We recently ran across an article describing what Canadian Snowbirds need to consider before crossing the border to reside in the U.S. and we thought it would help if we closed the gap on the health insurance questions posed in that article. The author was right in that U.S.-based health care costs are quite high and according to the article, Canadian provincial health insurance covers only a portion of a travelers’s out-of-country health care costs (which is more than most American health insurance plans cover).

Since Canadian travelers heading for the warmer weather outside their home country are recommended to get travel insurance, we dug around to find a few plans offered by U.S. companies that our neighbors to the north might find useful for their travels *:

1. TravelSafe offers Traveler’s Liberty, a travel medical insurance plan for non U.S. citizens visiting the U.S. This plan covers inpatient and outpatient emergency care with your choice of medical maximum and deductible limits.
2. Travel Guard offers a worldwide travel medical plan for non U.S. travelers (and U.S. travelers too) called Travel Rite Annual. This plan is designed for trips up to one year long and it can be extended if your return is delayed.
3. Seven Corners offers Liaison Continent, which is comprehensive short-term medical insurance for those visiting the U.S.  It includes some travel insurance package benefits like lost or delayed luggage, trip interruption, and return of minor children/emergency reunion.

As the holidays approach, many families are making their holiday travel plans. Travel Guard offers a unique benefit that’s ideal for families traveling with children – coverage for each child under 17 at no additional cost for each adult that purchases the plan. This is a great way for parents to purchase a full-coverage travel insurance plan without spending more, and what an excellent time of year to take advantage of the cost savings!

How it works

When you sign up for one of these travel insurance package plans, you’ll include the costs relative to the children traveling with you (flights, hotel, etc.) and provide their names and birth dates just as you would any other traveling companion.

Each child must be related to and traveling with the primary insured and the coverage, including the plan limits, apply to the children as well as the traveling adults.

Coverage details

This coverage applies to natural children, step, foster, or adopted children and “the age limit does not apply to a child who: (1) otherwise meets the definition of Children; and (2) is incapable of self-sustaining employment by reason of mental or physical incapacity.”

This coverage does not apply to your child’s friends or school mates whom you may be taking along with you on your trip.

Travel Guard plans with this benefit

Travel Guard plans with this benefit include the following:

• Gold – most popular plan
• Silver
• Great Outdoors

It seems that there are as many cures for jetlag as there are for hangovers and everyone has their favorite. We’ve culled through the lists (for jetlag cures, you’re on your own for that hangover buddy) for the best cures for jetlag.

First, some jetlag avoidance measures

• If you will arrive in the morning, start by sleeping in preparation for arrival. If you’re taking an overnight flight eastward to the UK, for example, find every way you can to sleep on the plan in preparation for your morning arrival. This can be tough if it’s not your bedtime, so you may have to trick your body with ear plugs, an eye shield, comfy socks, a pillow, etc. If nothing else, try an over-the-counter sleep aid if that works for you.
• If you will arrive in the evening, you’ll want to do the opposite and stay awake on the plane, so your natural tendency to sleep will kick in on time.
• Avoid dehydration by drinking plenty of fresh water. Alcohol, airplane air, caffeinated drinks can all contribute to dehydrating your body, which can cause significant problems. Drink plenty of water when you travel.

Many travelers swear by melatonin as a way to naturally reset the body’s clock to the new region. We’ll let you judge for yourself with the Sleep Foundation’s information on melatonin.

Now, some jetlag recovery measures

Once you’ve arrived, it’s important to get your body coordinated with the new region, that includes:

• Getting some exercise outside – exposing yourself to the local sunlight helps your body synch up.
• Eat smaller meals (at least the first day) so you don’t accidentally end up too full when you have to go to sleep.
• Again, drink plenty of fresh water to avoid dehydration.

If your trip is fairly short, business travelers recommend scheduling meetings according to your home time zone to be your most alert. You’ll likely be hurting after you get home, but at least you’ll be on your game during the meetings!

