Travel protection is something that I always recommend to my clients because a vacation is a very sizable investment to make, and….life happens. In my opinion, it only makes sense to do whatever you can to protect that investment. While I don’t take adding additional costs to a vacation lightly – and would never recommend anything that I did not think would benefit my clients – as I’ve said many times, it’s not always just the cost of something to consider, as the value you are getting is just (if not more) important. The value of a trip that is disrupted, and you lose tons of money as a result, is…….zero.
So I know what you are thinking: “What are some reasons where travel insurance can help me?” Consider just 3 very common travel scenarios:
- You need to cancel your trip: What happens if someone gets sick and can’t travel, (God-forbid) a parent dies, you’re required to work, or your house floods? With trip cancellation coverage, you may be able to recover your out-of-pocket expenses for these covered reasons and more.
- You miss your connection: You’ve planned a cruise but your connecting flight to get to the ship is delayed. With the missed connection you will miss your cruise departure. How will you catch up to the ship? With travel insurance, you can take another flight to catch the ship at the next port-of-call. Travel insurance can help pay for those travel changes.
- Your flight is canceled: Hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, even widespread severe storms can cancel flights in a heartbeat – to say nothing of miscellaneous technical “glitches – and we all know that when that happens there is a domino effect across the entire country and delays can last for days. (As I found out a couple of weeks ago.) With trip interruption coverage, you’ll have the money to refund the expenses of a new return ticket or to stay in a comfortable hotel, as opposed to the floor of the airport.
And there are a host of other situations where travel insurance can save the day: lost bags; emergency medical needs (especially important if you are out of the country and have an accident on an excursion and require medical evacuation – the cost can be in the thousands of dollars!); lost passport; hurricane damage to your destination (hello Caribbean?); and the list goes on and on.
Now the one thing I haven’t mentioned is travel insurance and coverage for the COVID pandemic. This can vary as generally insurance companies consider it a known and foreseen event and some may not cover claims due to this coronavirus. Others will because the pandemic has become part of our lives. Some companies will offer “Cancel For Any Reason” (CFAR) policies, and with these policies some claims related to the current pandemic might be covered, but as with anything related to any kind of insurance, it is not a guarantee. You’ll want to keep in mind that CFAR policies generally need to be purchased at or shortly after the trip is booked, are more expensive – and don’t typically reimburse 100% (and often will provide future trip “credits” rather than refunding your money). Again, it varies greatly from one carrier to the next so it is super important to compare the different policies that are available, read the fine print, and ask the carrier for clarification on any coverage questions you have.
As I said, life happens. And when you are spending a lot of money on a vacation, doesn’t it make sense to protect that investment? I know people tell me at times “I’m going no matter what”, but as we’ve all seen over the past several years, there are all kinds of events – pandemics, hurricanes, blizzards to name a few – that can send the best planned vacations into disarray overnight.
Of course, it’s important to remember that insurance is just that, and nothing is guaranteed. Just like with your car or homeowners’ policies, there are exclusions. So if something occurs that causes you to disrupt or cancel your trip, you can put in a claim, and it is up to the insurance company to determine if the claim will be covered. Keep in mind as well, that travel insurance is there as a protection to you if something unforeseen disrupts your plans. It won’t help you if you want to cancel because the weather forecast for your trip is 7 days of rain. 🙂
Most travel destinations and vendors offer the option to add travel insurance to your vacation package, but keep in mind that you’ll often get better coverage/pricing if you purchase travel insurance elsewhere. Just be very careful and read all the fine print to make sure that you are buying a policy from a reputable insurance company and that it’s the best policy *for your needs*. One important thing to note: many insurance policies, do not permit travel insurance to be added after your final payment, and none are going to allow you to add it once a hurricane is bearing down on Florida or the Caribbean (in fact, once the storm – or event – is named, you won’t be covered for it unless you added insurance before then). So travel insurance is a “plan ahead” issue, and not something you can rely on for help at the last minute.
No one wants their vacation plans to be disrupted, but sometimes it happens anyway, and when it does, travel insurance can be a tremendous help. As your mother always told you, “better to be safe than sorry”.
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