Recently, we’ve noticed a number of complaints from travelers who purchased their travel insurance from travel suppliers – online booking engines, in particular – and this is an easy trap to fall into.
While we didn’t look into the specifics of those policies, we can tell you it’s not a good idea to purchase travel insurance this way for a number of reasons:
- a traveler in a hurry may not read the policy details (even though they are made available) because this is a last step add-on to the buying process
- the language used to sell the policy may have you believe you have coverage (for any injury or illness for example), but you have to understand the exclusions and limits (those are in the plan’s description of coverage)
- it’s likely that only a very limited set of travel insurance plans will be offered to you
- it’s not likely that you’ll have access to potentially necessary upgrades (like a medical upgrade for a pre-existing condition)
A much better way to make an informed travel insurance purchase is to do your research and purchase a plan using a travel insurance comparison tool, which lets you compare coverage and prices using your itinerary details and lets you review the policy details, so you understand your coverage.
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Post edited: October 13, 2011
