Travel Insurance Review

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4 Things a Traveler Should Know About Changing their Insurance Policy

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Things a Traveler Should Know About Changing their Insurance PolicySo, what do you do if you’ve purchased your travel insurance policy and something about your trip changes?

It happens to lots of travelers, but it’s important to remember that you can make changes to your policy as long as they are made before you start the trip.

The most common changes made to travel insurance plans are:

  • Changing the departure and return dates
  • Increasing or decreasing the trip costs
  • Adding additional members to the policy
  • Adding additional coverages to the policy

In all cases, a call to the travel insurance provider is all that’s required to make such changes – be sure to have your policy number and the necessary changes on hand to make that process easier.

1. Some trip changes require a policy update

Why would you need to change to make changes to your travel insurance policy? Well, we’ll offer a few common examples:

  • You get a call from the cruise company offering you a great incentive to pay a little more and get an upgrade on your cabin. You decide to surprise your wife and buy the upgrade. Three months later, however, you have to cancel your trip because of a family illness, and you make a claim on your travel insurance policy. Without changing your travel insurance plan, you would only have access to the original amount you insured.
  • You and your wife are taking the kids to Cozumel and shortly before leaving, you find a super-saver fare and ask your parents to come along too. When you arrive, however, your father is very ill and rushed to a local hospital. If you didn’t update your travel insurance plan to include your parents – or have them purchase a separate plan – you won’t have coverage for his international travel medical bills or an emergency evacuation to receive medical treatment back in the States.
  • You’re doing further research on your all-inclusive resort trip and realize that it’s been a long time since you’ve been SCUBA diving. You decide to add a few afternoon SCUBA dives to your list of activities. If you don’t remember to check the policy and be sure adventure activities like SCUBA diving are covered, you will have no travel medical coverage for accidents that occur on your trip.

Travel insurance companies know that your trip will often evolve up until the time you leave. It’s important to keep them informed of the changes that affect the coverage in your policy to ensure that you avoid the common ‘loopholes’ that catch some travelers off guard.

2. Your premium may change a little – up or down

It might, depending on the changes you’re making. If you are increasing the trip costs or lengthening the trip dates, you may have to pay a slightly increase in the premium, but as we noted above – that small extra amount could save you a lot more should you have to cancel.

If the changes result in a lower premium, a refund will be issued.

Additional travelers can be added to some policies, but travel insurance providers typically require that travelers covered by the same travel insurance policy be related or reside at the same address.

3. The rules are slightly different with group plans

If the travel insurance policy is a group plan, most travel insurance providers require that all members of the group be covered for the plan to be in effect. That means each person in the group taking the same trip has to be listed and covered by the plan. If someone is left off the plan, the entire group’s coverage could be invalidated.

If, before departure, one or more people in the group can’t make it, call the travel insurance provider and make the necessary changes to the group travel insurance policy to make sure that the coverage you have on everyone else is valid and in effect when you need it.

4. Make your travel insurance plan changes early

In all cases you should make your travel insurance plan changes as soon as humanly possible. Every travel insurance policy comes with a free review period in which the insured traveler can read the policy, understand the exclusions, and make changes to the policy or cancel the plan for a refund (minus a small fee).

Of course, it’s best to get the trip details right when you’re first generating a quote and making your purchase, but we’re all human and mistakes and misunderstandings happen. But, you can’t make changes after you depart for your trip.

The key thing to remember is that a travel insurance policy is a legal agreement between you and the insurance provider. You agree to pay a premium and give them accurate trip details and they agree to the terms of their coverage. If you provide them with inaccurate trip information, they have every right to deny your claim.

What Travel Insurance Coverage Do I Need Just to Get By?

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What Travel Insurance Coverage Do I Need Just to Get By?We get this question a lot and it’s understandable. After all, travel is expensive enough and no one wants to pay for stuff they don’t need and/or can’t use. Even worse, we all hate paying for stuff that doesn’t work the way we thought it would. So, we thought we’d break down what coverage you need, when, and why.

Of course, the reason you buy any insurance coverage at all is to protect yourself from big financial losses. We’re not just talking the kind of losses that leave you bankrupt, however. We’re talking about coming back from what should have been a restful tropical vacation with $25,000 in credit card debt and no tan lines because that would really bite too.

So, let’s go over the typical list of travel insurance coverage and what you need and don’t need. In this case, we’re just going to be working with the big ones – the ones that could hit your bank account really hard.

1. Trip Cancellation

“Do I really need trip cancellation?” is an important question. After all, trip cancellation adds significantly to the cost of a basic travel medical plan and, after all, you probably have no plans to cancel your trip for any reason. Right?

So, what happens if:

  • You get into a car accident on your way to the airport and are hospitalized?
  • A hurricane destroys the cottage you rented for a week at the beach?
  • Your passport is stolen the day before you leave for a trip abroad?

You see, the thing about insurance is that it’s designed to protect you against what hasn’t happened yet. Sure, you didn’t plan to cancel your trip, but things you can’t control or predict do happen and if you can’t afford to lose all your pre-paid expenses, trip cancellation could be your very best friend.

To be perfectly fair, there are at least 3 trips where travel insurance probably isn’t necessary.

2. ‘Cancel for any reason’

If standard trip cancellation adds to the cost of travel insurance, you can bet that ‘cancel for any reason’ does as well so this is certainly one coverage to purchase only when it’s truly necessary.

So when is it truly necessary?

When your life has extenuating circumstances or you may have to cancel for a reason that’s not covered. For example, what if:

  • You’re a single parent taking a trip on your own and your child care arrangement comes undone?
  • Your target destination suddenly begins appearing on the news broadcasts as a place of rioting, political clashes, and strikes?
  • Your mother falls and breaks a hip and you need to care for her for a few weeks instead?

To know if you really need ‘cancel for any reason’ it’s important to think of your current situation and carefully review the covered reasons for standard trip cancellation. If everything in your life is covered by those standard covered reasons, you don’t need ‘cancel for any reason’, but if your life has extenuating circumstances, it couldn’t hurt to get a quote or two.

3. Medical/Dental

Here’s the real truth: your health insurance coverage may or may not cover you when you’re traveling – even if you’re traveling for business. Plus, Medicare does not cover seniors outside the U.S., although some Medicare Supplement plans offer seniors some emergency medical protection outside the U.S.

Another scoop? Medical care is expensive everywhere. Sure, it’s most expensive in the U.S. and Canada, but a broken wrist could cost you a big bundle in New Zealand or Australia too and if you don’t have travel medical, you could wind up paying for the X-rays, cast, bandaging, and drugs with your credit card.

