CAA Travel Insurance review
CAA members & families
Our rating · #4 of 9 for travel insurance
At a glance
The bottom line
CAA Travel Insurance is a solid $5M option carried by A- rated Echelon, and the best value if you’re already a CAA member — discounts of 10% (up to 20% for groups, more with a deductible) stack, and family plans often include free child coverage. An optional rider cuts the pre-existing stability window to 7 days. The best pricing is gated behind paid membership, and there are recurring claims-service “run-around” complaints to weigh.
- CAA members & families
- Best pricing needs a paid CAA membership
The expert assessment
How our analysts score CAA Travel Insurance’s travel insurance — 80.2/100 across six weighted pillars.
Carrier is Echelon (upgraded from B++ in 2025); BCAA underwrites in BC. Orion has no standalone FSR.
Source: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/echelon-insurance-receives-improved-a-excellent-am-best-rating-885270653.html
What experts like
- $5M + optional 7-day pre-existing rider
- Stackable member/group/deductible discounts + family value
- A- carrier (Echelon) after a 2025 upgrade
Watch-outs
- Best pricing needs a paid CAA membership
- Documented claims-handling complaints
What the regulators' filings say about CAA Travel Insurance
Not ratings or reviews: the numbers CAA Travel Insurance's underwriting companies file with OSFI and the provincial rate regulators, read straight from the public record.
Approved car insurance rate changes
| Province | Latest approved change | Renewals from | Last 12 months | Filings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OntarioFSRA · CAA, Echelon Insurance | -0.12% | Dec 1, 2026 | +2.70% | 4 / 34 |
| New BrunswickNBIB · Echelon General, CAA | 0.00% | Jul 1, 2026 | +1.49% | 2 / 3 |
Approved change is the insurer's overall average for the province; your renewal can differ. Each tracker has a renewal calculator and every filing since the regulator's records begin.
What CAA Travel Insurance's travel insurance policy wording actually says
Read from CAA Travel Insurance Policy, September 1, 2026 (Policy September 1, 2026), not the brochure. Each answer is the contract's own sentence with its page number.
- Stability period
- Under 60: 3 months; 60 to 69: 3 months; 70 and over: 6 months. Optional rider: stable 7 days, capped at $300,000.
Read the clause
“UNDER AGE 60 Any sickness, injury or medical condition that is not stable in the three months prior to each date of departure... AGE 60 TO 69 ...three months... AGE 70 AND OVER ...not stable in the six months prior to each date of departure.”
p. 18 - Call-before-treatment rule and penalty
- Contact before treatment; otherwise benefit reduced to 80%, capped at $25,000, and one out-patient visit
Read the clause
“if you do not contact CAA Assistance before you obtain emergency treatment: a. your maximum benefit payable will be reduced to 80% of your medical expenses covered under this insurance, to a maximum of $25,000 CAD; b. ...benefits paid will be limited to a maximum of one visit per sickness or injury.”
p. 16 - Pregnancy exclusion
- 9 weeks before and 9 weeks after the expected delivery date
Read the clause
“Claim related to pregnancy, delivery, or any related complications arising in the nine (9) weeks before, or in the nine (9) weeks after the expected delivery date, including the expected delivery date itself.”
p. 19 - Government travel advisory
- Excluded if an advisory was issued before the effective date; unrelated emergencies still covered
Read the clause
“Situations where an official travel advisory was issued by the Canadian government stating to "Avoid non-essential travel" or "Avoid all travel" regarding the country, region or city of your destination, before the effective date of coverage.”
p. 9 - Mental health
- Not stated in the wording
- Claim deadline
- Written notice within 30 days; proof within 90 days
Read the clause
“give written notice of claim to the insurer... not later than 30 days from the date a claim arises under the contract... b. within 90 days from the date a claim arises... furnish to CAA Assistance such proof as is reasonably possible”
p. 67
All 13 questions for CAA Travel Insurance, and the same questions for 8 other insurers →
CAA Travel Insurance travel insurance in detail
Scored on our travel insurance Expert Score — see the full travel insurance ranking.
Ranked #4 of 9 travel insurance providers we rate
4.0Good for CAA members & families
CAA Travel Insurance is a solid $5M option carried by A- rated Echelon, and the best value if you’re already a CAA member — discounts of 10% (up to 20% for groups, more with a deductible) stack, and family plans often include free child coverage. An optional rider cuts the pre-existing stability window to 7 days. The best pricing is gated behind paid membership, and there are recurring claims-service “run-around” complaints to weigh.
