Two recent, and devastating, media stories:

• One of a young woman injured falling off a boat and hospitalized in Croatia
• One of a man left in a German hospital after a head injury

are prompting this post.

In at least one of the cases, the injured traveler will be held liable for at least $20,000 in foreign medical costs. In both cases, the traveler did not have travel insurance that covered emergency medical evacuations and in both cases, their families and friends are trying desperately to raise the funds necessary to transport them home and to cover their medical care.

Unfortunately, these are not uncommon stories. They happen frequently and just as unfortunately, those travelers and their families could have been spared the heartache and fear with a very affordable travel insurance plan.

Some travelers get bogged down by determining how much coverage is enough, so let’s review the following steps to determine how much coverage you need on any trip you take in the future.

Determine how far you’re traveling

The cost of medical care and emergency medical transport is determined by a limited set of factors: the patient’s condition and their location.

More specifically, the treatment for a patient with massive internal injuries on remote mountain in South America is going to cost more than a patient with food poisoning in Cozumel. In the latter example, medical treatment could be received locally. In the first example, the insured would likely have to be airlifted to a nearby hospital where initial treatment to stabilize their condition could be administered before a second evacuation could take them to their home country and back into their own health insurance network.

Either way, if you’re going a long way or to a place where medical care is very expensive (like the U.S. and Canada), you’ll need a little more coverage.

Determine the coverage you have already

Some U.S. health insurance plans have coverage outside the U.S., but most don’t. While Medicare doesn’t cover seniors for medical treatment outside the U.S. borders, many Medicare Supplement plans have some coverage for emergency medical treatment.

How do you determine the coverage you already have? You’ll have to pull out your plan’s description of coverage and read it.

If you can’t figure out whether you have coverage in the country you want to visit, call your insurance company and ask them specifically how much you will have to pay for an emergency room visit with a broken nose in the country you want to visit. You’ll have a much better idea what coverage you need after a question like that.

Determine what medical care will be available

In some countries, medical care – even for foreigners – is covered by the taxpayers of that country, although some of those countries are currently considering requiring travelers to show evidence of medical coverage upon entering the country. Most countries expect the patient to bear at least some, if not all the cost and that’s where medical insurance comes in handy.

So, how does a traveler determine the availability and quality of medical care where they will be traveling?

The U.S. State Department’s country-specific pages are a great source of this type of information. For example, here’s what it says about Mongolia’s medical care:

Medical facilities in Mongolia are very limited and do not meet most Western standards, especially for emergency health care requirements. Many brand-name Western medicines are unavailable. The majority of medical facilities are located in Ulaanbaatar. Medical facilities and treatment are extremely limited or non-existent outside of Ulaanbaatar. Specialized emergency care for infants and the elderly is not available. Doctors and hospitals usually expect immediate payment in cash for health services.

Good to know ahead of time: When you receive medical care in a foreign country, you are typically required to pay the bill immediately (often before treatment). This is true even with some travel insurance plans although some providers will pay the medical facility directly.

Define your personal risk

Not all travelers are alike. Some travelers are content to lie on comfortable chairs by the pool and read books; others need the adrenaline rush of jumping off high bridges on bungee cords. Of course, there are all the ranges in between as well as those one-off situations where a traveler decides to try something new on a whim.

Here are some of the risk factors to take into account:

• Will you be participating in activities considered ‘high-risk’, like hang-gliding, para-sailing, skiing, SCUBA diving, and more?
• Will you be traveling to a remote location where medical care is extremely limited?
• Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions that could be affected by your travel?
• Are you traveling to a location known to have specific medical risks, like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and more?
• Are you carrying medications that may be difficult to replace in a foreign country if lost or stolen?
• Are you older or in frail health?

Combine your trip factors with common sense

Now that you’ve thought through your trip factors, let’s combine those with a little common sense. Lots of travel insurance policies will give you high limits, but you may not need that much coverage and every dollar of coverage means less in your pocket on your trip.

