Many women travel just fine while they are pregnant, but it’s important to note that travel insurance plans do not provide trip cancellation coverage just because you are pregnant. In fact, pregnancy is generally excluded from all travel insurance coverage, which means they will not cover any loss due to pregnancy or complications of pregnancy.

Alternatively, Travel Insured International extends some aspects of cancellation coverage for a traveler’s, or traveler’s companion’s, pregnancy as long as the pregnancy occurred after the policy was purchased.

‘Cancel for any reason’ as your backup plan

If you are planning to get pregnant and are worried that you might not be able to travel because of a pregnancy, then consider ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage which will allow you to cancel your trip and get up to 100% of your money back if you, in essence, change your mind about the trip and decide not to go.

‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage will protect your trip investment, so if you become pregnant and decide to forgo your trip, you can get some or all of your money back.

Call with questions

As always, if you have any questions about your travel insurance policy, use the review period and contact the travel insurance company with questions. You can cancel your travel insurance policy during the review period if you find out it won’t provide the coverage you need. See the 24/7 assistance services numbers.

Recently, there seems to be a lot of confusion around making claims on travel insurance policies and pre-existing conditions – even Peter Greenberg felt compelled to write about it. We’d like to take a moment to clear up some confusion and point you to our resources.

If you’re worried about your bags being stolen or lost by the airline, you’re not alone. The amount of baggage lost at airports spiked significantly last year, thanks in no small part to a string of natural disasters and flight disruptions. News stories of bags being stolen from the baggage claim carousels are further cause for concern.

While the airlines report they recover nearly all the bags that are reported missing, that’s small comfort to those who’ve had their travel plans affected.

The following tips will help you protect your bags:

1. Don’t check your bags unless you have to. Sure, the space in those overhead bins is tight, but if you are a light packer and can carry your bag on the flight, you can keep an eye on it. Plus, you won’t have to pay those annoying bag fees imposed by many airlines.
2. Keep your valuables with you. The airlines don’t compensate you for the loss of many items, including laptops, valuable documents, cameras and more.
3. If you check your bags, don’t dally after you disembark. Trot right over to the baggage claim to be there as soon as the bags start rolling off. That way, you can snag your bag before a thief does.
4. Buy the loudest, most colorful bag you can find. Why? Criminals go for the common bags because they don’t want attention drawn to themselves. Just about everyone in the airport has a plain black bag, right? So, how are you going to stop someone from walking off with yours?
5. Travel with cheap luggage. Designer bags are often worth more than the stuff packed inside, but a $700 bag is a pretty good clue there may be pricey items inside too.

Travel insurance with baggage protections provides better coverage than what the airlines will offer if they lose your bag. Plus, you’ll have coverage for unexpected costs if your bag is delayed a day or two – something the airlines are not required to do.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced an updated set of airline passenger regulations that will go into effect in August of 2011. The intent of these rules is to build out the few passenger protections established in December of 2009.

1. Airlines will now be required to refund baggage fees if the bag is lost. This seemed like a no-brainer to us, but apparently it wasn’t required before.
2. Airlines will now be required to prominently disclose all potential fees, including fees for baggage, meals, cancelling or changing reservations, and upgraded seating. What’s changed? The airlines were previously not required to include government taxes and fees in their fare quotes.
3. Airline compensation to passengers who are bumped off oversold flights is now increased. See what the airlines owe you now. What’s changed? Bumped passengers who are subjected to short delays (arriving within 1-2 hours of their original arrival for domestic flights and 1-4 hours for international flights) are entitled to double the price of their tickets up to $650; passengers subjected to longer delays will receive reimbursement of four times the price of their tickets up to $1,300. Inflationary adjustments every two years are also built into the rules.
4. Non U.S. airlines are required to limit lengthy tarmac delays. The ruling established a hard four-hour time limit on tarmac delays for international flights of U.S. and foreign airlines (with some exceptions for safety, security or air traffic control reasons). What’s changed? The tarmac ruling previously applied only to U.S. carriers. It’s now expanded to foreign airlines operating in the U.S.

This story recently caught our eye: A Cheap Broad’s Travel Tips: A Cautionary Tale by Barbara Rice. It describes a woman’s struggle getting her credit card accounts secured after being robbed of her wallet on the Eiffel Tower.