Many hospitals require a certificate of travel medical coverage and a credit card before they’ll treat a foreigner beyond basic emergency care. To know if and what your health insurance will pay if you are hurt or ill outside your health insurance network, call your provider and ask a very specific question like this: “How much will you pay if I get food poisoning in Greece?” or “How much coverage will I have if I break a leg in Spain?”

Of course, you’ll want to insert your illness or injury concern and your destination, but you get the idea. If they say you won’t have coverage, then you need travel medical or a really big bank account. It’s a simple as that. If you or anyone else around you has a pre-existing medical condition, you’ll want to look into a waiver for that as well.

4. Trip Interruption

Much like ‘cancel for any reason’, the need for trip interruption does not universally apply to everyone. This coverage, however, is often bundled with trip cancellation plans and it’s often included in travel medical plans as well.

Just so we’re clear, trip interruption is coverage that pays for your unused trip costs and unexpected expenses if you have to end your trip and return home for a covered reason.

Trip interruption is useful in circumstances like these, for example:

  • You and your wife are traveling on an anniversary trip when you get a phone call in the dead of night – your daughter has been rushed to the hospital.
  • Your family is enjoying the Caribbean when a hurricane turns and heads for the island where you’re staying and evacuations are ordered.
  • Your family is having a great time in Disney World when you get word that your father has died.

In each of these cases, the traveler wants to abandon their trip and head home to handle the emergency there. Abandoning a trip prior to your scheduled departure can mean extra airfare and lodging, additional transportation and meals, and you could lose the remainder of your trip investment. Trip interruption coverage takes care of that, but you have to read and understand the covered reasons for trip interruption with your plan because you can’t leave a trip simply because you changed your mind or the weather was terrible.

5. Evacuation/Repatriation

This one’s kind of gruesome and no one likes to think about it, but several news stories this year alone underscore the need for this coverage if you travel outside the borders of your home country. Evacuation coverage provides for a medically necessary evacuation if you are injured and need treatment you can’t receive locally. Repatriation coverage provides for the return of your body if you die on a trip.

There are two things to understand about this coverage:

  1. It only covers you outside the border of your home country, and
  2. Evacuations are really expensive and difficult to coordinate!

This coverage isn’t just for trekkers climbing Mount Everest. It’s necessary and useful anytime you travel outside the range of your health insurance coverage. For example:

In each of these cases, the injured traveler was stuck in a foreign country as the costs for their medical treatment compounded while family and friends tried to raise the funds necessary to transport them in a medically equipped plane to a place where they could receive medical care within their health insurance network. These operations are expensive and difficult to coordinate, but a travel plan with this type of coverage have the resources to arrange and pay for an evacuation. They’ll also have the resources to navigate the complicated process of bringing a body back home, should the worst occur.

See our post on How Much Travel Medical and Evacuation is Enough? for more details.

6. Missed Connections

Missed connection coverage is really only useful to those on pre-arranged tours and cruises. In fact, many travel insurance plans limit this coverage to travelers taking a cruise. Here’s how it works:

  • You leave for your trip
  • Your first flight is delayed for hours and you miss your connecting flight
  • The cruise ship leaves without you

A ocean voyage on a cruise ship can be quite expensive, but so is a guided cycling tour of the wine country in Italy, or a historic river cruise down the Danube. Either way, you don’t want to be left with no options and no way to catch up to the trip that has already started.

Missed connection coverage provides reimbursement for the extra flights or flight change fees and other transportation necessary to catch up. It’s important to note that the reason for the missed connection has to be a covered reason and the covered reasons do not include missing your flight because you forgot to set the alarm. So, apply this coverage wisely.

7. Travel Delays

Travel delays happen for all sorts of reasons, but if you’re stuck in a place where the airline has no responsibility for your comfort, it can mean the difference between sleeping on the floor of the terminal or having a warm bed and a hot meal.

Travel delay coverage reimburses you a certain amount each day for basic expenses such as hotel rooms and meals if your trip is delayed for a covered reason. Remember, the airlines don’t have to pay a dime when the flights are cancelled because of an ice storm, but they’re also not required by law to compensate you for mechanical failure delays or scheduling delays.

Of course, there are a number of things you have to understand about this coverage, including:

  • A minimum delay is required
  • The per-day amount is limited and listed in the policy
  • The reason for the delay has to be a covered reason

Again, this is not a coverage that everyone needs. If you don’t have connecting flights or don’t mind if you’re stuck for hours in an airport, you probably don’t need travel delay coverage.

8. Lost or Delayed Baggage

Airline coverage for lost, stolen or damaged baggage is very limited but a traveler’s baggage risk isn’t isolated to the airlines. Your luggage and the contents held inside can be stolen from hotel rooms, or left behind on the dock, or destroyed by fire. Your bags could also be simply loaded onto the wrong plane, leaving you for days or even weeks without the stuff you packed for your trip.

As with any coverage, there are a number of things you must understand, including:

  • Each policy will have a maximum payout and a per-item limit
  • A claim for an item costing over a certain amount must be accompanied with a receipt
  • This coverage is secondary to what an airline or train operator will give you
  • There are many items that are not covered at all

Many travelers have similar baggage protection with their credit card travel plans, but it’s important to note that many of those plans have the same limits that a travel insurance plan will have. If you aren’t carrying expensive clothes and keeping your bags at your side at all times, this coverage may not be that useful to you.

See our full review of baggage coverage and baggage delay coverage for more details.

9. Car Rental Collision Coverage

If a traveler rents a car and gets into a traffic accident with that car, he or she better have rental car coverage to pay for the cost of repairs and the loss of use charges imposed by the rental car company. The cost of coverage at the rental counter is vastly higher than what you’d pay with any travel insurance plan.

Many travelers today have car rental coverage with their own auto plan or their credit card, so this is not a coverage that everyone needs. The key is knowing what protection you already have and balancing that coverage against your risk. Remember that your auto plan may not cover the charges imposed by the rental car company for the loss of use of a damaged vehicle. Also, none of these policies have personal liability protection.

See our full review of car rental collision coverage to decide if you need it or not.

10. Other Coverage

Most travel plans come with a whole list of other benefits like roadside assistance, concierge services, identity theft services, and more that can be useful in certain circumstances but are not as likely to hit your wallet in the violent the way the ones listed above could.

Still, having a travel assistance representative to call from anywhere in the world when you get into a jam can be a real blessing in certain situations. Having someone to call when your passport is stolen and you need to find the closest embassy so you can get home could be highly useful depending on your trip.

