Travel Insurance
Thursday, October 7th, 2010 | BLOG | No Comments
You may have recently had the debate with yourself or with your travel partner. “Should we buy a travel insurance policy to protect the cost of our trip and any potential emergency medical costs or not?” Your answer might have been: “No, our credit card insurance will cover us.” Or your partner may have answered, “Well I never get sick!” or “We can get a plan directly from the travel supplier, can’t we?”
Far more trips are canceled because of accident or illness, and you don’t get any refunds for those. Any time you face a penalty or loss that’s more than you can comfortably afford, consider Trip Cancellation insurance. If you decide you can get the cheapest insurance directly from your travel supplier, check the small print again. Many suppliers’ policies, especially those that offer “cancel for any reason,” only offer you a credit to rebook a trip with the same company. You do not usually get a cash refund.
What about that credit card insurance? Many cards’ plans are limited to accident insurance on a common carrier and baggage loss coverage. No trip cancellation, medical protection or emergency evacuation coverage is normally included.
There is also Trip Interruption, in case you have to cut the trip short for a covered reason, reimbursing up to 150% of the prepaid trip cost and should include emergency medical protection and evacuation, missed connection, trip delay coverage, baggage loss and baggage delay. When you get to your vacation spot, your one wish is that your bags arrive with you. Unfortunately, the airlines don’t always make your wish come true.
Finally, if an emergency illness or accident happens far from home, nothing will be more welcome than a helpful voice on the phone working to get you assistance on the spot. Our policy has a global emergency travel assistance service, which goes with you 24/7 with every insurance plan. You will be able to contact the service toll-free from wherever you travel, even when your family or loved ones are not immediately in reach. It’s also important to know if your insurance plan covers accidents or illness outside the USA.
You can say that having a comprehensive travel policy is much like having a knowledgeable, professional travel agent to arrange your trip. You will most appreciate both when they come to your assistance in a travel emergency. That’s when you’ll know you made the right choice to plan ahead.