 This year, we decided to cull through the best travel accessory recommendations from savvy travelers and generate a list of items small enough to fit in a traveler’s Christmas stocking.

We present to you our 2011 Stocking Stuffer list for Travelers:

1. TSA-approved luggage locks. Keeps your stuff safe from opportunistic would-be thieves, but lets TSA officials do their jobs at the same time. See the luggage locks at TravelProducts.com or the Safe Skies^TM TSA Luggage Strap.
2. Packing cubes for organizing your stuff inside your luggage. If you haven’t seen these yet, these are amazing organizers (although some travelers aren’t as fond of them as we are: see the  pros and cons of packing cubes). Light, zippered, storage cubes that let you lay your clothes out flat (less wrinkles) and reduce wasted space. Layer your clothes in the cubes, pack the shoes, toiletries, and extras around the sides and strap it all in tight. See the range of packing folders and cubes at ebags.com. As far as we’re concerned, anything we can do avoid baggage fees and the delay at baggage claim is a good thing.
3. For in-flight and sleep comfort: earplugs and eyeshades. Earplugs save your hearing from damage and can make sleeping in noisy situations easier. If your hotel or lodging doesn’t have blackout curtains, a sleep mask can make the difference in getting good sleep. See the earplugs and sleep masks at Magellans.com.
4. Pajamas for a traveler’s ears. We recently ran across this product: SleepPhones^TM, which is a soft fleece headband with earphones. Reportedly, this product lets you sleep naturally without having to stay in one position to accommodate your earphones.
5. A really big SD card for all those travel photos and movies. Think 4GB, 8GB, or even 16GB of flash memory for the traveler who takes loads of pictures.
6. Reusable water bottle with a built-in water filter.  Since you can’t get through security with the water you need to stay hydrated and ward off illness, turn regular old tap water into good-tasting water. Consider the CamelBack Groove for safe public water systems or the Katadyn MyBottle water purifier for a 3-stage purification system that eliminates viruses, bacteria, and protozoa when you have to refill from a non potable water source. See other water purifier systems at REI.com.
7. Easy pretty shoes. Rollable, mashable, ballet flats means pretty shoes without the space required for heels. Search online for AfterSoles flats for some great options.

Delta recently released a smartphone app for keeping an eye on your luggage. It lets you track your bags from the moment they pass through security all the way to the baggage claim on the other side.

Enter or scan the luggage tag number and see if your bags are on the same plane as you are. Of course, you have to pay for Delta’s in-flight wi-fi service to access the data.

Other features of this app include:

• flight and gate change information
• mobile check-in and baggage fee payment
• seat changes
• upgrade and standby lists

Plus, you can access airport maps and review aircraft statistics.

The app is available for the iPhone and Android phones now and coming soon for Windows phones and Blackberry devices.

Knowing your bags are headed to California when you’re headed to Florida may not be a lot of comfort at 30,000+ feet, but at least you won’t have to hang around baggage claim waiting for a bag that’s not coming. Instead, you can head right to a customer service representative and figure out your options.

As the Christmas holidays approach, we thought it would be useful to gather a list of the travel insurance providers and package plans that provide coverage for children at no additional cost when traveling with a covered adult.

A package plan is full-coverage travel insurance, which means it’s not focused on medical or evacuation coverage, for example. It’s also specific to a certain amount of time, so this is the most likely coverage for families traveling during the holidays. See the complete information regarding package plans for a better understanding of what makes package plans unique.

The following companies and their package plans include coverage for children at no additional cost as long as the child is traveling with a covered adult and included in the plan when you enroll.

Access America (now known as Allianz Travel Insurance)

• Classic (kids under 17)
• Classic with Trip+ (kids under 17)

Travelex

• Travel Select (kids under 21)
• TraveLite (kids under 18)

Travel Insured International

• Worldwide Trip Protector (kids under 18)
• Trip Protector Lite (1 child under 18 per adult)

Travel Guard

• Gold (kids under 17)
• Silver (kids under 17)

This week, the parent company of American Airlines, AMR, filed for bankruptcy protection becoming the latest in the string of legacy U.S. airlines to seek court protection from creditors.