When it comes to emergency medical evacuations, not many medically necessary evacuations cost more than $100,000 or $200,000. For example, a medically equipped air transport for a traveler who suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma in China to return to New York recently cost $183,000. In this case, it was a long-distance trip with a patient who had a known medical condition. According to the website set up to help one of the injured travelers mentioned at the start of this post, the cost for her medical transportation from Croatia to Toronto is reported to be $93,550 U.S.

When it comes to travel medical care, severe injuries or illnesses will of course cost more than mild ones so depending on your age, your current health, and the risks where you are traveling you may need a little more or a little less. Luckily, you don’t have to leave this decision up to a judgement call or a coin toss.

Our travel insurance comparison tool gives you some guidance:

Just to make the point about the cost of travel insurance plans, we used these trip factors:

• One 38-year old traveler from California
• Visiting Chile for one week
• No pre-existing medical conditions, trip cancellation, or hazardous activities

and found many plans with at least $50,000 in medical coverage and at least $100,000 in evacuation for less than $10.00:

Wherever you go, having travel medical and evacuation coverage is simply a no-brainer. As they say, don’t leave home without it.

Let’s start by explaining what a trip interruption is, shall we? In travel insurance terms, a trip interruption is any situation that causes a traveler to unexpectedly have to end their trip and return home.

Trip interruption coverage is coverage that reimburses a traveler for up to 150% of their unused pre-paid trip costs when their trip has to be abandoned for a covered reason.

In some situations, a traveler can handle the emergency that caused them to abandon their trip and then re-join their trip. For example, if a business owner had to leave a cruise for a couple of days to handle a work emergency and then wanted to catch up to their cruise at a later port. Many travel insurance plans will also reimburse a traveler for the additional transportation costs necessary to can catch up to their vacation or business trip.

The following are some reasons you may want to have trip interruption coverage with your travel insurance plan:

1. Mandatory evacuations are ordered

When a natural disaster such as a hurricane, a raging wildfire, or an impending flood causes authorities to issue mandatory evacuation orders, knowing that you will receive reimbursement for your unused trip costs can ease the pain.

2. A terrorist attack occurs

If a terrorist event occurs at your destination and visitors are told to evacuate (as thousands of students were in Egypt last year), trip interruption coverage will can help you recover your expenses and the unexpected transportation costs to get you out of danger.

3. Sudden injury or illness

If, while on your trip, you or a traveling companion or someone back home is suddenly injured or becomes quite ill and you have to return home, trip interruption coverage will step in to reimburse you for the trip you didn’t get to enjoy. It will also help with those unexpected return trip costs.

4. Mugging, rape, or assault

If you, or a covered traveling companion, are the victim of a vicious attack on your trip, you may well want to end your trip and return home. Trip interruption coverage can help you get your money back and get you back home to recover.

5. Financial default or bankruptcy

When a travel supplier, such as a cruise line or tour operator, completely ceases all operations due to financial default or bankruptcy, it can leave travelers stranded. Trip interruption coverage can help you recover the money you invested in their business.

6. Employment conflicts

If you, or a covered traveling companion, are called back to work, called in for duty, or deployed to help with disaster relief, then trip interruption coverage can recover your unused trip expenses as well as help you pay for tickets back home.

7. Labor strikes

If your travel is disrupted, flights are grounded, or tours are cancelled due to unannounced labor strikes – even airport strikes, then trip interruption coverage can help you recover the money you paid and help get you back home safely.

It’s important to remember that trip interruption coverage is much like trip cancellation coverage – only post departure instead of pre departure. With nearly all travel insurance plans, the covered reasons for cancelling a trip are the same as those for abandoning a trip and returning home. The key is, of course, understanding those covered reasons. Many travelers make the mistake of thinking they can abandon their trip for any reason at all, but that’s not how travel insurance works. The reason for cancelling your trip or ending your trip must be listed as a covered reason if you are to be entitled to reimbursement.

Read our full review of trip interruption coverage, including the exclusions and a list of companies that offer it.

Before the age of the Internet, travelers had only their travel agents in brick-and-mortar establishments to turn to for pre-trip planning and travel emergencies. These days, travel insurance plans, especially package plans, include concierge services.

