Korean Air Flight Insurance - 2024 Review

Korean Air is the flagship carrier of South Korea and its largest airline. When purchasing tickets through the Korean Air site in the USA, flight Insurance is not available for purchase. This is actually good news. We can show you how to get best coverage at the lowest rates.

Over the years we have become used to having airlines offer their own travel insurance quite upon checkout. However, the policies often have limited coverage and are rather expensive.

Let’s book a trip on Korean Air and then look at our options for insuring out trip in the open marketplace.

Korean Air – US Site Layout

Korean Air uses a simple grid layout for travelers to assess flight price. We like it – it is clean and intuitive. Lowest price date combinations are highlighted. Korean also displays the lowest expected total fare, including taxes. Many airlines hide taxes and charges until later in check-out, which is something that we truly dislike. Others will only show prices per leg – essentially, doubling the initial displayed price. So, Korean’s system is one we commend.

Korean Air also makes it reasonably simple to see the differences between booking in the different seat classes it offers.

Our Sample Trip – Seattle to Seoul

For our sample trip, we booked a roundtrip flight for two travelers from Seattle to Seoul from November 27 – December 5. The website shows the various fare options for the flight chosen:

When you click on the fare, it will show the various penalties and whether upgrades are available. Here are our various options for our departure flight:

No matter which fare class we choose, there are penalties for changing our flight (from $120 for Economy Standard, $100 for Economy Flex and $150 for Prestige Standard (which is also our most expensive fare option).

Refunds also incur penalties of $200, $150, and $300 respectively. While we can choose our seats, we can only upgrade our seat with Economy Flex.

Korean Air, like most other airlines, would like to sell us the exact same seat, at different prices.

For example, with Prestige Standard we get more miles, but we pay higher penalty fees for both a change in the ticket and for a refund than we would with the Economy Standard AND we’re paying $3,550 MORE for it!

After reviewing the fare specifics, we decided Economy Standard was fine for both legs. The site shows us the full price, including taxes and additional charges.

After taxes, fees, and fuel charges, our $3100 ticket cost as ballooned to $4200.16.

All that’s left is for us to enter the traveler information and purchase the tickets.

With our flights finalizes, now we can shop for insurance for the trip.

TravelDefenders – Compare and Save

Remember, Korean Air Travel Insurance was not available when we bought our flight online. So, let’s shop around. At TravelDefenders we take care of this. We get binding insurance quotes, anonymously, from our major travel insurance carriers and present them in an easy-to-read format.

Inputting our trip details into the quoting screen at TravelDefenders, we’re presented with 17 different quotes to choose from. So how do we choose which option would be best for us?

Since we’re traveling internationally, TravelDefenders recommends having a minimum of $100,000 of medical insurance coverage and $500,000 of medical evacuation coverage when traveling to Asia and beyond.

Knowing this, we can eliminate some of the quotes and focus on the ones that offer at least this minimum coverage.

The least expensive plan that provides adequate coverage is the Trawick First Class for $273.28 - total cost for both travelers combined.

The policy provides $150,000 of medical coverage and $1 million of medical evacuation coverage as well as trip cancellation, trip interruption, and baggage coverage. The policy will also provide coverage for any pre-existing medical conditions if the policy is purchased within 14 days of the initial payment or deposit date.

If we need to cancel our trip prior to departure for a reason listed in the policy, we will receive a 100% refund of our trip costs with no penalties. However, if we want to have greater cancellation flexibilities, then we need to look at a different type of policy – a Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) policy. Let’s see what our options are for these policies.

Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) Policies

Some people prefer to have a policy in place that provides Cancel for Any Reason coverage for maximum cancellation flexibility.

This is a super-powerful benefit that does exactly what it says. A traveler needs to have no reason at all to cancel and still receive a significant refund. The policies that we have that provide such coverage refund at 50% or 75% (depending on the policy).

The use of Cancel for Any Reason insurance to lower ticket prices has been described as the Airline Ticket Hack. Refundable benefits, with Non-Refundable ticket costs.

The least expensive CFAR policy that provides the maximum 75% refund is the Travel Insured International Worldwide Trip Protector Plus (CFAR 75%) at $454.00.

This policy provides $100,000 of medical coverage and $1 million of medical evacuation coverage as well as trip cancellation, trip interruption, and baggage coverage. The policy will also provide coverage for any pre-existing medical conditions if the policy is purchased within 21 days of the initial payment or deposit date.

If we cancel for a listed reason in the policy, such as illness or injury, we’ll receive a 100% refund of trip costs. If we cancel for any other reason, we’ll receive a 75% refund.

TravelDefenders – One Site – Many Carriers

We love Amazon and are fans of Expedia. Comparison-shopping is simple. Sites like TravelDefenders do the same for travel insurance. Would you like to visit each travel insurance carrier directly? Of course not. Take the Amazon-like travel insurance experience at TravelDefenders.

So, when buying trip insurance, which should you choose? That’s the beauty of insurance comparison – you get to see all the best prices in the market.

Does TravelDefenders charge More?

You won’t find the same trip insurance plans available at a better price – price certainty is guaranteed because of anti-discriminatory insurance law in the US. Look at the article Travel Insurance Comparison – Will I Pay More Buying Travel Insurance from a Comparison Website? This is really powerful consumer protection.

A travel insurance marketplace like TravelDefenders will offer a multitude of different plans from some of the most respected travel insurance carriers in the country. You will only need a few minutes to check value for money, coverage, and insurance carrier ratings.

Enjoy your next trip with Korean Air and be sure to pack your travel insurance before you leave.

Safe travels!