A few travel insurance providers know that some folks travel for very specific reasons and they’ve designed travel insurance plans with unique coverage for those types of travelers. For example, Travel Guard offers a unique travel insurance plan specifically for gold enthusiasts: the Tee, Tour, & Travel plan.

This plan includes a number of coverages expected in a travel insurance package plan, including:

• Trip cancellation up to 100%
• Trip interruption up to 150%
• Higher-than-average travel delay coverage up to $1,500
• Missed connection up to $250
• Medical expenses up to $25,000
• Emergency medical evacuation up to $500,000
• 24-hour AD&D up to $10,000

This plan is also customized to cover the risks faced by travelers who love playing golf. It includes the following golfer-specific benefits as well:

• Equipment and baggage delay (12-hour minimum) up to $750
• Equipment and baggage loss up to $2,500
• Refund of pre-paid golf fees, including green fees, caddy and cart fees, etc. if you have to cancel your trip for a covered reason
• Refund of golf course fees if a golf course on your itinerary is closed due to inclement weather with less than 24 hours’ notice (excellent for sudden tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, etc.)

Plus, children age 17 and under are covered by the plan at no additional cost with all accompanying adults purchasing this coverage.

Enjoy a Hole-in-one Celebration *

The Tee, Tour, and Travel plan has an additional unique benefit for golfers. This plan will reimburse your bar expenses up to $250 if you make a verifiable hole-in-one and are inspired to celebrate.

Note: the bar expense receipts must be from the clubhouse affiliated with the golf course where the hole-in-one took place.

Access Exclusive Golf Concierge Services *

Plus this plan includes exclusive golf concierge services:

• event ticketing for PGA, LPGA, and Senior PGA events
• local golf course recommendations
• slope and rating info
• golf course driving directions
• tee time reservations (with availability)
• PGA-pro referral service
• Find-a-foursome service
• golf club retrieval assistance
• golf club pickup and delivery arrangements
• golf club rental reservations
• ground transportation services
• and more

Purchase within 15 days for Extra Benefits

If the plan is purchased within 15 days of your initial trip payment, you also receive:

• Double missed connection benefits ($500)
• Coverage for trip cancellation or interruptions due to pre-existing medical conditions (up to the first $30,000 in trip costs)
• Coverage for travel supplier default (cruise line, airline, and tour operator)
• Flight guard AD&D

Add Optional Coverages

Optional coverages are purchased with the plan. The optional coverages available with this plan include the following:

• Optional ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage for up to 50% reimbursement and an extension of the covered reasons for trip cancellation (purchase within 15 days of initial trip payment)
• Optional additional golf equipment and personal effects coverage for $2,500 additional coverage
• Optional medical upgrade for double the medical and evacuation limit and the option to choose the medical facility
• Optional ‘Cancel for work reasons’ upgrade extends the work-related reasons for trip cancellation and interruption (purchase within 15 days of initial trip payment)
• Optional flight guard for additional AD&D coverage at increments of $100,000 up to $500,000
• Optional car rental coverage for up to $35,000 ($250 deductible)

This is only a brief description of the coverage(s) available.

The Policy will contain reductions, limitations, exclusions and termination provisions. Insurance is underwritten by National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., a Pennsylvania insurance company, with its principal place of business at 175 Water Street, New York, NY 10038. It is currently authorized to transact business in all states and the District of Columbia. NAIC No. 19445. Coverage may not be available in all states.

* Non insurance services are provided by Travel Guard.

Travel insurance coverage for dental emergencies is isolated to injuries to sound natural teeth, so artificial teeth, dentures, dental braces, retainers, orthodontic devices, and dental bridges are not covered.

Dental coverage is described in the plan’s medical coverage and is typically limited to a specific amount.

For example:

• The Travel Insured International Worldwide Trip Protector Gold plan “will pay benefits, up to $750.00, for emergency dental treatment for Accidental Injury to sound natural teeth.”
• The Vacation Classic plan by TravelSafe includes the following text: “Benefits will include expenses incurred during the Trip for emergency dental treatment due to Injury not to exceed $750.”

Other plans provide coverage between $200 and $1,000. Often, dental coverage is limited for situations where a traveler experiences a sudden onset of pain too.

