COVID Vaccination Certificates, the easing of lockdown travel restrictions as vaccinations spread across the population and the strong urge for consumers to escape seen in recent booking levels all point to the opportunity for travel insurance catering for a changed market.

Despite the urge to travel consumers are likely to be wary of potential disruption. Step into the gap Allianz Partners.

"Allianz Partners has teamed up with Irish insurtech Blink.

The partnership, which also includes acquisition and retention specialist LJS Global (formerly Lumley Jacobs), will action the mass roll out of Blink’s travel disruption insurance platform in the UK.

Paul Prendergast, chief executive at Blink, said: “Partnering with Allianz Partners will ramp up our presence and visibility in the UK considerably and we are delighted to be working with one of the world’s largest travel insurance providers in delivering transformative change to their client service offering."

Clare Ruel Insurance Times 29th Ja

Ben Carey-Evans, insurance analyst at GlobalData, said: “Targeting claims and immediate payouts seems to be a good strategy from Allianz. Blink’s platform automatically rebooks consumers whose flights have been cancelled onto new ones [and] also offers lounge access for delays. 

With the capacity to process 60,000 claims an hour this is a transformative initiative that shows a global insurer acting with the pace and strategy needed for consumers who have driven demand for digital products from 38% pre-COVID to 54% (Source McKinsey) 

Not just in travel; driving behaviour and mileage has changed dramatically and the move to UBI for motor will accelerate.  Technology partners leveraging telematics data and harnessing the power and convenience of smartphones ( over 'black boxes' which drivers are generally hesitant to install) deliver new digital insurance products to match the expectations of consumers.  Established insurers must match nimbler disrupters or market share will be lost but there is no need for that to happen. 

DLG and The Floow are delivering just that innovation and claim to save young drivers £50 per year.

Their challenge has been the width of products and depth of cover provided managed by complex and inflexible platforms.

How can they provide a unified user experience and customer journey from Quote and Bind, through mid-term adjustments and renewals to include end-to-end claims management?

Luckily new-gen platforms like HUGHUB and 360SiteView provide the foundations helped by the no-code approach that gives power to the business to innovate and iterate for continuous improvement. Insurers do not have to throw-out core systems an essential requirement with so much technical debt around. 

Insurers and brokers can start small and ramp up as fast as strategy, resourcing, culture and capabilities allow. The new no-code platforms are rarely the inhibitor but enterprises still need to know why they need to innovate and plan thoroughly. 

See The CTO/CIO's Dilemma for more on that.

So, time to take a leaf out of Allianz Partner's and DLG's digital plays and plan for the future.