Ping An Hong Kong to offer travel insurance customers flight disruption cover under deal with Collinson

By Henry Gale

March 11 - (The Insurer) - China Ping An Insurance Hong Kong has begun providing its travel insurance customers with automated benefits such as lounge access if they are hit by flight delays or cancellations.

British assistance firm Collinson's SmartDelay product, which provides automatic benefits such as airport lounge access for flight disruptions, is now available across all three tiers of Ping An Hong Kong's online travel insurance policies.

Ping An Hong Kong's customers will need to register their flight at least two hours before the scheduled departure time to be eligible for benefits, which are triggered by cancellations or delays of more than one hour and can be used by the policyholder and one additional person travelling with them.

Almost one-in-five flights within Asia Pacific were delayed by at least 15 minutes as of June 2024, with 33 million travellers in the region hit by delays of more than an hour, Collinson said.

"Through this partnership, our customers ... are now able to gain instant access to a wide network of airport lounges and travel experiences globally without having to go through a tedious claims procedure, in the event of flight delays or cancellations," said Hugo Yeung, deputy general manager at Ping An Hong Kong.

The Ping An Hong Kong deal is Collinson's latest parametric flight disruption partnership in Asia this year, after announcements that SmartDelay would be adopted by Sompo Insurance Thailand and Indian travel insurance firm Asego.