See the complete travel insurance coverage guide for other coverage options you may find useful in your travel insurance plan. And if you’re really curious, here are 9 Coverages that Might Surprise You.

Tips for Family Travel Insurance this Thanksgiving

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Insurance Tips for Family Travel this ThanksgivingAs many families are making their Thanksgiving travel plans now, we want to be sure you take a minute to explore your family travel insurance needs.

Many people think of travel insurance as only useful for those once-in-a-lifetime cruise or safari trips, but accidents happen everywhere and the worst thing you could experience this holiday weekend might not be indigestion.

These are the trips where you want to consider your travel insurance options:

If you’re traveling a really long way

Some people travel a really long way to be with family for Thanksgiving – so far that they travel outside their health insurance network. Most health insurance plans don’t cover their members outside the border of the U.S., and Medicare stops at the border too (although some Medicare supplement plans have a little travel medical coverage outside the U.S.).

If you’re traveling outside your health insurance network, know that any accident or illness will be covered at out-of-network rates which are much higher than in-network rates. If the entire family is stricken with salmonella, a group trip to the emergency room could mean a hefty hospital bill to pay later. A family of four can get as much as $25,000 in emergency travel medical coverage (per-person) for less than $50 – a great value for the money, and it includes $500,000 in medical evacuation (highly recommended if you’re traveling outside your home country).

If winter weather strikes

A weather-related travel delay is considered a free pass by the airlines. They have no responsibility for seeing that you’re comfortable and sheltered, only that you get on the next possible flight out.

If snowy winter weather strikes your Thanksgiving travel plans, travel delay coverage can help by reimbursing you for unexpected hotel rooms and meals (up to the daily limit) if your trip is delayed for a covered reason and the delay is a minimum number of hours. A hot shower and a hot meal beats camping on cold, dirty airport terminal floor any time. Some plans even cover the kids’ movie rentals!

If the parents/grandparents are coming to you

Call and verify your parents’ coverage if they are coming to you instead. Pre-existing medical conditions are defined as any medical condition – including changes in medication – that occur during the plan’s the look-back period.

So, if they have recently visited the doctor or had their medication changed, be sure their travel medical coverage waives the pre-existing medical condition exclusion. If they experience any medical problems on their visit, you want to be sure they won’t head home with a fat medical bill to pay.

If everyone comes down with the flu and you have to cancel

Add up the cost of your non-refundable airfare, lodging, and other pre-paid costs and decide if you can comfortably wave that money goodbye if you suddenly have to cancel your Thanksgiving travel plans. If one person in the family gets the flu, it’s likely that others will soon follow. Unless the illness is severe enough to warrant hospitalization or a doctor’s orders to stay home, you’ll need ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage to protect your trip costs.

A family of four spending $3,200 in non-refundable airfare and lodging to visit family during the holiday could cover those trip costs for just $146. That coverage includes trip interruption, travel medical, and a lot of other benefits as well.

If your bags get on a different plane

The Thanksgiving travel week is one of the busiest of the year and extra-busy people make mistakes. If your bags get routed onto a different plane than the one you’re traveling on, it could take days (or longer) for your clothes and personal items to catch up to you. You may collect them just in time to return home.

If that happens, you’ll need some cash to get some replacement items to get you through the trip. Baggage coverage and baggage delay coverage gives you a certain amount of cash (depending on the plan) to purchase the essentials. Just before the Christmas shopping season, that extra cash could be a welcome benefit.

If you’re delayed and Buster needs extra kennel time

Travel insurance plans don’t isolate their protection solely on your outbound travel but also when you’re coming home. If a flight cancellation and other delay extends your trip, your coverage extends for a limited amount of time to protect your return travel.

A few travel insurance plans even include extra benefits for pets. When their parent is delayed for a covered reason, reimbursement for extra kennel time is included.

If you decided to skip it all and go skiing instead

It’s important to note that many travel insurance providers consider skiing a high-risk sport and as such, your medical care isn’t covered if you’re skiing on your Thanksgiving trip unless you have the right protection. Again, that may not be an issue if your health insurance coverage is adequate, but it’s important to check.

A holiday trip to the emergency room is no fun at all, but it’s even less fun if it costs you a big bundle of your savings.

When not to buy travel insurance

We’ll be very honest with you – there are a number of trips where travel insurance just isn’t useful:

  • If you get a really cheap flight and are staying with family, then you don’t have that much money at risk
  • If you’re driving your family vehicle and have reservations that you can cancel at the last minute
  • If you used your frequent flier miles to book your flight, then you don’t have much money at risk

If you can afford to lose the little money you’ve spent and your medical emergencies are covered, then skip the insurance and have a great time!

If you decide to buy travel insurance, skip those quick purchase plans offered to you by the online travel suppliers. In nearly every case, the insurance is not what you’d expect and many, many consumers have been left paying for the costs they thought were covered simply because they didn’t take the time to review the plan. Buying your travel insurance from a third-party comparison site (like ours) is the best way to be sure you’ll have the coverage you need when you need it.

What’s the best travel insurance for a retreat?

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best travel insurance for a retreatA retreat, by definition, is an act of withdrawal often from what is difficult, dangerous or disagreeable and often to a place of privacy or safety. These days, people take retreats for all kinds of reasons: to heal, to practice yoga, to meditate, to learn something new.

So, what really can go wrong on a retreat? Well, lots of things.

A retreat is just like any other form of travel and accidents and illnesses happen anywhere and anytime they like. Travel insurance, like any other insurance plan, is insurance against financial losses due to unexpected events.

So before your next retreat, let’s review what can go wrong on a retreat and how your travel insurance plan can protect you, shall we?

You’re in a car accident on your way to a meditation retreat

Most retreat centers are aware that guests occasionally experience situations that simply cannot be predicted. Of course, a guest would prefer to cancel and receive a refund, so that’s why retreats run by experienced organizers are designed with clear cancellation policies.

Note: As a retreat guest, you should always review the cancellation policies to know your risk. Those cancellation policies should be clearly stated in writing and available for your review.

Most retreat hosts want to limit their loss of income due to last-minute cancellations and so they’ll try to fill the cancelled spot with another guest. If it’s too late for that to happen, however, the guest who cancels could lose hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in retreat costs.

A travel insurance plan with good trip cancellation coverage will reimburse a traveler for their pre-paid trip costs if the traveler cancels for a covered reason – even if they’re in a traffic accident on the way to their retreat.

