By Ian Neubauer

Travel agents are reaping extraordinary commissions from clients when on-selling travel insurance with airline tickets, insurance provider AAMI has revealed.

AAMI offers travels insurance for approximately half the price of similar products sold by travel agents, and attributes the difference to the commission garnered by travel agents in-store.

A quote sourced this morning from AAMI for one month’s travel insurance in Asia came to $100.80, while a similar product offered by a Sydney travel agent on behalf of leading travel insurance provider CoverMore came in at $256.

The CoverMore policy includes a discount of $35 when the policy is bundled with an airline ticket, bringing the price down to $221. It also offers the convenience of booking a holiday and buying cover at the same time.

AAMI national public affairs manager, Geoff Hughes, said AAMI policies were markedly cheaper because commission is not paid to agents.

“The reason our price is so competitive because we don’t pay commissions. We are cheaper because we deal direct,” he said.

Hughes added that internal research showed 46 per cent of Australians who took out travel insurance for foreign journeys felt they had paid too much for their policy.

“The majority of Australian travellers are smart for choosing to protect themselves with travel insurance but for some, hefty policy prices mean taking the risk of travelling without any cover,” he said.

“However, nearly all the travellers we surveyed (95 per cent) said they felt safer on their holiday, knowing they were covered. But this peace of mind shouldn’t come at a high cost.”

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