We recently had a comment from a traveler who was frustrated because their travel insurance didn’t cover trip cancellation when they had an important job interview.
While we recognize the value of an important interview (especially in this economy!) and we acknowledge that it’s frustrating when insurance doesn’t provide the coverage you think you’re entitled to have, it’s very important to understand what you’re covered for before you expect your travel insurance company to pay out.
Travel insurance – as a separate insurance product – is relatively new to the consumer market. We’ve all been familiar with how our homeowner’s insurance works and how our automobile insurance works for some time. We’ve read our policies, and we know whether our roof, for example, is covered in a hail storm or whether our windshield can be replaced with our coverage if the neighborhood kids throw something through it.
Travel insurance, on the other hand, hasn’t been around as long and consumers are still getting familiar with how it works. Plus, travelers typically read ‘coverage for trip cancellation’ and assume it means coverage for any reason at all and that’s just not true anymore than damage to your roof or your windshield are covered for any reason at all.
Most travelers who are experienced with travel insurance (and there are a growing number of these folks) could have quickly explained to our commenter that a job interview – not matter how important – is simply not a covered reason for trip cancellation. If the commenter had purchased a plan with ‘cancel for any reason‘, our traveler would have had 50-100% (depending on their plan) reimbursement  for their covered trip costs.
Here at Travel Insurance Review, it’s our goal to make travel insurance better understood by travelers. That’s why when we get comments like this, we feel compelled to explain the coverage. Anytime you have a travel insurance question, please let us know and we’ll help.