So, what will this mean for travelers?

First, it’s important to understand that bankruptcy and financial default are very different terms in the travel insurance world:

• Financial default means a complete suspension of all business operations due to financial circumstances.
• Bankruptcy, on the other hand, means that the company is seeking legal protection and usually continues business operations to the best of their ability as they work out their financial problems.

American Airlines will likely continue operations for the immediate future as it works through the bankruptcy process. As of today, the American Airline’s website indicates that it will continue normal operations and you can read the official details about the restructuring.

When you’re thinking about travel insurance and upcoming travel plans that involve flights on American Airlines, it’s important to understand the following:

1. Coverage for bankruptcy on American Airlines can no longer be purchased as it us now a known event. The company filed for bankruptcy protection, so you won’t be able to get trip insurance protection for cancelled American Airlines’ flights from here on out.
2. For travelers currently holding tickets for future American Airlines flights, you had to have purchased your trip protection in advance of the typical 7- to 14-day waiting period required for financial default coverage.

The travel insurance companies will individually determine whether an American Airlines’ flight cancellation is covered by your travel insurance plan or not. This is because some travel insurance plans include bankruptcy with their financial default coverage and some do not.

With this type of coverage, benefits are typically paid only if no alternative transportation can be found. If American Airlines, for example, has to cancel a flight for which you are holding a ticket, that company will likely try to find an alternative seat on another carrier on the same route. In that instance, the travel insurance company will not be required to pay for the cost of canceling your trip. This is true even if you aren’t quite satisfied with the outcome of the situation because the outcome is that you can still get from here to there.

Read all about financial default/bankruptcy coverage with your travel insurance plan, and see which companies and plans offer this type of coverage.

Knowing when to purchase single-trip insurance versus an annual travel insurance plan depends entirely on your travel plans. If you’re a last-minute traveler, you’ll likely only be purchasing single-trip coverage for those ad-hoc trips, but if you’re the kind of traveler who knows what trips you’ll be taking in advance, purchasing annual travel protection can save you a lot of money. Plus, having the same coverage all year long cuts down on purchasing the individual plans each time you make your reservations.

So, we decided to take two travelers we know and the trips they plan to take in 2012 and run the numbers to see whether it would be more cost-effective for them to purchase annual travel insurance.

Meet Sam and Sylvia

Our travelers: Sam and Sylvia are 53 and 50, respectively, and these are the trips they plan to take in 2012:

• A vacation in Bali, Indonesia for 20 days in May
• A 4-day getaway in New York, New York to attend their niece’s wedding in July
• A one-week visit to California to spend time with old college friends in September
• A pre-Christmas snow-shoeing adventure in Aspen in late November/December

Let’s say our travelers like the RoundTrip plan and they’ll purchase that for their three U.S.-based trips, and they like the TravelEx plan for their Bali trip. Their travel insurance plans would be:

Bali – $72
New York – $55
California -  $55
Aspen -  $55

Total = $237

Covering their trips with annual travel insurance

It’s important to remember that with annual travel insurance, travelers do not get trip cancellation protection.

We ran our traveler’s details into the quote engine to see what they would pay for annual travel insurance and found these two plans:

The prices on these two plans are wildly different, but the coverage is different as well. Note that the Travel Guard plan includes up to $100,000 per person for non medical evacuations. So, if there is a non medical emergency Sam and Sylvia can have help getting to safety. There are other differences as well. Travel Guard includes up to 2 evacuations per person with their coverage, and the HTH plan delivers ups to $250,000 per person (which should be more than adequate – even for their Bali trip).

In this particular circumstance, Sam and Sylvia might find that purchasing the HTH Worldwide plan would be best for them. It would cover the trips they are planning to take, but for a price that totals to less than the individual coverage totals, it would also cover any surprise trips.

Of course, travel insurance is like any other insurance in that individual people purchase more or less based on their own circumstances and their comfort level. This is just a comparison, and your own numbers will vary.