You break your wrist on a cycling retreat

If your retreat is outside your health insurance network or outside the country, a visit to a local doctor or emergency room could cost you thousands of dollars. Most foreign hospitals require visitors from outside the country to hand over travel medical insurance documents and a credit card before they’ll do much treatment.

If your budget can’t withstand an unexpected trip to a foreign medical facility, travel medical insurance will not only foot the bill, but it will also treat you to a medical evacuation if your condition warrants it and medical treatment can’t be found nearby.

Your passport is stolen before or during your kayak retreat

If your passport is stolen right before an overseas retreat trip, you could lose all your nonrefundable trip costs. If it’s stolen while on your trip, you could face having to navigate a foreign language and try to get it replaced in time for you to meet your return flight home.

Many travel insurance plans cover trip cancellation if your passport is stolen before your trip and you can’t get it replaced in time. Travel insurance plans also come with 24/7 assistance services representatives who can help you replace a stolen passport or credit card so you can return home.

You arrived at your yoga retreat but your bags didn’t

While airports are continually improving their baggage statistics, there’s no shortage of thieves and bandits waiting to score an overstuffed piece of luggage. Your bag can be stolen from the baggage carousel as you navigate a foreign airport, but it can also be stolen from a taxi, slipped away from your side while waiting in line, or sliced open and pilfered on a train.

A travel insurance plan with adequate baggage coverage protects you by reimbursing you up to the plan limit for replacing necessary items, including the luggage itself. If your bag gets on the wrong plane and is delayed a few days, you’ll have some cash to purchase the essentials so you can start your retreat without worry.

You suddenly have to turn around and go home

Just because you got there safe and sound doesn’t mean that disasters can’t happen back home. Kids get sick, parents die, fires burn, so there’s always the risk of a frantic call in the middle of the night.

If you have to abandon your retreat to handle an emergency back home, you will lose not only your pre-paid retreat costs, which are now certain to be non-refundable, but also have to pay extra in airline change fees and other unexpected transportation costs.

A travel insurance plan with trip interruption coverage will reimburse you the unused portion of your pre-paid trip costs and help cover those unexpected airline and transportation costs to get you home in a hurry.

Your babysitter cancels on you

If your child’s babysitter calls and cancels on you, your retreat trip is cancelled by default. No travel insurance covers babysitters canceling, but ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage is designed for those instances where a trip cancellation isn’t covered under standard cancellation coverage rules.

While ‘cancel for any reason’ is nearly always an upgrade (and therefore costs a little more), if your life circumstances are not as predictable as you might like or you have extenuating circumstances (like an ill parent) that could affect your ability to take a retreat trip, it just might be the coverage you can’t go without.

Your surf retreat is the path of an oncoming hurricane

The full hurricane season for the Atlantic and Caribbean every year is June 1st to November 30 – that’s a really long time in which to have the potential of a hurricane wiping out your pre-paid retreat plans.

If your retreat is to be held where hurricanes are common or during peak hurricane months, then you could lose not only your pre-paid retreat costs, but also your non-refundable airfare and other trip costs if you have to cancel your trip to avoid a hurricane.

Even if your retreat isn’t in the path of a hurricane, the travel disruptions that can occur spread widely and you could lose some of your retreat time simply due to delayed travel.

What does Retreat Travel Insurance Cost?

As you might expect, the cost of a travel insurance plan varies based on a number of factors, including:

  • Where you’re going
  • Your age and health
  • How long you’ll be gone
  • Your trip activities

It’s important to note that the cost of travel insurance is affected by the coverage you choose, and trip cancellation, certainly ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage, adds to the cost of a travel insurance plan. Otherwise, a retreat traveler can purchase a simple travel medical insurance plan and pay a lot less.

Here are a couple of trip cost examples:

1. Yoga Retreat, Costa Rica
Trip details:

  • 1 traveler, 34 years old
  • 1 week trip
  • Pre-paid trip costs: $3,250
  • Trip cancellation included

Just $152-$169 buys:

  • ‘Cancel for any reason’ with 50-75% trip costs reimbursed
  • 100% trip cancellation
  • 150% trip interruption
  • $25,000-$100,000 emergency medical
  • $50,000-$500,000 medical evacuation
  • $600-$1,000 travel delay
  • $200-$400 baggage delay
  • $1,000-$2,000 baggage loss
  • and more

2. Surf Camp, Hawaii (no trip cancellation)
Trip details:

  • 1 traveler, 45 years old
  • 1 week trip
  • Pre-paid trip costs: $4,800
  • No trip cancellation

Just $19-$27 buys

  • $500 trip interruption
  • $10,000 emergency medical
  • $100,000 medical evacuation
  • $100-$200 baggage delay
  • $500-$750 baggage loss
  • and more

As always, we recommend that you use our travel insurance comparison tool and type in a few trip details to get price quotes from many reputable companies and choose the coverage options that work for you.

What Women Travelers Should Know about Travel Insurance

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What women travelers need to know about travel insuranceWherever you go in the world, there is always the risk of an accident, illness, theft or other crime. There are many reasons for women and men to take out travel insurance, but there are also some reasons travel insurance may be more important to a female traveler than a male traveler.

In general, there are two types of travel insurance:

  • Full-featured travel insurance package plans that bundle travel medical with trip cancellation, interruption, missed connections, and more.
  • Travel medical plans that are medically focused but often include some trip interruption but fewer of the full-featured benefits.

As a woman traveler, or someone who cares about a particular woman traveler, there are a number of things to understand about travel insurance.

Including what travel insurance will provide:

If your camera is stolen

Airline coverage for stolen items is limited, but the risk of theft is not limited to the airline staff. Bags can be stolen from taxi trunks, from your hotel room, even fall overboard off a ferry.

Baggage coverage provides replacement value with maximum limits for any single item – like electronics and cameras. In many cases, you’re better off covering expensive items like cameras with a rider on your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. Then, rely on the baggage coverage with your travel insurance plan to cover your bag, your shoes, your clothes, etc.

If you are injured or get sick

If you are injured or get sick while traveling, the right travel insurance plan will cover your medical treatment, emergency transportation, physician’s expenses, medications, and more. This coverage usually includes some coverage for emergency dental treatment as well.

Some travel insurance plans also include a benefit called ‘return of minor children’ that ensures your dependent children are returned safely home in the event you are hospitalized.

When you travel outside your health insurance network, you’ll wind up paying the higher out-of-network costs. Most health insurance plans do not cover treatment received outside the U.S. borders, so it’s important that you have travel medical insurance (by far the least expensive travel insurance) when you are visiting another country.