- $5M + optional 7-day pre-existing rider
- Stackable member/group/deductible discounts + family value
- A- carrier (Echelon) after a 2025 upgrade
- Best pricing needs a paid CAA membership
- Documented claims-handling complaints
How to buy CAA Travel Insurance travel insurance
You do not need to be a CAA Member to buy. Quote and buy online, call your club (for example 1-800-705-1803), or walk into a CAA Store. Members save roughly 10% on premiums, rising to about 20% for Premier Members buying in-store or by phone. A Medical Questionnaire is required at 60 and over, and a new one is required for any extension or top-up. Sold through regional clubs — CAA South Central Ontario, North & East Ontario, Niagara, Manitoba, Atlantic and CAA-Quebec — so wording and pricing vary by club.
CAA Travel Insurance travel insurance plans
Emergency Medical Insurance — Single Trip
Pays up to $5 million, but falls to a maximum of $25,000 for all emergency medical benefits if your provincial health coverage had lapsed or you lacked GHIP authorisation for trip days beyond what your province covers. There is no maximum age when purchased separately. Stability is three months under 60 and at 60-69, and six months at 70 and over. Medical Questionnaire at 60+.
Best for Travellers over 85, who have essentially no other mainstream option with a $5 million limit.
Not for Long-stay snowbirds who have not confirmed GHIP authorisation for out-of-province days — the limit collapses to $25,000.
Pre-Existing Medical Condition Rider
An optional rider that reduces the health stability period to seven days before your trip, covering eligible hospital and medical expenses arising from a pre-existing condition that would otherwise be excluded by the three- or six-month rule. It is the shortest stability window available from any of the five providers reviewed here, and it is a rider on the standard plan rather than a separate underwritten product.
Best for A traveller 70 or over whose condition changed four or five months ago and who would fail the six-month test outright.
Not for Anyone whose condition has changed in the last week — the seven-day window still has to be met.
Emergency Medical — Multi-Trip Annual
Annual coverage for unlimited trips, with per-trip lengths of 4, 8, 15, 30 or 60 days depending on the plan purchased. Stability rules match the single-trip plan and are tested before each departure date, not once at purchase — so a condition that destabilises in March affects an April trip even though the policy was bought in January. Trips within Canada but outside your province carry no pre-existing condition exclusion.
Best for Frequent short-haul travellers making several US or European trips a year.
Not for Anyone assuming they are cleared for the year — the stability test re-runs before every single departure.
Single Trip Vacation Package
Bundles emergency medical at $5 million with trip cancellation up to the sum insured, baggage to $1,500, and flight and travel accident benefits of $100,000 and $50,000. Maximum age 84. Stability is three months under 60 and six months at 60-84, plus extra heart tests: excluded if you had bypass or valve surgery more than eight years ago, or were prescribed three or more heart medications in the prior six months.
Best for Under-60 travellers wanting medical and cancellation in one policy with cancellation scaled to trip cost.
Not for Seniors on multiple cardiac medications — three or more heart drugs triggers the exclusion regardless of how stable you are.
Canada Plan / Single Trip Canada Vacation Package
Coverage for travel within Canada outside your home province. The policy states explicitly that no pre-existing medical condition exclusion applies to the Canada Plan or the Single Trip Canada Vacation Package, and there is no maximum age. That combination — no age cap and no stability test — is the most accessible product in this entire comparison.
Best for Travellers in their late 80s or 90s with complex health histories, taking a domestic trip.
Not for Anyone travelling outside Canada, where the full stability and age rules return.
What CAA Travel Insurance travel insurance customers say
There is no travel-insurance-specific review dataset of usable size for CAA. The available number — 1.8/5 across 466 Trustpilot reviews for CAA South Central Ontario — is a rating of a motoring club, and the visible reviews are overwhelmingly about roadside assistance response times and membership billing rather than travel medical claims. It should not be read as a travel insurance score.
CAA's Trustpilot page is the least transferable in this set. A motoring club is rated by hundreds of thousands of members on tow-truck wait times, so a bad winter for roadside response drags the score in ways that say nothing about how Orion adjudicates a hospital claim in Florida. Notably, the positive reviews on that page are also about towing, not insurance. We have scored CAA above the bank-owned providers on product design — no age cap when bought separately, a seven-day stability rider, no pre-existing exclusion on Canada plans — while flagging that its claims-handling record is genuinely unmeasured.
- Trustpilot (caasco.com, CAA South Central Ontario — club-wide, not travel-specific) 1.8/5 466 reviews
Read this in context: Canadian insurers cluster at 1.2–1.4 out of 5 on open review platforms almost without exception — the people motivated to post are overwhelmingly those with a claim dispute. Read this score against that category floor, not against a 5-point scale.
- Named front-line staff rated highly. Reviewers repeatedly name individual employees positively — 'they send me a Gentleman tow truck driver which was professional, fast and helping' — though these describe roadside service, not insurance claims.
