One traveler recently found her Vail, Colorado trip with family significantly derailed due to a scratched cornea. A trip to the emergency room and she was required to lie quietly and rest with a patch over her injured eye. Luckily, she purchased travel insurance and her trip to the ER didn’t cost her a bundle.

A growing number of families are looking at travel differently these days. Given the recent economy, many families have had to eliminate travel in favor of ‘staycations’ at home. Sharply rising gas prices have done little to ease the pain or allow people to substitute road trips for vacations involving air travel.

Even if you are traveling in the U.S. and have a health plan, you’re likely traveling out of your health insurance network area. So even a minor injury or illness can run a small fortune in costs you weren’t planning to spend on your vacation.

According to the U.S. Travel Insurance Association (USTIA), more than 120 million people insured themselves against travel-related losses last year. This number is up a whopping 35% over past years. It’s easy to see why as family budgets get tighter, jobs are scarce, and the cost of just about everything is rising. Travel insurance isn’t free, but it’s helped a number of travelers defray what would otherwise be very high and unexpected expenses resulting from a wide variety of sticky and uncomfortable situations.

 

Travel suppliers don’t always have their passengers’ best interests at heart. They are, after all, trying to make a business work in a time when travel can sometimes be problematic. One case in point: this recent story of a senior couple who booked travel into Egypt before the latest unrest began. While their travel supplier canceled some tours and refunded guests, later tours were deemed safe by their contacts in Egypt.

The news reports, however, were providing a different story and the U.S. State Department was warning citizens to defer all non essential travel to Egypt.

What’s a nervous traveler to do when their travel supplier leaves them high and dry by refusing to cancel and refund the travel costs? Purchasing travel insurance coverage that included trip cancellation coverage that included terrorism or mandatory evacuations as a covered reason for canceling a trip would have helped this couple.

In all likelihood, having ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage would have been the best coverage because they could cancel their trip for a refund even if the travel supplier wants to go forward with the trip.  This coverage must be purchased soon after making your initial trip deposit and in some situations (like this one), it can be worth every penny.

A recent post on the TripAdvisor Punta Cana forum, ‘Trip Insurance saved us last week!‘, points out where travel insurance can make a big difference.

The short version of their story is that their flight back home from a Punta Cana resort was delayed over 4 hours, causing them to miss their connection even if the flight left at the new departure time. They called their travel agent who worked with the travel insurance assistance services and were quickly re-booked on the same flight the next day. The trip insurance covered travel delays up to $200 per person, per night, nearly covering the entire cost of an extra day basking in paradise.

For the Chicago traveler, the trip insurance was well worth the extra money.

Luckily, this couple had an extra day to spare before they had to return to their lives at home. They later found that their original flight was delayed even further and then the flight was canceled entirely, so all those who went to the airport wasted a day waiting and were still out of luck.

The travel world has recently been rocked by a number of global events – both natural disasters and political action – which makes the point that families planning on Easter travel should consider travel insurance plans that protect their holiday travel.

Just a few recent examples:

• Travelers stranded or delayed by the recent Southwest Airlines’ struggles could have had help from their travel insurance company if they purchased travel insurance ahead of the event.
• British Airways is considering possible strike action, but travelers can still purchase travel insurance prior to the strike date announcement.
• Prices for travel insurance may be going up due to recent payouts due to a world in crisis and multiple natural disasters. Experts recommend travelers purchase their travel insurance early and consider multi-trip plans or annual plans, where appropriate, to take advantage of today’s prices.

Families traveling with children this Easter holiday – even if traveling to see family members in other states – need to consider the value of coverage for travel situations like:

1. Missed connections, which can be caused by severe weather, labor strikes, and overbooking. Review the information about missed connections and what the airline won’t provide.
2. Travel delays, which can be caused by weather, flight operation problems, and strikes. Take a look at the information on travel delays to understand what it covers.

Families on the go should think about the many travel situations that can put a damper on holiday fun and make travel far more difficult than it should be. See the complete guide to travel insurance coverage for more information.

 

With political revolutions in North Africa and across the Middle East, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and more, travelers across the globe are looking into purchasing their travel insurance plans early. Not only because most plans require you to purchase your plan soon after making your initial trip payment, but also due to recent payouts and the potential for rising costs.

Due to payouts from multinational companies required to cover the losses due to the latest round of disasters and bad weather this past winder, prices of travel insurance products you may need to cover your vacation in the coming months may go higher.

Consider buying an annual plan at today’s prices

Under annual travel insurance plans, multiple trips are covered with the same benefits without having to have your travel plans locked down tight. You’ll be covered for the next year for any trips you want take.

In addition, multi-trip plans are available in many duration periods, so if you only want to cover the coming summer travel months, you’ll be set.

 

National Passport Day in the U.S. is this Saturday, April 9th. On that day, passport agencies in 26 cities will be accepting passport applications without an appointment.

The travel website of the U.S. Department of State has a load of information available for first-time appliers and those who need to renew their passport in advance of the summer travel season.

See the Travel.State.Gov website for information and download a passport form.

• Applying
• Renewing a passport
• Processing times
• Fees
• Photo Requirements
• Getting a passport quickly
• Passport card info
• and more.

Check out the link, double-check your passport expiration date (if you’ve got one already), and get ready to travel!

When thousands of Britons could not get out of Libya recently due to holes in their holiday travel insurance coverage, they realized that war effectively nullifies their coverage. Many travel insurance plans include exclusions similar to the following:

This plan does not cover any loss caused by or resulting from war or act of war, whether declared or not, civil disorder, riot, or insurrection.

Therefore, it’s vital that those purchasing travel insurance plans understand their policies and what is (and is not) covered.

How Travel Insurance Covers War, Civil Disorder, and Unrest

Travel insurance plans cover travelers for war, civil disorder, and political unrest by allowing travelers to cancel their trip if they have ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage.

Some plans allow for non medical evacuations that include social upheaval as a covered reason for evacuation, but it’s important to understand your policy limits and exclusions. See a list of plans offering non medical evacuations.

Important notes

1. If political unrest is not listed as a covered reason for a non medical evacuation, you won’t have coverage.
2. All evacuation arrangements must be arranged and coordinated by the travel insurance provider’s assistance services for coverage to apply.

 

While thousands of employees and crew have voted in favor of a series of well-timed British Airways strikes (potentially over the coming Easter holidays), the union has yet to set the strike dates. This means that passengers worried about being stranded as a result of flight delays or cancellations still have time to purchase travel insurance to protect themselves. Once the strike dates are announced, the strike is no longer an unforeseen event and it cannot be covered.

One report indicates that the British Airways strike action must take place between April 4th and the 25th. Travelers are encouraged to purchase travel insurance that specifically allows for strike action as a covered reason for claims including travel delays and trip cancellations.

Key points to understand

1. If the travel insurance policy does not include strikes as a covered reason, you will not have coverage for potential losses should their flight or travel plans be disrupted.
2. If you purchase the travel insurance policy after the strikes are announced, you will not have coverage for losses the occur as a result of the strike action.

Important note

British Airways has indicated it will update customers whose flights are affected using the methods of contact provided by the customers. This includes sending notices via e-mail, SMS, or phone. It’s vital that customers verify their contact information is updated in their booking details if they are to receive those notices.