If someone else gets sick

If someone else gets sick, either before or during your trip, and you want to cancel your trip to be with that person, travel insurance will reimburse your unused prepaid non-refundable trip costs. That means if your son or daughter, spouse or parent gets sick, you can cancel or end your trip to be with them and still get your money back.

It’s important to note that the person who is sick must be a covered person as defined in the travel insurance description of coverage (unfortunately, best friends and beloved pets don’t count – you’ll need ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage in that case) and their illness must not have been caused by a pre-existing medical condition (unless you also purchased a waiver).

If you die – or someone else dies

If you die on your trip, the right travel insurance plan will ensure that your body is suitably transported back home – saving your family the hassle of navigating complicated foreign repatriation laws. Medical evacuation and repatriation coverage only kicks in when you are traveling outside your home country.

If someone else suddenly dies while you are traveling, and you want to return home, travel insurance provides trip interruption coverage which reimburses up to 150% of your unused trip costs and additional airfare if you have to end your trip.

Again, it’s important to note that the person who dies must be a covered person as defined in the travel insurance plan document.

If there’s a hurricane or other natural disaster

If there’s a hurricane or other natural disaster, a good travel insurance plan with coverage for natural disasters will allow you to cancel your trip and get your pre-paid trip expenses back (up to the policy limit) in the event your primary residence or travel destination is rendered uninhabitable by the disaster.

Travel insurance with natural disaster coverage will also help you with unexpected trip costs due to flight delays that result from the natural disaster.

Hurricanes and other natural disasters are not automatically covered by a travel insurance plan, however. You must read the plan document to understand the coverage for natural disasters and to understand the policy limits. For example, you won’t be able to cancel simply because the pool is ruined and the restaurants are closed – you’ll need ‘cancel for any reason’ in that case.

If you’re in a car crash

If you rent a vehicle on your trip and it’s damaged or stolen, the coverage you have from your own automobile policy may not provide for all the related costs, including ‘loss of use’ charges.

The right travel insurance plan will have car rental collision coverage included to cover the cost of repairs or replacement (up to the policy limit) for a rental car. Depending on your credit card trip protection benefits, however, you may do just as well relying on their benefits. Again, it’s important to consider the risks and read the benefit description to understand your coverage fully before you choose one over the other. Neither your travel insurance nor your credit card benefits will cover liability due to a traffic accident, so you could still be sued.

If you’re in a traffic accident en route to your scheduled departure, many travel insurance plans with trip cancellation coverage will reimburse your pre-paid trip costs if your claim is submitted with proper documentation.

If your flight is delayed

Flight delays come in all shapes and sizes: mechanical failures, flight operation delays, union strikes, weather, and more, but the airlines don’t give you a lot of perks when it comes to delays.

The right travel insurance plan will reimburse you a certain amount each day for basic expenses, including lodging and meals (sometimes even movie rentals for the kids) if your trip is delayed the minimum number of hours and for a covered reason.

If your passport is stolen

If your passport is stolen before your trip, you could lose all your non-refundable trip costs simply because you can’t get a replacement in time. Travel insurance can help you if your passport is stolen before your trip or during your trip.

File an official report that your passport was stolen and a good travel insurance plan with coverage for lost and stolen passports will reimburse your non-refundable trip costs. If your passport is lost or stolen while you’re traveling, the travel insurance assistance services will help you get it replaced and even re-pay the emergency processing fees.

If you’re attacked

If you are the victim of an assault occurring within ten days of your scheduled departure date and you want to cancel your trip, the right  travel insurance plan will fully refund your pre-paid trip costs.

If your travel insurance plan covers assaults prior to departure, it usually covers an assault that occurs during your trip. So, if you are assaulted on a trip and you want to return home immediately, your unused trip expenses will be covered as well as your additional airfare as long as assault is listed as a covered reason for trip cancellation/trip interruption in the plan document.

If you’re pregnant

In general, pregnancy is specifically excluded from all travel insurance coverage, but travelers can cover cancellations due to pregnancy. In addition, medical conditions that are defined as complications of pregnancy are covered as long as the plan has medical coverage that includes those as a covered event. See How Travel Insurance Covers Pregnancy for details.

The key to any insurance policy is reading the fine print and understanding your coverage. You’ll notice we use the term ‘for a covered reason’ a lot in this article. That’s because we know the covered reasons catch many travelers who assume their plan covers ‘everything’ by surprise. Only by reading the plan, and asking questions if necessary, can you be certain of your coverage.

Luckily, travel insurance plan documents aren’t too long or difficult to read and every travel insurance plan comes with a free review period during which you can modify or cancel the plan.

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Plan Document?

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Steps to Understand your Travel Insurance PlanIn the comments of this website, we often get complaints from travelers who believed they were covered for an event but found out later they weren’t.

  • They denied our claim because the departure date changed! I had no idea that was important.
  • I thought our cancellation would be covered for any reason, but I didn’t read the exclusions.
  • When he needed medical treatment, we thought it would be covered, but our claim was denied due to a pre-existing condition.

No more than you can assume your car insurance coverage will reimburse you for a particular event, you can’t assume that travel insurance will either. While car insurance is somewhat more standardized (at least in the States), travel insurance is a relatively new product in the insurance market. Plus, the risks of travel – the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. for example – are continually causing changes to travel insurance plans.

The situation is further complicated by a number of related products like cruise waiver plans, one-size-fits-all insurance you can buy when booking your flight, and credit card travel protection plans.

With all of these options, you have to read the fine print to know what you’re covered for because every plan is a little different. This is true no matter what type of travel protection you choose. In fact, you may be surprised to find:

  • Cruise line waivers won’t reimburse your non-cruise costs (like airfare) and they only issue a voucher for future travel instead of giving your money back.
  • Credit card travel protection has very few covered reasons for trip cancellation and severe limits on the maximum trip costs.
  • Travel protection purchased on booking sites doesn’t give you the time to review the plan before you buy it – after all, you’re trying to score a ticket price!

Instead of making assumptions and sticking our heads in the sand, let’s sit down and review the steps to understanding your travel insurance plan. These steps will apply no matter what travel protection you choose although we should warn you that most waiver plans and trip benefits won’t stand up to all the steps. Only a good travel insurance plan will.

6 Steps to Understanding your Travel Insurance Plan

Before we start, if you already purchased your travel insurance plan begin by checking the dates of your review period. All travel insurance plans come with a unique benefit – the free look period which starts when the plan is purchased and lasts between 10 and 15 days. During this period, you can review your plan, make changes, and even cancel it if it won’t work for you.