Much like the well-connected and industrious hotel concierge of old, these concierge services help travelers solve a wide range of problems such as finding cars for hire, scoring exclusive reservations or tickets, setting up tee times, making emergency travel arrangements, and procuring items.

If you’ve always wondered how those travel insurance concierge services might be useful to your on your trip, here are a few reasons to tap into them.

1. They have the power of language on their side

What if you need to make a reservation, find transportation, or reserve a guide in a foreign country, or even somewhere very remote? Concierge services have multilingual staff who can coordinate what you need and communicate it back to you in your own language.

2. Unlike your hotel concierge, you are not obligated to tip

There are no additional charges for the services delivered by your travel insurance plan provider. Essentially, you’ve already paid for the service with your travel insurance plan cost and there’s no obligation to tip.

3. Delegate those research tasks you don’t have time to do

Most people these days are busy with work, family, and social obligations and don’t have the time or the tools it takes to spend finding the right hotel, the perfect yoga class, an overseas babysitter, or transportation to and from the airport. A good concierge service saves their customers precious time.

4. They have access to local experts on the ground

Sure, we’ve all got access to the search engines, but why search blindly on the Internet when you can ask for a personal recommendation from a local expert? Just like the hotel concierges of old, your concierge service will be able to remove the unknown element and give you trusted information.

5. Some have extras like roadside assistance and identity theft protection

Some travel insurance concierge services include extras like help resolving identity theft crises and roadside assistance (usually with a deductible). These benefits can help a traveler facing a critical emergency while on a vacation or business trip. See our review of travel insurance concierge services with a list of policies that offer it.

6. They are available 24/7 using a toll-free hotline

Not all hotel concierges are available 24/7 and certainly not by phone. A travel insurance concierge service is available by calling a toll-free number from anywhere in the world.

Important notes about concierge services

A concierge service may not be for every traveler. Some travelers prefer to do the research on their own and some feel they don’t need external help, but for those situations where even the most confident traveler would like some help, it might be handy to tap into your concierge service.

Here are some important items to note about travel insurance concierge services:

• Some travel insurance companies have their own travel assistance services staff and others farm those responsibilities out to an independent company.
• You are always responsible for the charges related to the actual cost of merchandise or charges for services arranged by your concierge services.
• You have access to these services as soon as you purchase your travel insurance plan, so they are available for pre-trip planning as well as travel emergencies.

It’s also important to note that your concierge service staff can’t do everything. For example, they can’t plan your destination wedding, but they can get you in touch with a wedding planner.

We’ve also read that the services clients with high-end credit cards – those that charge in the hundreds of dollars in annual fees – have better concierge service. So, some travelers may want to tap into their credit card benefits to see what’s available as well.

Be careful with trusting your credit card benefits too much, however, because those services can’t help you with emergency medical evacuations, finding local medical care, and other travel emergencies that are covered by your typical travel insurance plan.

Many travelers believe their auto policy back home or their credit card benefits will deliver the coverage they need when they rent a car, but the restrictions and limitations could surprise you.

For example, if you waive collision coverage and the car you rent is damaged or stolen, it doesn’t matter whether it’s your fault or not.

The rental company, or its collection agency/claims department, will assess fees based on its own policies, the local state laws, and what you agreed to when you signed the rental document. You read that very carefully while standing there, right?

Even more shocking? Most rental agreements require the traveler who signed the agreement to pay fees for any sort of damage to the car – blown tires, door dings, falling trees – no matter whose fault it is.

While the damage waiver protection you get at the rental counter is littered with exemptions, from high deductibles to all kinds of exclusions for property damage, there are problems with relying on your auto policy back home and your credit card coverage too. Some travel insurance plans cover rental cars, which we’ll get into in a minute.

1. Your auto policy back home can’t always help

Many travelers believe that their own auto policy will provide the coverage they need, but it’s important to note that the coverage you have back home carries over to the rented vehicle – same rules, different car.

