipts that state the insured’s name, diagnosis, date(s) of service and type of treatment.

For a trip cancellation/trip interruption claim, you may be asked to provide:

• Original unused tickets or e-tickets and/or all additional travel tickets purchased to return home, go to your next destination or rejoin the tour
• Original itemized dated invoices from all travel suppliers showing full payment, taxes and fees paid
• A copy of the originally scheduled travel arrangements or itinerary
• Proof of cancellation from all airlines, hotel or accommodation providers, tour operators, cruise lines and any other travel suppliers
• A statement from the travel agency, airline or travel supplier documenting their refund policies and copies of all refunds or credits for cancelled or unused expenses
• If the claim occurred before your trip, a medical certificate stating the diagnosis, date of the onset of symptoms, date and type of treatment and the reason why travel was not possible
• If the claim occurred during your trip, a medical certificate stating the diagnosis, date of the onset of symptoms, date and type of treatment and the reason why travel needed to be interrupted

If you are making a baggage insurance claim, you may need to provide:

• For loss or theft, a proof of loss, such as a copy of the police report
• For damage, a written estimate to repair damaged luggage from a repair shop of your choice

When evaluating travel insurance plans, the Forbes Advisor Canada editorial team factors in an exhaustive list of criteria, including but not limited to coverage maximums, types of coverage offered, deductible, cost, optional add-ons, discounts, traveller assistance, age restrictions and other benefits and features. Keep in mind that the coverage that might be best for some people might not be right for you. It’s important to conduct informed research before deciding which travel insurance plan will meet your needs.