Tourists are easy marks for thieves who have lots of practice and know the area. They’re not just scouting for cash either – that’s easy. The market for stolen credit card numbers is big business in the age of the Internet. Stolen credit card numbers are quickly sold to other countries and thousands in purchases can be piled up over the Internet in mere seconds – often before the traveler even knows it’s missing.

The above-mentioned article describes how best to be prepared if and when a thief strikes, and this is valuable travel information. Some of the tips are familiar to most travelers. Specifically:

• don’t wear expensive jewelry when traveling
• keep wallets in deep pockets, not in shallow pants pockets
• even better, keep your wallet in a zippered compartment and keep the zipper zipped
• when you withdraw money from an ATM, block the view of your transaction with your body or have your traveling companion stand with you to watch for those who may be taking too much interest in what you’re doing

Additionally, travelers should have the 24-hour global assistance numbers of their credit card and bank card accounts. Each major credit card company and bank has a hot-line if you have to call from outside the U.S., and if you also have your account numbers, they can put a lock on those accounts and often re-issue new cards and have them sent to you.

In short, we found the list of tips at the end of this particular article useful. Of course, our recent post on Tips for Safe Summer Travel mentions some of the same tips, but you can never be too careful about your wallet at home or on the road. In addition to being smart and careful while you travel, some travel insurance plans provide identity theft services, which can help when your identity has been stolen, and passport/credit card services for replacement documents and emergency cash.

A retired Canadian couple, George and Margaret Garbutts, from Calgary recently visiting Arizona for the winter found their travel insurance plan didn’t help them when they needed it and they warn others to carefully review and understand their travel insurance policies.

The issue occurred when George experienced a medical emergency: an emergency appendix surgery at Yuma hospital and the requisite hospital bill (almost $28,000) that followed. The couple thought their travel insurance policy would take care of their medical bills but because George had been treated for an undisclosed pre-existing condition, the insurance company was not liable to cover the medical costs.

Even pre-existing conditions that have nothing to do with the medical emergency can cause your medical coverage to be invalid. This includes even minor pre-existing conditions, which is what George and Margaret discovered. George has been prescribed an inhaler after an X-ray to rule out heart disease indicated he had lung disease.

Now, while this story affects a Canadian couple and (presumably) involves a Canadian insurance company, the rules are true for American travelers as well. Travel insurance plans have an automatic exclusion for pre-existing conditions, which means they do not cover costs related to a pre-existing condition. If you’ve had a medical problem or been treated for a medical condition during the insurance plan’s look-back period, then it’s important to disclose that fact when you make your travel insurance purchase if you are to ensure that your travel policy will cover medical problems on your trip.

See our explanation of look-back periods and pre-existing condition waivers for a better understanding of what you need to know prior to purchasing your travel insurance plan.

Many Americans who have avoided travel over the past few years are showing more willingness to travel this year. If you haven’t traveled in some time, take a few minutes to update yourself on what’s changed in travel lately.

Check the rules – they’ve changed

Travel between the U.S. and our border countries – Canada and Mexico – is different since changes were enacted due to concerns over homeland security. For decades, travelers needed only their driver’s license to cross the borders, but this is no longer true. U.S. citizens will need a valid passport to re-enter the U.S.

Of course, if boarding a plane this summer, it’s always a good idea to check the What to Know Before you Go provided by the Transportation Security Administration as well.

Have a plan for problems that can occur

Travel experts have long recommended having a copy of vital documents, such as your passport, driver’s license, credit cards, and health insurance cards even when traveling inside the U.S. If your wallet or purse is stolen, you can refer to those copies to cancel and re-issue bank cards and make a useful police report. These copies should be kept in a safe place that is separate from the originals (i.e., not in your purse or wallet). Ideally, having them scanned and available digitally, in the form of an e-mail is the best.

Of course, having a plan and having some backup is best. All good travel insurance plans come with a multi-lingual support hot-line that can help travelers locate medical care, arrange alternative or emergency transportation, track lost luggage, and more.

Know your routes before you leave

A common taxi scam is taking the ‘scenic route’ to drive up the fare. One of the best ways to protect yourself from common scams like this is having a map and knowing the route before you leave. Call the hotel concierge for information about the trip as well, so you know how much it should cost and how long it should take.