This means your auto insurance typically leaves you high and dry when you travel when:

1. You drive an older vehicle to work every day, but rent a shiny new one on your trip. Your policy limits may not be enough to cover a rented vehicle that is stolen or destroyed.
2. Your auto policy doesn’t include ‘loss of use’ charges. These are the fees imposed by the rental company while the car is being repaired and cannot be rented.
3. Your auto policy doesn’t cover ‘administrative fees’ and ‘diminution of value’ (the cost levied for lost resale value) charges either. Neither of these are well-regulated or even disclosed until an accident happens.
4. Your auto policy won’t cover cars rented outside the U.S. – and most don’t.

2. Your credit card coverage can’t always help either

Some credit card coverage will pay for loss of use, but not many and those that do may require a fleet utilization log showing that the rental company didn’t have other cars to replace the one you rented – a piece of documentation that can be difficult for a traveler to get from the rental company.

Unfortunately, there are other concerns about relying solely on your credit card benefits for rental car coverage, including:

• Credit cards also don’t cover administrative fees or diminution of value costs, which can be quite substantial if the car is battered but still functional.
• Credit card coverage is typically secondary, and a major accident could raise your auto insurance rates back home.
• Credit card  benefits also have policy limits that may not be enough if you rent an expensive car.
• Credit card coverage applies only to the vehicle, not to personal liability or personal injury.
• Only some credit card benefits apply to cars rented outside the U.S. and most don’t cover theft or vandalism at all.
• You can’t rent a motorcycle, truck, SUV, exotic, antique or off-road vehicle with your credit card and have coverage. Same thing applies to recreational vehicles and campers.
• Credit cards limit the duration of your coverage, typically 15-30 days.

3. Where you should not buy your rental car coverage

Now that we’ve scared you into paying attention, we also want to caution you against buying coverage at the rental counter for at least two important reasons:

1. Rental car coverage purchased at the counter typically costs more than double the typical travel insurance collision coverage costs ($7-$9 per day versus the $18-$21 or more at the counter).
2. You won’t have the time to review and understand the limits and exclusions. With a travel insurance plan that includes car rental collision coverage, you’ll have a review period to read and understand your policy.

4. Why collision coverage with a travel insurance plan is better

Rental car collision coverage with a travel insurance policy gives you broader coverage than your credit card: it pays up to the policy limit (usually $25,000-$50,000) if your rental car is lost or damaged as a result of:

• accidents
• theft
• vandalism
• riots
• natural disasters
• fires or explosions

Plus, this coverage will pay for loss of use charges too.

It’s also primary coverage, which means it will pay up before your other insurance, so if there are charges left over you can combine them and (hopefully) cover the entire loss.

While car rental collision coverage in itself doesn’t pay for the loss of personal possessions, a complete travel insurance package – one with baggage protection, that is – will repay a traveler for that loss (up to the policy limit).

5. Where collision coverage with a travel insurance plan falls short

Car rental collision coverage with a travel insurance plan falls short in a few areas too. These losses are excluded:

• damage to another vehicle, structure or person
• damage as a result of mechanical failure or breakdown
• any consequence of war or contamination by radioactive material
• damage that occurs while under the influence of alcohol or any illegal substance

Then again, most of these aren’t covered by your auto insurance or your credit card protection either.

Only your auto insurance policy back home may cover personal liability and property damage, and only if you are renting the car within covered regions and have followed all the expected rules of the road.

See our full review of car rental collision coverage for additional details.

Standard trip cancellation benefits reimburse you for your pre-paid nonrefundable trip costs if the trip is cancelled for a number of ‘covered reasons’

But, the standard cancellation benefit doesn’t allow you to cancel for any reason.

This is an important distinction that catches a lot of insured travelers off guard. Many think that just because they have trip cancellation with their policy, they can cancel their trip any time and for any reason.

‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage is a catch-all benefit that lets you cancel your trip and receive between 50 and 100% (depending on the plan) of your trip costs back – no questions asked.

Here are travelers’ stories ripped right from our comment board. In every case, ‘cancel for any reason’ would have saved these travelers a lot of heartache and hard-earned cash.