Help finding a local dentist

Your travel insurance provider’s travel assistance services representatives can help you find a local dentist if you experience a dental emergency. Be sure to travel with your travel insurance plan description, so you have it when you need to refer to it for questions like these.

A recent report indicates that seismologists are nervously watching another Icelandic volcano, which is reported to be more powerful than the Eyjafjallajokul volcano which erupted in 2010 and caused severe travel delays while spewing ash all over Europe for several weeks. The Katla volcano is a much larger and more dangerous volcano and currently showing signs of imminent eruption.

If you were among the thousands of stranded travelers, you know that having travel delay coverage can provide at least a little financial relief. Travel delay benefits are paid for reasonable accommodations, meals, and local transportation if you are delayed a certain number of hours due to a reason covered by your travel insurance plan.

In the TravelSafe Vacation Classic plan, the coverage description looks like this:

Travel Delay: Benefits will be paid for reasonable accommodation,
meal, and local transportation expenses incurred by You, up to the
Maximum Benefit Amount shown in the Schedule of Benefits, if
You are delayed for 6 hours or more while en route to or from, or
during a Trip, due to: a) any delay of a Common Carrier (the delay
must be certified by the Common Carrier); b) a traffic accident in
which You or Your Traveling Companion are not directly involved
(must be substantiated by a police report); c) lost or stolen
passports, travel documents or money (must be substantiated by
a police report); d) quarantine, hijacking, Strike, natural disaster,
terrorism or riot; e) a documented weather condition preventing
You from getting to the point of departure.

If you are concerned your travel plans may be disrupted by this impending volcanic eruption, give your travel insurance provider a call to verify. Always carry your travel insurance documents with you so you can refer to them on your trip. Carefully review your travel plan documents to understand the coverage.

Travel delay coverage is limited by varying per-day and maximum limits and any refunds you receive from your travel suppliers as a result of the delay are deducted from the travel insurance benefit.

See how travel insurance covers volcano eruptions for more details.

Travel insurance benefits that are paid as a result of common carrier failures include: trip delays, missed connections, and baggage loss and delay. For example, your travel insurance certificate may include text like the following (from Travelex’s Travel Select plan certificate):

Trip Delay must be caused by or result from:
1. Common Carrier delay; or

In addition, some travel insurance plans include common carrier as a covered reason for trip cancellation and interruption benefits with text like the following (from Travel Insured International’s Worldwide Trip Protector Gold plan certificate):

Weather which causes complete cessation of services of Your Common Carrier for at least 24
consecutive hours

So we decided to find out whether the term common carrier also applied to trains. Every travel insurance plan will have a plan certificate and in that document are the definitions that explain the specifics of your travel insurance coverage. In fact, travel insurance plan certificates usually have a specific definitions section where the terms used in the document are defined.

How Travel Insurance defines Common Carrier

We looked through a number of travel insurance plan certificates and found that the term ‘common carrier’ is typically defined in the definitions included with the policy.

Travel Guard and Travelex insurance plans define common carrier as:

“Common Carrier” means an air, land, or sea conveyance operated under a license for the transportation of passengers for hire.

Travel Insured International defines common carrier as:

“Common Carrier” means any regularly scheduled land, sea, and/or air conveyance operating under a valid license for the transportation of passengers for hire.

So, as long as the train you are traveling on during your trip is operating under a valid license for the purpose of transporting passengers for a fee, then your travel insurance coverage will provide benefits.

Rockets and submarines not included

Travel insurance certificate definitions for common carrier does not include (at least not yet): space rockets and submarines. So, for the time being there is no travel insurance for deep sea diving of space exploration.

As always, it’s important to carefully read your travel insurance plan document to understand the specifics of your benefits as well as the limitations and exclusions.

Recently, we talked about how your credit card travel insurance coverage doesn’t compare to what you can get with a true travel insurance plan. Here, let’s compare the costs of travel insurance against your credit card annual fees.

Here are just a few annual credit card fees:

• Discover Escape $60
• Citi ThankYou Premier $120
• Chase Sapphire $85
• American Express Gold $175

If a 46-year old spending a week in France wants travel insurance coverage with trip cancellation, they have a number of options, including these plans for example:

As we’ve noted in the past, it’s risky to view your credit card coverage as ‘better than nothing’. If you’re willing to shell out the bucks on a trip, why not protect that investment and guard against unexpected medical, evacuation, interruption, and other emergency expenses at the same time?

