As unexpected snowfall and sub-zero temperatures recently plagued folks in England and Wales and travelers into and out of Heathrow were warned to check their flight status and leave extra travel time, we thought it a good time to review the benefits of having travel delay coverage.

It’s important to remember that airlines don’t guarantee their departure schedules and events like severe weather can make it impossible for flights to leave on time. In the U.S., airlines are not legally obligated to provide any compensation to passengers when a delay occurs due to weather.

Travel delay coverage, on the other hand, reimburses travelers for reasonable expenses (up to the policy limits) when their travel is delayed a certain number of hours. So, if your plane can’t take off because the airport is shut down due to heavy snow,  and you have to get a hotel for the night, feed the kids, and find transportation, etc., those expenses will be reimbursed.

Remember to keep all your receipts and documentation issued by the airline regarding the flight cancellation – those are very important bits of data when you make a claim.

Read all about travel delay coverage and for a fun photo treat, check out the photos of the UK snow.

As news of two European birdwatchers and their abduction from the Philippines recently hit the news and last week two American women and their Egyptian guide were abducted at gunpoint in Egypt,  travelers have again been forced to think about what they should do if they are kidnapped while traveling.

Kidnapping has, unfortunately, become almost a designer industry.

One form of kidnapping is implemented solely for the purpose of gaining access to cash. There are a few terms for this form of kidnapping: tiger grabbing or express kidnapping. These are more scam than actual kidnapping, but that doesn’t mean the victim absolutely will not be harmed. This type of kidnapping involves taking a hostage and using the situation to get a ransom or taking the hostage to their own bank and having them empty their accounts, handing the cash over to the kidnappers. Often, the hostage is released after but the risk remains that the kidnappers could do violence.

Lately, virtual kidnappings have been taking place as well. Again, these are more scam than truly dangerous situations. The perpetrators wait until the target is unreachable, traveling in an area with no cell phone coverage is one example. Then, they contact the family or the individual’s business demanding a ransom.

What are the best recommendations for avoiding a kidnapping?

1. As always, stick to safer areas and stay alert. Looking confidently around you and making eye contact with otehrs, can deter thieves from choosing you.
2. Avoid looking like you have a lot of money – leave your jewelry and baubles at home, keep your wallet close to you, and dress to fit in with the locals.
3. Keep others informed about your whereabouts. If your family or business partners know that you are going off grid for an expected amount of time, they won’t be as easily fooled or worried.
4. Vary your routes and daily routines – kidnappers tend to watch their targets for a little time before they strike so they can more easily manage the situation.
5. Never leave your drink unattended and limit your alcohol consumption in public areas.

So, what do you do if you are kidnapped?

1. Unfortunately the key, according to experts, is to comply with the kidnappers requests. It’s important to do what you’re instructed since the kidnappers are more likely to quickly get you out of their lives to avoid further risk to themselves if you simply do what they want.

In most countries, paying a ransom is illegal. That’s because it perpetuates the problem by encouraging other desperate people to try it. Members of law enforcement typically advise families not to pay the ransom.

As the news of a TSA agent stealing iPads from checked luggage erupted last week, many travelers – business and leisure alike – are re-examining how to prevent theft of their electronics, including laptops, MP3 players, e-readers, and more. (See our FAQ does travel insurance cover theft for an overview.)

Why electronics get stolen

Way back when, it was cameras, then it was camcorders, then it was laptops, and now it’s the latest hot electronic device – the iPad. Why? There’s a relatively good return on the investment of the theft. Criminals understand that there’s a risk to stealing and so they go for the items they can sell at a good price.

What happens to the stolen goods

In the past, you could unload stolen goods at a pawn shop or on a street corner, but it’s even easier now. As easy as it is for you to get rid of that leather jacket you never wore, the Internet is making it easy for thieves to quickly cash in on stolen goods – one at at time in many cases. Stolen goods are nearly always sold over the Internet these days.

Will the airline or cruise line reimburse me for the loss?

It’s important to realize that travel suppliers like the airlines and cruise lines have clauses that automatically exclude them from any responsibility for the theft or destruction of electronics. So, you won’t be able to make a claim and be reimbursed (you’ll get a little, but not what the product was worth). It’s also important to note that most travel insurance plans cover electronics only to a limit (often as little at $150 if anything at all). You can purchase extra baggage coverage that may cover the worth of your electronics in some cases.

What do you do to protect your gear?

There are several things you can do to protect your electronics when you travel, but the first and foremost is to keep them with you, at your side, in your carry-on and close by, guarded at all times. A thief can’t steal what they can’t get their hands on.

Here are some other tips:

1. Lock it down – physically and electronically. When you leave your hotel room, you wouldn’t leave an envelope with hundreds of dollars in cash lying on the table, would you? Treat your electronics the same way. Lock them in the safe, use a physical locking cable, and apply a password so your data can’t be stolen.
2. If you must leave it in the car, keep it out of sight – under the seat works to a degree, as well as putting it under the floormat.
3. Engrave it so that it is (slightly) harder to sell

For added protection, contact your home insurance provider and ask about adding a rider for your electronics onto your policy. In most cases, this will cost only a few dollars and you can cover all the expensive electronics in your life at replacement cost.