1. The bridge washed away and the ferries are full

Last year, after Hurricane Irene passed, the only way for travelers to get to Hatteras, North Carolina was by ferry – but the ferries were completely full! Many travelers with vacation rentals lost thousands of their vacation dollars because they simply couldn’t get to the island.

‘Cancel for any reason’ would have helped these travelers cancel their trip and get a refund.

2. Your best friend is in an accident or dies

When one traveler’s best friend committed suicide back home, she wanted to cancel her trip to be with her friend’s family.

Travel insurance plans allow for pre-departure trip cancellations and post-departure trip interruptions when covered family members are ill. The list of family members that are covered is in the plan’s description of coverage. No travel insurance plan, however, covers friends, neighbors, and other people close to you.

3. An epidemic of the flu breaks out

One traveler cancelled his trip because he had a case of the stomach flu. Not only that, his entire family was stricken with it and he didn’t want to leave them on their own.

Every insurance plan has exclusions, and travel insurance is no different. If you are canceling your trip due to illness, that illness must be verified by a physician. It must occur while the policy is in effect, and the illness must be so disabling as to prevent you from taking your covered trip.

As awful as the flu is, it might not fit these criteria unless verified by a doctor. ‘Cancel for any reason’, however, would have gotten this traveler his money back.

4. A terrorist plot is uncovered

One traveler was scheduled to visit Syria and Lebanon in the spring of 2011. The potential for terrorist attacks and a U.S. State Department travel warning for Syria made this traveler reconsider and cancel their trip.

Standard trip cancellation benefits only cover actual terrorist events that occur within a certain number of days prior to your departure. Those attacks must also occur at your destination – not nearby.

If terrorist concerns make you want to cancel your trip, ‘cancel for any reason’ is your way out.

5. Your pet is ill or dying

When you have a pet that’s close to you and they get very ill or injured, it’s natural to want to cancel your trip to care for them. As this traveler noted, her pet was considered a member of the family and these are not the kind of emergencies people can predict.

Unfortunately, travel insurance plans don’t include pets in their list of covered family members. Of course, ‘cancel for any reason’ would have gotten this traveler the reimbursement they expected.

6. Your kid has summer college commitments

Another family discovered they should have purchased ‘cancel for any reason’ when they had to cancel their summer trip after their child discovered he had unexpected summer school commitments.

While some standard trip cancellation benefits will cover school year extensions, none of them will cover this scenario.

7. Your nanny was deported

One traveler wrote to us complaining that they had to cancel their trip because their nanny (who would have been caring for the children on their trip) was deported for writing a bad check. This traveler wanted a refund on the nanny’s portion of the travel expenses.

Unfortunately, being deported is not a covered reason for cancelling a person’s trip and nannies are not covered members of the family for most travel insurance policies.

Important Facts

It’s important to note that ‘cancel for any reason’ (just like other benefit) has a number of rules:

• travelers must purchase it within a certain number of days of their initial trip payment
• travelers must insure 100% of their pre-paid travel arrangements
• a few plans have per-person maximum limits
• any amounts refunded by a travel supplier are deducted from the reimbursement
• the cancellation must occur within a certain number of days prior to departure
• the reimbursement may be subject to cancellation penalties

Read our review of ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage and get a list of companies and plans that include this coverage. Be sure to read the restrictions for each plan’s coverage so you understand it.

It’s not fun when you buy a travel insurance plan and believe you’re covered only to find out you were never covered at all.

But! This is an avoidable scenario if you review your plan and understand the exclusions.

That being said, the following are travel events that no travel insurance plan will cover.

1. Your trip is rescheduled by a supplier

A traveler purchases a tour and pre-pays. The tour operator cancels for lack of attendance, but they offer the traveler a refund or they can reschedule. The traveler reschedules and files a claim with their travel insurance.

Travelers often think that just because a travel supplier cancels, they get their money back. Not so if you use that same pre-paid money for a future trip. After all, that would be ‘double-dipping’ when travel insurance is meant to make you whole.