- Buying in person is an option. Unlike the online-only competitors, CAA lets you sit down in a CAA Store to complete the Medical Questionnaire — and Premier Members get the full 20% discount only through that channel or by phone.
- No membership barrier. CAA states that member or not, everyone has access to the insurance products offered, with online quotes available to non-members.
- Service response times. 'My son tried to use his membership for the first time in 2 years and it took almost 4 hours and he finally gave up.'
- Fragmented club structure. CAA Travel Insurance is sold through separate regional clubs with separate websites and policy documents, so wording, pricing and even the current policy effective date differ depending on where you live.
- Cancellation and billing friction. Cancellation and subscription handling are among the most-mentioned topics on CAA's Trustpilot page.
- Re-underwriting on every extension. The policy requires a new medical questionnaire for any extension or top-up, meaning a health change abroad can block the extension you were counting on.
CAA Travel Insurance: frequently asked questions
Can CAA Travel Insurance be trusted to pay out a claim?
On the evidence, yes: CAA Travel Insurance holds an A- (Excellent), ICR a- financial-strength rating from AM Best (Apr 2025) — an independent agency’s verdict on its ability to pay claims. Carrier is Echelon (upgraded from B++ in 2025); BCAA underwrites in BC. Orion has no standalone FSR.
Who is CAA Travel Insurance travel insurance a good fit for?
CAA Travel Insurance stands out for CAA members & families. $5M + optional 7-day pre-existing rider, and stackable member/group/deductible discounts + family value. If those things matter most to you, it’s worth a close look; if your priority is something else, compare it against the companies that rate highest on that pillar.
What are the downsides of CAA Travel Insurance travel insurance?
The watch-outs we found: best pricing needs a paid CAA membership; documented claims-handling complaints. We spell these out so you can weigh them before buying — every insurer has trade-offs, and knowing them upfront is the point of a real review.
How does CAA Travel Insurance compare to other travel insurance companies in Canada?
CAA Travel Insurance ranks #4 of the 9 travel insurance providers we scored, at 80.2/100. It’s strongest on coverage & terms and has the most room to improve on customer satisfaction.
Is there an age limit on CAA Travel Insurance?
It depends entirely on how you buy it, and this is CAA's most useful quirk. Emergency Medical Insurance purchased separately — including the Canada Plan, and the Single Trip Canada Vacation Package — has no maximum age. But if you buy emergency medical as part of a Single Trip Vacation Package, Multi-Trip Vacation Package, or a top-up to one, the ceiling is age 84. So a 90-year-old can be insured to $5 million by CAA, provided they buy the emergency medical plan on its own and take cancellation coverage separately rather than as a bundle.
What is the seven-day stability rider and what does it not fix?
CAA's Pre-Existing Medical Condition Rider reduces the health stability period to seven days before your trip, replacing the standard three months (under 70) or six months (70 and over). It is the shortest window offered by any provider in this comparison. What it does not fix is the separate Single Trip Vacation Package heart clause at ages 60 to 84, which excludes heart conditions if you had bypass or valve surgery more than eight years ago, or were prescribed three or more heart medications in the prior six months. Those are structural exclusions, not stability tests, so the rider does not reach them.
Why might my $5 million coverage drop to $25,000?
Because of your provincial health plan, not your health. CAA caps all emergency medical benefits at $25,000 if, at the time of claim, your GHIP coverage had lapsed, or you did not have GHIP authorisation to cover trip days exceeding what your province allows outside its borders. This is aimed squarely at snowbirds: Ontario, for example, limits out-of-province absence, and long stays can require notifying your province. Before a winter away, confirm your provincial coverage is active for every day of the trip. Getting this wrong turns a $5 million policy into a $25,000 one.
Do I need a CAA Membership to buy this insurance?
No. CAA states that member or not, everyone has access to its insurance products, and non-members can get an online quote and buy. Membership is purely a discount mechanism: Everyday, Classic and Plus Members save about 10%, and Premier Members about 20% when buying at a CAA Store or by phone, or 10% online with 10% back in CAA Dollars. With memberships starting around $30 a year plus tax, the arithmetic usually favours joining before buying a senior's policy, where premiums run into the hundreds. Discounts vary by regional club.
Does CAA re-check my health before every trip on the annual plan?
Effectively yes, and this is the most misunderstood feature of multi-trip plans generally. CAA's wording tests whether a condition was stable in the three or six months prior to each departure date — not once at the time of purchase. So an annual policy bought in January while you were well does not protect a condition that destabilised in March before an April departure. Separately, any extension or top-up requires a brand-new Medical Questionnaire to determine eligibility and premium, and must be applied for before your existing policy expires.