We recently read this question on another forum: “I’m going backpacking for about three months in Europe. I don’t know exactly when I’ll return, can I still get travel insurance? It seems that all the plans want a hard return date.”

You absolutely can get travel insurance in this case.

What you want is a travel medical policy for at least 90 days that may also be renewed, or a plan that allows for a period of coverage that is longer than you plan to be gone.

In this plan, it’s likely that you’ll want these coverage options at a minimum:

1. Medical care
2. Trip interruption
3. Emergency Evacuation

See the following two travel medical insurance plans as examples.

Liaison International from Seven Corners

This plan has coverage for 5 days all the way up to 180 days. You choose the coverage limits and deductible. And, it’s available to U.S. and non U.S. citizens.

Summary of coverage:

• Medical: $50,000 – $1,000,000
• Deductible: $0 – $2,500
• Emergency dental: $500
• Evacuation: $300,000
• AD&D: $25,000

See the complete Liaison International plan details.

TravelGap Voyager from HTH Worldwide

This plan covers trips up to 6 months and covers pre-existing conditions for medical care and evacuation. Your choice of medical limits and deductibles helps you keep costs down.

Summary of coverage:

• Medical: $50,000 – $1,000,000
• Deductible: $0 – $500
• Emergency dental: $200
• Evacuation: $500,000
• AD&D: $25,000

See the complete TravelGap Voyager plan details.

It’s important to note that these are only two examples of travel insurance plans to fit this particular need. Use our travel insurance comparison tool, type in a few trip details, and get a number of quotes from a number of travel insurance providers.

As travel insurance is getting a second look due to a number of recent disasters, the number of ways to purchase travel insurance has increased as well.

• You can buy it with your airline ticket. Read why we don’t recommend that.
• You can buy it through your cruise line. Read why we don’t recommend that either.
• You can buy it from your travel agent. Read why we sometimes don’t recommend that either.

All those methods aside, here’s why buying your travel insurance online is still the best way to go:

1. The Internet is still the undisputed king of information.

When you research your trip, you do it online because the amount of information at your fingertips makes this a smart way to search for virtually anything. The same goes for travel insurance. Here at Travel Insurance Review, you’ll find reviews from actual travelers, comparisons of different products, and the latest news and information for travelers.

2. A comparison engine makes buying travel insurance simple

When you use a travel insurance comparison engine, you can customize your coverage for pre-existing conditions, coverage limits, and add options like rental car coverage, adventure sports coverage, coverage for your pets, and more. Plus, your travel insurance needs are put through an engine that gives you multiple providers and let’s you compare costs, coverage limits, and options all in once place.

3. You get access to all the best travel insurance companies, not just a few

One vital thing you miss when you purchase travel insurance with your airline ticket or from your travel agent is options. In most cases, an airline booking engine gives you one travel insurance provider, so you’re not even getting a useful price comparison. Most travel agencies focus on one or two travel insurance providers, not the entire spectrum, so again you’re losing out. Smarter shopping requires adequate comparison and the travel insurance comparison engine gives you just that.

4. You can see your travel coverage documents immediately and contact the assistance services representatives

Now, you can see your travel coverage documents immediately when you buy your plan with your airline ticket too, but do you read the details? It’s not likely. You’re focused on getting that ticket and you may not remember to read those documents. When you purchase your travel insurance online, you get the travel documents sent to your e-mail address. You can review them and call the assistance services representatives to ask questions and better understand your coverage or get clarification on the ‘fine print’.

 

 

Thieves are happy to target the rental cars of tourists. Why? Because they know you are carrying some stuff: perhaps a little jewelry, certainly a camera (or two), a few electronics, that kind of thing. Those items are easy to sell. Even worthless, but irreplaceable items like a thumb drive with your pictures or a journal with your thoughts, are stolen if they are left in a bag in the vehicle.

Therefore, we recommend the following steps to making your rental car look like a local:

1. Leave no tourist papers lying around – put your airline tickets in your purse or suitcase, keep the car rental documents with you too. Any piece of paper that looks like you are passing through gets carried with you or tossed immediately.
2. Put a local newspaper in the car and take care to place it under the rear window so thieves will see it before they try to smash the window.
3. Put your suitcases immediately into the trunk and don’t open the trunk until you arrive at your lodging so a potential thief doesn’t happen to see what you’re hiding.
4. Leave your glove compartment open and empty so the thief can see it’s useless to break into the car. Same for leaving the cover off your trunk or lying down the seats so they can see there’s nothing available to steal.
5. Last, but not least, don’t leave your camera and other electronics lying around. If you cannot take them with, they are safer in the hotel room in the safe.