2. Changing your mind

A traveler pre-pays for a two-week international trip, but as the vacation draws closer they realize they just don’t have the extra cash they’ll need to spend. So, they decide to cancel the trip and save their money instead.

Unless you have ‘cancel for any reason’ with your plan, this claim will not be covered because it amounts to changing your mind.

3. Accidents caused by drinking

A traveler has a few drinks on vacation but on the way back to the hotel, they misstep and break an ankle. After being treated at the hospital, they file a medical claim with their insurance plan.

Travel insurance plans include an exclusion that applies to all coverage stating it will not pay for losses caused by “being under the influence of drugs or intoxicants.” You simply don’t have coverage if you’re under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

4. Lousy weather

A traveler on a beach vacation is horrified when the rain simply will not stop. The golf courses are closed and beach time is ruined. Weather reports indicate the rain won’t end anytime soon, so the traveler decides to head home and file a claim.

Unless the weather enters the range of natural disaster or a mandatory evacuation is ordered, you’ll just have to stick it out. Once you’ve started your trip, there’s no coverage for giving up and heading home.

5. Tickets you never paid for

A traveler uses frequent flier miles to book a summer vacation, but work responsibilities prevent them from taking the trip. They cancel it and file a claim expecting to receive the full reimbursement.

Travelers do not receive cash back travel costs they never paid out in the beginning. The point of insurance is to make you whole again, not to cash in where there’s no retail value. There are, however, many travel insurance plans that will pay the fee to re-bank your frequent flier miles.

6. Extreme (or stupid) behavior

A traveler decides to try bungee jumping off a bridge. Unfortunately, the harness tears and he is dropped into an icy river. While recovering in the hospital, he contacts his travel plan to file a claim.

Unless your plan specifically includes coverage or a waiver for high-risk activities like mountain climbing, skydiving, parasailing, and yes, bungee cord jumping, you will not have coverage. Stupid behavior, such as committing an illegal act, will also invalidate your coverage.

7. Losses due to mental illness

A traveler receives a desperate call while on vacation. His brother, who is being treated for a mental illness, has been hospitalized for attempting suicide. He immediately abandons his trip to return home.

No travel insurance plan covers losses due to nervous disorders or mental illness. Suicide and self-inflicted injuries are not covered either. These are exclusions that apply to all coverage.

8. Medical tourism

A traveler decides to visit a foreign country to obtain surgery that’s deemed too expensive in the U.S. Before the trip, the doctor cancels the surgery. So the traveler cancels their trip and files a claim with their travel plan.

This travel claim would not be covered by most travel insurance plans because the purpose of the trip was to obtain medical care, but there is one exception to this rule. Seven Corners offers one plan specifically for medical tourists: Bordercross Worldwide.

We recently had a comment submitted from an angry father, and we thought it important to address his concerns about travel insurance.

His daughter was on a college graduation trip (congratulations to the daughter!) when she received word that her best friend committed suicide. The daughter cancelled the remainder of her trip (that’s the definition of a trip interruption) and bought a one-way emergency ticket to get home for the funeral.

First, our sincere condolences. The death of someone so young is heartbreaking, and we wish both families our deepest sympathies. We also understand that this father is deeply hurt by his daughter’s grief and loss. Again, your deepest sympathies for your struggle.

Why the Travel Insurance Claim was Denied

The daughter’s travel insurance claim was denied for several reasons: first, suicide is not considered a covered death, and friends are not covered either.

But neither of these reasons is surprising to anyone.

Unfortunately, this father and daughter made several mistakes:

1. They purchased the trip plan while buying the airline ticket.
2. They (apparently) didn’t read and understand the travel insurance policy.

Do Not Buy your Travel Insurance While Buying your Airline Ticket

We’ve been warning consumers for a long while now that buying your travel insurance from a travel supplier is a bad idea: See that link to buy Travel Insurance now? Don’t click it! Travel suppliers are in the business of making money and so they’ve contracted for generic travel policies that may or may not cover your travel situation.