Take a look at our complete review of credit card travel insurance protection.

Of course, if you want the same travel protection all year long, consider looking into an annual travel insurance plan as an option too. The trip cancellation coverage is usually more limited, but you’ll have protection for accidents and injuries (even abroad, where your health insurance doesn’t extend), evacuation protection, trip interruption reimbursement, and more.

Not likely – at least not with the pilot program, which began this fall season.

Initially, the pilot test will only be available to limited numbers of U.S. citizens who are members of frequent fliers on these airlines:

• American Airlines
• Delta

And traveling out of these airports:

• Delta passengers – out of Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) airports
• AA passengers – out of Miami International (MIA) and Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) airports

In addition, participants in the Custom and Border Protection’s Trusted Traveler Programs, Global Entry, SENTRI, and NEXUS, will also be eligible.

If you’re not one of these groups, you won’t be eligible for the new program just yet.

Of course, the TSA is reminding everyone that this will be a work-in-progress and it’s important to remember that it is a pilot program that will be used to validate and update the program for wider reach. You can read Blogger Bob’s blog post on this topic as well.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a travel notice warning travelers of an epidemic strain of cholera in Haiti. A disease that is most often spread via contaminated food or drinking water, cholera is a potentially fatal bacterial infection causing severe dehydration.

This particular outbreak is of special concern because of the current health care conditions in Haiti, which have been strained by the January earthquake, recent flooding, and the large number of patients being treated.

Since the earthquake, the U.S. State Department has urged travelers to be cautious when choosing Haiti as a trip destination. Those who do travel to Haiti should pack their own supplies, including:

• water purification tables
• oral rehydration salts
• prescription antibiotics in case of diarrhea (an indicator of cholera infection)

Cholera Prevention

Travelers are also warned to follow these basic prevention steps:

1. Drink use only safe water – bottled water with unbroken seals, purified water, etc. Use only safe water for brushing teeth, cleaning food, washing dishes.
2. Wash hands often and thoroughly with soap and safe water. If no soap is available, use ash or sand to scrub hands and rinse with safe water.
3. Keep toilets and sinks very clean with bleach, soap and safe water.
4. Peel fruits and vegetables and and cook seafood until very hot all the way through.

What constitutes ‘safe water’?

It’s important for travelers to understand that water from piped water sources may not be safe. This includes drinks sold in cups and bags of ice as well.

To be sure water is safe:

• boil it
• treat it with water purification tablets
• treat it with bleach (8 drops of bleach for every gallon, or two drops for every liter of water) and wait at least 30 minutes before consuming or using it
• keep water covered in clean containers

In our current economy, with continued recession and high unemployment, employees may feel reluctant to take time off due to staggering workloads (all those workforce reductions) and job security fears. So much so, that employers are sometimes forced to push employees out the door on vacation in a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ scenario.

Luckily or not, it’s boundary between work time and personal time is now more porous than ever, a situation that is not likely to change and one that works in both directions. For example, while an employee may now check e-mail on their vacation time, they may also order their kids’ school supplies and clothing online at work. In the past, leaving on vacation was like turning off a light switch because there simply was no alternative; now, it’s more like dimming the lights because employees will slow their work efforts, but not entirely stop.

Trip Cancellations for Work Reasons

Of course, a traveler’s employment can also cause trip cancellations and it’s important for travelers to understand the covered reasons for trip cancellation in their travel insurance policy. Those reasons define when you can and cannot get your pre-paid trip costs back.

While the covered reasons in many travel insurance package plans varies, travelers can also add ‘Cancel for work reasons’ coverage to some plans to expand the base plan’s covered reasons for trip cancellation and covers situations when you are required to work for some business reason, including mergers, product recalls, bankruptcy, burglary, and more.

Let’s be very clear here: this coverage upgrade is not always necessary. Depending on the your travel insurance plan, the covered reasons for trip cancellation may provide coverage for some work reasons, including required to work, revoked leave, and military duty.

Protecting your trip dollars

If you are in a tight spot at work and want to protect your trip investment, take a minute to read through the covered reasons for trip cancellation in your travel insurance policy. If the reason you may have to cancel isn’t there, this may not be the policy for you.

You may also be interested in:

• Understanding the free look period
• Making changes to your policy
• Canceling your policy