Remember to ask your lodging staff where the safest parking is to be found. Once you get there, take a minute to look around – is the asphalt is glittering with lots of small glass bits, it may not be the safest parking space despite the information you’ve been given.

If a thief does manage to smash the window of your rental car, be sure that you have car rental collision coverage – either with your own automobile insurance, through your credit card coverage, or with travel insurance. See our review of car rental collision coverage to be sure. If a thief does manage to make off with your baggage, you’ll want to have some protection for that as well. See our review of baggage coverage to decide.

Most Americans are far more careful when they travel overseas than when they travel domestically, but there are a number of health concerns within our borders that can lead to serious illness. In addition, as the recent tragic death of freestyle skier, Sarah Burke, has made clear, accidents can happen anywhere and those accidents can be very, very expensive.

Some of the more common dangers travelers experience, however, are diseases such as the following:

1. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever – most common in the Southeast and South-Central regions (particularly in Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Tennessee), this is a tick-borne illness that occurs primarily in Spring and Summer. Immediate treatment with antibiotics can prevent progression of the disease and the potentially fatal outcome, but early detection is typically hard.
2. Lyme Disease – the country’s most common tick-related illness, Lyme Disease occurs usually in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states as well as northern California. Early treatment with antibiotics can lead to full recovery, but the initial symptoms resemble the flu.
3. West Nile Virus – transmitted by mosquitoes, most cases of West Nile go undetected as there are usually no symptoms. When and if symptoms do begin, there is little to do but wait it out. Some cases get sever and require hospitalization. Outbreaks can occur anywhere mosquitoes are active.
4. Influenza – because the flu is easily transmitted in confined spaces (such as airplanes and trains), and because the strains change and adapt, this respiratory illness is a seasonal menace and sometimes kills those affected.
5. Traveler diarrhea – one of the most common travel diseases, it’s associated with severe vomiting, fever and abdominal pain. Sometimes due to bacterial causes, such as Salmonella, or viral causes, such as norovirus, or parasitic causes, such as Giardia, this is a highly common problem.

Prevention for these common US-based diseases includes:

1. Wearing insect repellent
2. Examining yourself and others for ticks after outdoor activities
3. Annual flu vaccines
4. Good hygiene: washing your hands thoroughly and often, cooking food properly, and peeling or washing produce
5. Avoiding untreated or unsafe water

If you are traveling in the U.S. from another country, it’s important to have travel medical insurance in case you have to visit a medical clinic, or worse, you have to be medically evacuated to a hospital for care.

If you are a U.S. citizen, check your health insurance plan to find out whether you will be paying out-of-pocket costs if you experience a medical emergency where you are traveling.

 

 

The cruise lines want passengers to think that their ship is like a floating paradise so they relax and spend money, but latest cruise disaster has prompted many future passengers to re-examine how they prepare for and take their cruises.

Before you cruise

Before you choose your cruise, get a sanitation report on the cruise ship. That will help you know how the CDC scores that cruise ship’s sanitary conditions.

Prepare a ditch bag

A ditch bag is a small bag holding the stuff you may need if you have to ditch – ditch your room, ditch the ship, whatever. What goes in your ditch bag? IDs, passports, necessary medications, cash, spare credit card, spare eyeglasses, those kinds of things. Pack a few additional zippered plastic bags – to keep your medications and cell phone dry.

Ideally, the bag should be as small as possible and it’s especially useful if it can be thrown over your shoulder and worn under your life vest.

FYI: most life vests are equipped with a whistle and strobe light, so those are probably not necessary to store in your ditch bag. If you’re worried though, any outdoor equipment store will be able to sell you a strobe light that’s safe for water emergencies and a whistle.

Your in-room safe may not be that safe

So many of the cabin safes are left locked when passenger disembark that just about every crew member knows the bypass code for opening them. Your in-room safe may be fine for everyday items like your address book and tip money, and of course you shouldn’t be traveling with any real valuables that you aren’t wearing continuously. If you are traveling with something valuable, use the ship’s safe instead. There are records of what’s placed into and taken out of that safe.

Stay aware of your surroundings

It can be hard not to let your guard down on vacation, but it’s important to remember that unsavory characters lurk everywhere just like at home.  Sexual assaults, beatings, robberies, and more have and can occur – even on a cruise ship, which is, after all, a small self-contained city with thousands of passengers and crew members. Act as if you are in a city hotel rather than on a safe deserted island.

Watch the alcohol

Sure, you don’t have to drive home, but fights as well as stupid behavior can occur when you consume too much alcohol, as evidenced in 2010 by one passenger releasing the cruise ship anchor while underway.  Other reports of cruise ship brawls are further evidence that too much alcohol and too few security guards simply don’t mix. Gives new meaning to ‘you booze, you cruise, you lose’ doesn’t it?

Have travel insurance

As they are returning home, passengers on the Costa Concordia have told stories of having to jump into the water and swim to shore. Many made their own way to other towns and paid additional money to get back home. See how this disaster may have been made a little easier for the stranded passengers with travel insurance.

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