Now, assuming you haven’t bought your travel insurance or you are within the review period, let’s figure out how to tackle this plan document.

1. Check that you have the right document

The marketing brochure is nice, it may have been what prompted you to buy the travel insurance, but it’s not the actual plan document. You can read the plan’s description of coverage before you buy it (even on booking sites), so take a little time and find the right document.

If you already purchased your travel insurance online, the document will have been sent to you by email. If you purchased your plan with a travel agent or cruise line, they should have sent you the document to read.

2. Start with the high-level details

While all travel insurance plans are different, their documents follow a basic pattern that begins with stating the high-level details first. Often, this is displayed in a table like the following:

High level coverage details

This is the high-level overview of your coverage and the limits. Once you identify the most important coverage for your needs, you’ll want to review this list to be sure that it meets your minimum expectations. Notice that the coverage is per person.

3. Think about your risks

What are the risks on this particular trip at this particular time of your life?

  • Is someone dear to you fighting a chronic disease? If they’re hospitalized while you’re traveling and you want to return to be with them you’ll need to have a pre-existing condition waiver with your plan.
  • Are you traveling during hurricane season? Even if your travel destination isn’t directly affected, a hurricane can ground flights across many states and tie up travel traffic for days.
  • Do your travel plans include connecting flights? Many travelers book nonrefundable tickets to save money, but can be left in a bind if their first flight doesn’t arrive on time.
  • Will you participate in any high-risk activities? You may be surprised to find out that many travel insurance plans exclude activities travelers often participate in like skiing, diving, and whitewater rafting.
  • Determine how far you will be from adequate medical care. If you’ll be traveling far from good medical care or in a region where medical care is inadequate, you’ll want a good limit for evacuations.
  • Are you traveling to a region that’s considered high risk for political demonstrations, or earthquakes, or other risks? You’re going to want to verify your coverage will be viable in those instances.

4. Match your needs to the coverage and the limits

Given your identified risks, read the sections of the document that cover those risks and understand how the coverage will protect you in the event that risk presents itself.

  • If you have to cancel your trip to return to a loved one’s side, will you be able to recover all your pre-paid trip costs? If your trip is expensive, is the plan limit high enough?
  • If your vacation rental is destroyed by a hurricane the week before your trip, will you be able to recover those trip expenses? Is the plan limit high enough and are hurricanes specifically covered?
  • If you miss your connecting flight, what will the insurance plan provide in the way of alternative flights, meals, lodging, etc.?
  • If you go cut your foot while diving, will your travel medical coverage help you find and then pay for your emergency medical treatment? Is the medical coverage limit adequate for a real emergency?
  • If the streets are suddenly engulfed in a civil riot and tear gas is being fired, will your travel plan arrange for your safe passage out of danger? Is the evacuation limit high enough and are non-medical evacuations even covered at all?

5. Don’t panic if it’s not initially covered

Don’t initially panic if you read that something isn’t covered because while a travel insurance plan will have exclusions that are typical for all travel protection plans:

Many travel insurance plans also give a traveler options as optional riders that overcome the exclusions that most credit card plans and cruise waiver plans do not. This is one of the most important differences between those protection plans and a travel insurance plan.

You may have to read another section to find the optional coverage, and if it’s not there, remember that you can choose another plan or cancel the plan you’ve purchased and pick the right plan for your trip.

6. Do read the exclusions

Every travel insurance policy comes with a list of situations in which coverage is not valid – these are called the exclusions and it’s no different from your homeowner’s plan or your automobile plan (they have exclusions too).

See What Travel Insurance Does Not Cover for a detailed explanation.

Study the exclusions and you’ll have a much better understanding of what events are not covered ahead of time – fewer surprises later. Still got questions? Call the travel assistance services line and ask very specific questions about the coverage.

See? Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

8 Risks of Alumni Travel and 5 Steps to Prepare for an Alumni Trip

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8 Risks of Alumni Travel and 5 Steps to PrepareMany university alumni associations sponsor trips for their alumni members – for the purpose of staying in touch after graduation, networking, etc.

Some trips have a special purpose. For example, some alumni travel as a group to volunteer, to learn, to gain a new skill, or to learn a new language.

Of course, many alumni trips are simply about connecting and having fun.

8 Risks Common to Alumni Travel

Any arranged trip (like an alumni trip) comes with the rewards and risks typical of any type of travel, and traveling alumni should research and buy their travel insurance before they go.

The following are the risks specific to many alumni trips:

  1. You might have to cancel the trip. If a friend or family member gets sick, or a pet dies, or your house is destroyed by a hurricane, will you lose all your prepaid trip expenses?
  2. Your flight could be delayed or cancelled. If you miss your alumni cruise departure due to a cancelled or delayed flight, the airline isn’t going to be sympathetic or helpful.
  3. You’re suddenly very concerned about the potential for a terrorist attack on your trip. Can you cancel your trip without losing all the money you’ve already spent?
  4. A hurricane destroys the destination where your alumni gathering was to be held. Will you be able to make alternative arrangements and get a refund for the money you will lose?
  5. Your wife is severely ill with food poisoning and you have to get her to a local doctor – and fast. Will you be able to find a suitable medical facility nearby? If not, can you get her evacuated to where she can receive treatment? How will you pay for that treatment?
  6. Your house is robbed just days before you’re to leave and your passport is stolen. Will you lose your overseas trip costs because you can’t get a replacement passport in time?
  7. You get on a flight to Rome for a month of Italian-language practice, but your bags are mysteriously routed to Russia instead. Will you have plenty of cash to replace necessary items until your bags can find you again?
  8. You meet your fellow alumni at the door of a tour group in Greece, but the door is closed and locked – gone out of business due to economic conditions. Will you be able to recover the money you spent?

In each of the cases above, the right travel insurance plan would save the traveler time, frustration, and money. Plus, you’ll have an emergency assistance services team on hand to help you recover nonrefundable expenses, find local medical care, arrange for an evacuation, and help you with translations.

Don’t alumni trips include travel insurance?

Some do and some don’t.

While many alumni associations do offer travel insurance with their trip packages, but most of those plans are one-size-fits-all plans that may exclude a particular traveler for a number of reasons, including:

  • pre-existing medical condition
  • participation in a ‘hazardous’ activity
  • cancellation reason that’s not covered

Of course, the traveler won’t know they’re excluded from the coverage unless they read the policy details or find out the hard way (as in, after a claim is filed and it’s too late to do anything about it).

