Allianz’s partnership with Blink, an insurtech start-up that offers quick and automatic pay-outs and re-bookings through its digital app, will allow the insurer to modernize its travel insurance offering and win consumers over once the heavily-disrupted travel industry is up and running again, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s 2020 UK Insurance Consumer survey found that Allianz was the eighteenth largest insurer in the UK with a share of just 2.1% in 2020. Blink was formed in 2016 and featured in GlobalData’s July 2017 Fintrack, where it scored four out of five. It was considered to be original, long lasting, operationally impactful and an improvement to user experience.

Ben Carey-Evans, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “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, while it also offers lounge access for delays. Consumers are likely to be wary of potential disruption when they are allowed to travel again. Therefore, anything insurers can do to alleviate that will give them a competitive advantage as flights have been cancelled, often at short notice throughout 2020 and into 2021 as COVID-19 continues to cause severe disruption.

“Despite consumers still being wary about travelling as the pandemic is ongoing, the travel industry looks set to be boosted in 2021 by the news that vaccine passports will be introduced. This will allow those who have been vaccinated to travel to certain countries, which means that the travel insurance industry should start to pick up again.”