In this particular case, however, no travel plan would have covered the daughter’s trip interruption because no insurance plan covers suicide. In all travel insurance policies, you’ll find text similar to the following in the list of exclusions:

Benefits are not payable for any loss due to, arising or
resulting from:
1. suicide, attempted suicide or any intentionally self-inflicted
injury while sane or insane

Travel Insurance Doesn’t Provide Coverage for Best Friends, Former Roommates, Long-time Neighbors, etc.

While many friends can seem as close as family members, it’s true that travel insurance doesn’t provide benefits for a best friends’ death either.

In a travel insurance plan’s description of coverage, you’ll find that trip interruption (and trip cancellation) coverage pays if you are prevented from continuing your trip due to:

Death involving You or Your Traveling Companion or Your or Your Traveling Companion’s Business Partner or Your Family Member;

If you further read the definition of “Family Member”, you’ll typically find text that reads something like this:

“Family Member” means any of the following who resides in
the United States, Canada, or Mexico: Your or Your Traveling
Companion’s: legal spouse (or common-law spouse where
legal), legal guardian, son or daughter (adopted, foster, step
or in-law), brother or sister (includes step or in-law), parent
(includes step or in-law), grandparent (includes in-law),
grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, Domestic Partner,
an employed caregiver who lives with You, or a person for
whom You are the primary caregiver with whom You have
lived for 12 continuous months prior to the effective date of
Your Plan, whether or not they travel with You.

Disclaimer: These definitions are taken from the Vacation Classic travel insurance plan from TravelSafe. This is not the company, nor the plan, purchased by the father and daughter whose story we used in this post. We chose a random plan in order to demonstrate the wording in a typical travel insurance plan. Every travel insurance policy reads slightly differently, so it’s important to review your policy carefully to fully understand it.

In conclusion, we acknowledge and feel deeply for the father and daughter in this story, but we include their story here to inform other consumers. A travel insurance plan is just like any other insurance plan: it comes with exclusions and limits. Every travel insurance plan – even those sold as part of an airline ticket purchase – comes with a free look period that you can use to review the plan, understand the coverage and the exclusions and make changes or even cancel.

Related topics

Passenger Protection laws ban ‘opt-out’ travel insurance sales.

Flight delays occur for a variety of reasons and they can be a real pain depending on how important it is that you get where you are going on time. While travel delay coverage with your travel insurance plan can provide some comfort if a delay over a certain number of hours (depending on the plan) occurs, avoiding the flight delay is, of course, the best scenario.

According to travel experts, here are the best recommendations for avoiding flight delays:

1. Early is better. When booking your flight, remember that the early flights are less subject to the ripple effect that can occur when flights in another region of the country are delayed, thus causing delays in other areas as the day goes on. Just like at the doctor’s office – book the first flight and you’re more likely to get out on time.
2. Know the stats. Some airports have more traffic than others and are more susceptible to delays simply due to the volume. The U.S. Department of Transportation publishes monthly air travel consumer reports that include statistics on flight delays – by carrier, by airport, and by scheduled time. For example, see the Air Travel Consumer Reports for 2011. Even more detailed information is available on the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website at https://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_information/.
3. Check the weather. If there’s a problem with weather, your flight could be delayed and knowing ahead gives you the time to make alternative plans or choose other options. Check the airline’s website to find out if the departure time of your flight is compromised. Posting flight delays on their websites is now required by law. Calling ahead is the least effective strategy because the airline simply doesn’t want to be on the hook for telling you not to show up on time.
4. Know the airline’s policies. Each airline has their own policies about what they can and will do for delayed passengers and contrary to popular belief, the airlines are not required to compensate passengers for real or perceived damages when flights are delayed.
5. Sign up for mobile notifications. Most airlines and booking sites offer automated flight status notifications that can be sent to your phone.

Because travel delays come in a variety of shapes and sizes, having travel delay protection can help you with reimbursement for unexpected meal and lodging expenses as well as a few extras: some plans even reimburse you for transportation costs and movie rentals! See our review of travel delay coverage and which policies deliver this protection.