In many cases, the alumni association will suggest a particular travel insurance company with which they have a relationship, but they still place the burden of researching and understanding what coverage is necessary on the traveler. If you’re going to do all that work anyway, you might as well get the best price for your coverage, don’t you agree?

5 Steps to Prepare for your next Alumni Trip

See the following steps to prepare for your next alumni trip:

  1. Find out if the alumni trip includes travel insurance. If it does, get a copy of the plan document and read it carefully. Got questions? Contact the insurance provider and ask them. If the coverage won’t work for your needs, you’ll want to know that before you get in a tight spot.
  2. Understand the health and safety risks for your trip. For example, you may have to fight malaria on a trip to South Africa, but your primary risk in Egypt could be terrorism. See the U.S. State Department’s country-specific travel safety information for your destination to understand the health and safety risks before you go.
  3. Determine how much travel medical and evacuation is enough you need for this trip. The cost of emergency medical care and transportation is determined by a limited set of factors, but with a little information you can determine how much you’ll need to be safe where you’re going.
  4. Decide whether you need trip cancellation coverage. Most travelers don’t plan a trip thinking that they’ll have to cancel, but all kinds of disastrous events can force you to change your mind – or worse, to abandon your trip to handle an emergency. See the covered reasons for trip cancellation and trip interruption and determine whether you want 100% reimburses for your prepaid nonrefundable trip costs should you have to cancel your trip.
  5. Buy adequate travel insurance. Many tour operators are starting to require their guests to have travel insurance, but most don’t have the skill or knowledge to help a traveler choose the right plan. This is because every traveler and every trip is unique. See our Travel Insurance 101 to better understand how to choose a plan for your trip, then use our tool to compare quotes from many travel insurance companies.

Even if your alumni trip comes with a standard trip insurance plan, the alumni association won’t be the ones to pay for your costs if you get into trouble and your alumni friends shouldn’t have to either.

Surviving a Flu Pandemic and 6 Steps to Prepare for Flu Season Travel

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Steps to Prepare for Flu Season TravelUnfortunately, like many other natural disasters, a flu pandemic is impossible to accurately predict although there are some warning signs we can all pay attention to – including the fact that the WHO and others are closely watching the H5N1 flu virus strain for its potential to mutate into a human-to-human transmissible disease.

Travelers who could be caught in a pandemic include:

  • Private U.S. citizens residing abroad
  • U.S. citizens working overseas
  • Students studying abroad
  • Even short-term visitors and tourists

Understanding what happens in a pandemic and knowing your options is critical to surviving. First, we’ll start with some facts.

The type of flu matters

Seasonal flu (the common flu) season occurs every year. Seasonal flu causes headaches, fever, sore throat, coughing and exhaustion for most patients, and it’s easily spread from person-to-person through contact with respiratory droplets. Infected people sneeze and cough, releasing droplets in the air, and others get sick by breathing those droplets in or by touching their eyes, noses, or mouths after touching surfaces contaminated with the droplets. This flu is easily prevented by getting an annual vaccine.

On the other hand, pandemic influenza or pandemic flu is a worldwide outbreak of the flu caused by a new flu virus to which humans have little or no immunity. Because the flu virus is highly adaptive, experts believe that a flu pandemic is very likely to occur in the future. A pandemic flu virus would be spread just as easily and could cause a large number of people to get ill and die. The relatively recent avian flu outbreaks in Southeast Asia remain largely contained geographically and limited in scope, but if the virus were to mutate into a fully transmissible human pandemic virus, it would spread worldwide and affect all populations.

Flu pandemics are recurring events

On average, a pandemic has occurred every 30-40 years over the last 400. During the 20th century, there were three flu pandemics:

  1. 1918 causing approximately 40 million deaths
  2. 1957 causing over two million deaths
  3. 1968 causing approximately one million deaths

Public health experts estimate that should a flu pandemic occur, 90 million people in the U.S. alone will become ill and over 200,000 may die as a result of a moderate pandemic flu scenario. If you’ve seen the movie Contagion by Warner Brothers, you have a pretty good idea of how quickly the abrupt surge in illness and death can overwhelm health services and cause significant social disruption and economic loss.

The national flu pandemic response strategy

The national response strategy to a flu pandemic has been fully documented by the Department of Homeland Security. Strategic actions to be implemented upon confirmation of the first human outbreak include such actions as:

  1. Implementing screening mechanisms to limit the spread of a pandemic flu
  2. Restricting travel to and from travel from the affected areas
  3. Diverting inbound international flights with suspected pandemic flu cases
  4. Closing the borders between countries entirely

In addition, the federal government’s ability to respond to lend aid to U.S. citizens who are living and traveling abroad in the event of a pandemic may be limited because travel into and out of an affected country may not be possible, safe or medically advisable.

What occurs during a pandemic

During a pandemic, the following is likely occur:

  1. Social disruption could be widespread – this includes services provided by hospitals, banks, stores restaurants, hotels, and more. In addition, those services that remain open may raise their prices sharply.
  2. Being able to work could be difficult – businesses may close to halt the spread of the disease, and those affected may have to work from home, use paid leave, or plan for the potential loss of income.
  3. Schools may be closed for an extended period of time – if the schools are closed, those affected will have to arrange alternative childcare or stay home with their children.
  4. Public transportation services may be disrupted – not only because there is a shortage of workers, but also to quarantine affected areas and stop the spread of the disease.

If you’re traveling outside the U.S. this means that you may not be able to get back home; ditto for those who are traveling inside the U.S. and reside abroad. If you are traveling, you may have to be prepared to stay longer than you originally planned even though services where you are could be severely limited and prices could be difficult to afford.

6 Steps to prepare for flu season travel

Travelers heading out during flu season should use the following steps to prepare for their trip:

  1. Check the health risks for your destination before you plan your travel.
  2. Purchase your travel insurance early to have the longest possible cancellation window.
  3. Read your plan carefully to understand what it covers (and what it doesn’t).
  4. Pack antivirals in your emergency travel medical kit.
  5. Stay connected on your trip – keep up with the news and stay in touch with family (they’ll likely know more about what’s going on than you do).
  6. Know how to find local medicare on your trip.

See our facts about travel insurance and the flu.

Additional sources of information:

Top 10 Items Stolen from Rental Cars

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Top 10 Items Stolen from Rental CarsGetting robbed while you’re traveling is not only a hassle, it can leave a traveler feeling jittery, suspicious, and apprehensive.

Whether you’re on a business trip or a vacation, having to stop and make a police report, call the rental car company and your travel insurance provider, then replace the items that were stolen from your rental car can be even more time-consuming and daunting simply because the area is unfamiliar.

