Travel is one of the life’s greatest joys but even the most carefully planned trip can be complicated by unforeseen events. Whether it is lost luggage, cancelled flights, or medical emergency, an unexpected mishap can turn a relaxing vacation into a taxing experience. But by opting for a good holiday travel insurance policy, you can save your money, safeguard your journey and make your vacation a truly memorable one.
There are many things to consider when planning for a vacation – where to go, what to pack and what do once you reach your destination. No matter how well you plan, there are some things that go out of your control. This is where travel insurance comes to your aid by compensating you for the unforeseen emergencies while traveling.
What does travel insurance cover?
Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption: Reimburse travelers who are unable to take their trip due to illness or death, weather, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, becoming unemployed or home being rendered uninhabitable due to fire, flood etc.
Medical/Health: Reimburses medical or emergency dental costs. All most all insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveler after he has paid locally for the treatment. Medical evacuation insurance covers the cost of an air ambulance, attending physician and nurse if you are badly injured or become so ill that you are unable to come back home.
Accidental Death:
Air Fight Accident: Covers death during an air flight only. Usually covers the highest amount of coverage due to lower risk.
Common Carrier: Covers death while traveling in public transport such as ferry, train, bus or taxi.
Accidental Death: Covers death at any time on your trip. Usually provides the lowest amount of coverage due to higher risk.
Travel Delay: Reimburses travelers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay.
Baggage Loss: The plan includes reimbursement to travelers for their, lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is generally for the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline.
Rental Car Damage: A specific amount is reimbursed to the traveler for damage or loss of a rental vehicle.
Is travel insurance necessary?
One issue that often strikes us while planning for a vacation is the necessity of travel insurance. Nobody likes to think of the odds that could make you cancel or shorten a vacation. No matter how well you plan for your vacation, things go wrong due some unavoidable circumstances. And it is here that you seek for shelter of travel insurance.
As with most things in life, we are exposed to a certain amount of risk when we travel. This is the sole reason why we require travel insurance. Now, whether a person is a student or a professional, it is applicable for both. For students, however, there are certain separate rules and regulations compared to the insurance policies for the other groups of people.
So before you finalize your vacation plans, be sure you have given careful thought to whether you need to purchase an insurance policy while you are traveling. There are circumstances that could cause you to cancel your trip, return home early or force you to seek emergency medical treatment while traveling. Travel insurance provides you with that extra protection cover you need.
By: Jhon Brown
Posts Tagged ‘Travel Delay’
Importance of Travel Insurance
March 11th, 2010The Benefits of Annual Travel Insurance For Your Summer 2010 Travel
March 2nd, 2010
No one wants to think of something bad happening whilst they are on their annual holiday but in some cases things do and it is at this time that taking out Travel insurance would have been a wise choice, hindsight’s a wonderful thing but pre planning is better. Ensuring that aspects of your holiday are covered and certain eventualities have been considered can mean the difference between a disaster and just an inconvenience. Travel insurance can come in various packages depending on your requirements and frequency of traveling but one thing is for certain, if you travel regularly then Annual Travel Insurance is definitely an option worth considering.
Your cover won’t just cover accidents and medical attention like so many people perceive, it can cover an array of situations that are often out of your control like Airport Staff Strikes, Travel delays and cancellation all of which are major inconveniences, especially if you travel regularly. Many policies are on offer these days and companies have tiered packages to suit the type of traveler you are, concentrating on better value for money for the regular annual traveller often making it cheaper to have annual travel insurance every year than buying it each and every time you travel.
With a chosen policy potentially covering unlimited trips per year, Cancellation cover including redundancy, Medical Expense Cover, Travel Delay, Baggage and Baggage Delay, Dynamic Packaging Insurance the cover is often far more extensive than many people initially think travel insurance is. Many policies also cover a range of hazardous sports which were traditionally excluded from annual travel cover. These days going on holiday often involves action sports experiences, and no longer are they problematic to cover, from Bungee jumping to Scuba Diving, Sailing, Motorcycling and Jet Skiing. Picking the right annual travel insurance means these sports along with many others can be covered under the same policy with no need for additional cover.
Another benefit to having Annual travel cover is that it is one less consideration whilst organising your next trip. With flights to book, accommodation to find, money to exchange and logistics to sort you can rest assure that your personal welfare is insured and external elements that may hinder your journey will be covered.
By: Tom Sangers
Trip Cancellation Travel Insurance
December 29th, 2009
Looking for a trip cancellation only plan?
Stop looking. Trip cancellation only plans are not available. Neither are trip interruption only plans. All trip cancellation / interruption travel insurance plans are package plans that include some (or a lot more) medical, emergency evacuation, luggage, travel delay and other common coverages.
Here are the 2 parts of a trip cancellation travel insurance plan:
Trip cancellation coverage (before you leave on your trip): you, a close family member or a traveling companion gets hurt or sick before you leave (and your doctor advises you against traveling). Travel insurance reimburses you the money you lose. This is especially important if you’re concerned about a pre-existing medical condition. Trip interruption coverage (after you leave on your trip): you, a close family member including a non-traveling family member, or a traveling companion gets hurt or sick while you’re on your trip and you have to return home early. Travel insurance reimburses you the unused value of your trip plus pays the cost of one-way airfare up to its limit.
How does trip cancellation travel insurance work?
You book a cruise, tour or other trip that requires you to pay money up front. Sometime before the trip, the money you paid becomes all or partially nonrefundable. What I mean by nonrefundable is, that if you were to cancel your trip, you will not get any cash refunds.
How the trip cancellation benefit works:
Let’s say, you and your spouse paid $5,000 each for a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Two days before you’re supposed to leave you’re going out to get the mail and you get hit by a cement truck. In my examples, no one ever dies, but if you are hit by a cement truck i’m sure your doctor would advise you against traveling.
The fact that your cancel your trip just two days before you were supposed to leave, means that it’s highly unlikely you’re going to receive any refund on the $10,000 ($5,000 each) you paid for your trip. However, if you had bought a trip cancellation travel insurance plan some time in the days or weeks or months prior to being hit by a cement truck, and had insured your $5,000 per person trip cost, your trip cancellation travel insurance plan will reimburse you 100% of the money you lost on the trip, or in this case the full $10,000.
However, let’s say you only insured $3500 each of your $5,000 per person trip cost. In this case, the maximum amount of money you will receive from your trip cancellation travel insurance plan is $7,000 ($3,500 each), which is the maximum cost you had insured.
How the trip interruption benefit works:
You get to South America safely and this time, your brother-in-law (who you’ve never really cared for), is going out to get the mail and he gets hit by a cement truck. Even though you’re sure he deserved it, out of respect you and your spouse cut your trip short and return home early.
Returning home means your interrupted trip will have some unused value as will your return plane tickets. Plus, you’ll have to buy an expensive one-way last minute ticket home.
For the purposes of this example, your unused trip will be worth $3,000 for each of you. If you had insured your full $5,000 per person trip cost, your trip cancellation travel insurance plan will reimburse you up to $5,000 (and on some plans, a maximum of $7,500) of the money you lost on the trip plus the cost of the one-way last minute ticket home.
The maximum reimbursement depends on the percentage of trip cost you plan covers for trip interruption. Some plans state it as 100% of trip cost, while others cover as much as 150% of trip cost.
I hope this makes sense to you. If not, post a comment here or contact me and I’ll do my best to help you understand trip cancellation travel insurance.
By: Steve Dasseos