If you’re in a foreign country, the local rules and unfamiliar language may be additional barriers that make the process more difficult.

While the first and most obvious rule is to do everything you can to prevent rental car break-ins and theft, knowing the most popular items to steal from a rental car can make it easier to know what to leave at home or lock in your suitcase at the hotel and what you can safely take with you.

Top 10 Items Stolen from Rental Cars

Recently, a few insurance companies released lists of which items thieves most prefer to steal from cars, including rental cars.

The top items stolen from cars include:

  1. GPS devices – portable GPS devices are useful when traveling in unfamiliar territory, but even if you put the device itself in your bag or hide it in the car, the mounting device left in the open (or the imprint of the suction cup) can be reason enough to break into the car.
  2. Laptops – again, even if you store the laptop in a nondescript bag and carefully hide it under the seat, a strap or power cable left in the open can clue a thief in to it’s presence and inspire them to break into the car.
  3. Car stereos – most rental cars don’t have fancy car stereo systems, but stereos remain one of the most often stolen items from any car because they’re quick and easy to de-install and they’re easy to resell.
  4. Portable entertainment – lots of families with young children rely on portable entertainment like game devices and DVD players to keep kids quiet on a trip. These devices are also easy to carry and easy to resell, which explains why  thieves like them too.
  5. Music players – most people don’t carry a lot of CDs along with them anymore, but they will carry their entire music collection on an MP3 player or iPod. A pre-loaded music player is a tasty treat for thieves.
  6. Wallets and purses – we can’t stress this enough, but never store your wallet or purse in the car – keep it with you. Even a closed glove compartment is a hint to thieves that something may be stored in there, and locked glove compartments are very simple to break open with a knife or screwdriver.
  7. Cell phones – cell phones, especially smartphones, are easy targets for thieves. These days, however, your phone may have a lot more on it than just a bunch of numbers to call. If you do mobile banking or access email, for example, an enterprising thief now has access to that information.
  8. Cameras – again, these are highly portable, highly re-sellable items that can be converted to quick and easy cash by an enterprising thief.
  9. Coats and clothing – oddly enough these items are very tempting to thieves, and not for their resale value (which is likely not much). Coats and outer clothing left unattended in a car is valuable not for itself, but for what items may be left in the pockets. Things like keys, money, identification, etc. are often left in pockets and these are valuable tickets to greater rewards.
  10. Bags of new purchases – shopping bags filled with purchases or souvenirs are especially tempting to thieves because the items are new and they can be resold quickly.

What can you do to protect yourself?

As an insured traveler, you have a few options to protect yourself from financial losses that result from items being stolen from your rental car. Unfortunately, however, neither the rental car coverage with your travel insurance plan nor your credit card travel protection will reimburse you for the loss of personal items stolen from a rental car.

Car rental collision coverage reimburses you for the cost of repairs if your rental car is broken into, but it does not cover items inside the vehicle. See our review of car rental coverage for further details.

There are, however, some alternatives for travelers seeking some protection from financial losses due to stolen items:

  • Your baggage coverage will reimburse you for the value of stolen baggage and personal effects anywhere you are during your trip. If your stuff is stolen from a rental car, you’ll have coverage up to the policy limit to get replacement stuff. See our review of baggage coverage for full details.
  • Your homeowner’s or special articles policy back home is another option for special articles like electronic gadgets, computers, and cameras. Most homeowner or rental policies allow you to schedule items worth a minimum value on your homeowner’s policy. The best thing about this coverage is that it doesn’t have a lot of exclusions.

The Pros and Cons of Missed Connection Coverage

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Pros and Cons of Missed Connection CoverageMany travel packages include a range of non-refundable clauses, and the airlines have limited responsibility to compensate travelers who experience a missed connection. (See our FAQ on how travel insurance covers missed connections.)

As hotels look to further trim their costs, they’ve created additional restrictions for travelers by allowing online booking sites to fill up the rooms in their hotels – but only with non-refundable reservations.

When a traveler misses a portion of their trip due to a missed connection through no fault of their own, what options do they have? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of missed connection coverage to understand this little-known benefit a little better.

We’ll start with a definition: missed connection coverage reimburses an insured traveler for flight change fees and unexpected transportation costs in the event of a missed connection due to a carrier delay or bad weather.

Pro #1 – Get reimbursed for non-refundable trip costs

Let’s say you are on a flight that will make a stopover before heading on to your final destination. That stopover – originally less than two hours – turns into an overnight ordeal as a snowstorm grounds all flights.

Eventually, you get to your destination, but in the meantime, you lost two nights of non-refundable lodging and a prepaid evening show.

Depending on the travel insurance plan, missed connection coverage reimburses the insured (up to the limit) for prepaid, non-refundable trip costs for the unused portion of your trip.

Pro #2 – Get reimbursed for unexpected transportation costs

Let’s say you’re on a flight that has to make an emergency landing due to equipment malfunction. While you are waiting and the airline works to get an alternate plane to pick up the passengers and take everyone to their intended destinations, your cruise ship leaves the dock without you.

Instead of being out thousands of dollars in cruise costs, travel insurance will reimburse you (up to the plan limit) for the unexpected transportation costs (usually air and/or water) so you can catch up to your cruise in the next port.

Con #1 – Some plans limit missed connection benefits to cruises

Some travel insurance plans limit their missed connection coverage only to missed cruise departures, so travelers who are not taking a cruise, but lose a portion of their trip due to a missed connection are simply out of luck.

Con #2 – There are other restrictions to missed connection coverage

As with all insurance coverage, there are limits and restrictions to understand, so it pays to read the description of coverage carefully. In the case of missed connection coverage, here are the key points to note:

  • The reason for your missed connection must be a covered reason. For example, you can’t wander into a comfortable lounge during a layover, fall asleep and expect to have travel insurance pay up when you miss your next flight.
  • You must allow enough time in your planned itinerary to reach your next flight or cruise.
  • Any refunds you receive from other suppliers, such as the airline, will be deducted from your claim benefit.
  • The benefits received as a result of a missed connection claim can’t duplicate those provided by travel delay coverage.
  • The benefit amount for a missed connection is limited by the plan’s definition.
  • The missed connection is determined by the number of hours you are delayed as defined in the plan.

Missed connections are no fun and they put a traveler in a really tough spot, so avoiding them is ideal. The best way to protect yourself from having to endure a missed connection? Allow plenty of time in your itinerary and don’t book tight connections.

See our full review of missed connection coverage for more details.