Travel Insurance Review

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Recent Survey indicates more U.S. travelers are finding value in Travel Insurance

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U.S. travelers and travel insuranceA recent study presented by the U.S. Travel Insurance Association (UStiA) found that Americans spent almost $1.8 billion on all types of travel insurance and travel assistance services in 2010, a number that is up from $1.6 billion in 2008 and $1.3 billion in 2006.The survey also reported that almost 27 million people were traveling with single trip or annual coverage from UStiA member companies, and that a vast majority of those plans are package plans that include trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage.

While sales of travel medical and medevac plans are also growing, policies that incorporate trip cancellation and trip interruption benefits continue to be the most popular plans and account for over 90% of all total travel insurance plans sold in the U.S.  – and for good reason.

The covered reasons for trip cancellation have expanded to include coverage for revoked leave, having to work, and job loss – all of which are likely events in the tough economy Americans have experienced for the last decade.  Knowing that they can cancel their trip for a covered reason and be refunded their pre-paid trip costs has given travelers a great deal of security.

Trip interruption benefits typically include the covered reasons stated in trip cancellation benefits, so (depending on the plan) coverage for terrorism, financial default, and serious illnesses or injuries back home and for the traveler are all covered reasons for abandoning the trip and receiving reimbursement for their unused trip costs. Again, that’s simply comfort of mind.

What do SCUBA divers worry about when they travel and how can travel insurance help?

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Scuba diver travel insuranceSelf Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, that’s what SCUBA stands for, and SCUBA divers travel the world over to find the best dive sites. So, what do these particular travelers worry about most when insuring on their trips?

  1. What if bad weather wipes out my dive trip?
  2. What if my checked equipment doesn’t arrive when I do?
  3. What if the dive operator goes bankrupt?
  4. What if I’m injured or get decompression sickness and need medical care?

Bad weather

Let’s say you’ve scheduled a dive trip to Turks & Caicos during hurricane season. After a hurricane strikes, you may find the dive resort is technically livable but the facilities may not be very functional or fun. You may not even have a dive boat if that’s been sunk or destroyed.

The key to trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage when it comes to hurricanes is that the destination must be uninhabitable for benefits to be available.

Your best bet? Protect yourself with ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage and you’ll get at least some of your non refundable trip costs back.

Missing luggage

Ah, so you thought you were smart and carried on your suitcase but checked that huge bag of SCUBA gear. Well, you were smart. You saved some dollars on checked luggage fees, but if your gear bag goes missing, what can you do?

Some travel insurance plans have sports equipment coverage that provides extra cash when your sporting equipment is lost or delayed. With a call to your travel insurance provider, you can rent or purchase replacement equipment and hope yours turns up eventually.

Bankruptcy or financial default


So, even if all goes well as you travel to your destination, you cannot guarantee it will all be well when you arrive. What happens if the dive operator to whom you sent non refundable payments to turns out to have closed their doors due to bankruptcy or default?

Banging on their shuttered windows and locked doors won’t get your money back, but some travel insurance plans include financial default in their coverage. So, if you happen to give all your diving dollars to some bankrupt shark, you can at least get a refund from your travel insurance company and hopefully find a replacement dive operator.

Medical care

Now this one is slightly trickier because travel insurance companies like to limit their risk by isolating dangerous activities and limiting those from coverage. That means that most travel insurance plans specifically exclude activities like SCUBA diving unless you follow some rules:

  1. You must already be PADI or NAUI certified.
  2. You have to be diving with a certified dive instructor.
  3. Often, you have to stay above 130 feet (which, if you’re a diver, makes sense).

All those rules being met, many travel insurance plans still require you to purchase an optional sports rider for coverage to be available. That being said, if you do all those things and you are injured or become ill on your trip, then your travel medical coverage will kick in to the plan limits.

During the trip

Any time you encounter a travel problem that may be covered under your policy, it’s important to contact the travel insurance company as soon as possible. They’re your backup team and they’ll let you know what’s covered and what you can do about the problem you’ve encountered.

Recent travel agent poll reveals insights on Adventure Travelers

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Adventure travel pollA recent poll surveyed travel agents and their clients about their perspectives on adventure travel insurance plans. A whopping 86% of adventure travelers see the need for and purchase travel insurance plans specifically offering adventure travel protections. These are perhaps the most informed travelers we’ve encountered. Perhaps the realization that they could get hurt doing what they do has made them more aware of the need for protection.

Where do adventure travelers go?

When it comes to adventure travel locations, these were the winning destinations:

  • 29% of agents say their clients head to Central and South America
  • 21% say their clients prefer Africa as their destination

How long do adventure travelers stay?

Apparently adventure travelers like to stay gone for awhile – 65% of adventure travelers book six- to 10-day getaways and 26% book 11-14 day trips.

What activities to adventure travelers participate in?

According to travel agents, these are the winning activities:

  • 30% of adventure travelers prefer snorkeling and SCUBA diving,
  • 23% prefer hiking and climbing, and
  • 23% prefer skiing and snowboarding

What is not covered by adventure travel plans?

It’s important to note that not every kind of adventure IS covered by your travel insurance plan.

Running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, for example, isn’t covered because a bodily injury that occurs while participating in this event would not be due to an accident. Specifically, you put yourself in a dangerous spot and got caught, but you knew what you were doing when you did it.

Anything that occurs while intoxicated or on drugs isn’t covered. Again, this makes sense because you willfully put yourself in a position of risk and got caught.

See the Adventure Activities Coverage page for more information and coverage details for adventure travelers.

5 reasons NOT to buy travel insurance

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Don't buy travel insuranceWe know you’d rather spend your dollars on having fun or getting business done when you travel and travel insurance is just one more thing you have to review and sometimes it just feels like a big hassle. To be honest, having travel insurance isn’t always necessary.

  1. If you’re traveling to an area where your health insurance coverage is in effect and where adequate medical facilities readily available, you probably don’t need travel medical coverage. Remember, however, that most health insurance plans cover you within a network range and medical care outside that area will cost more. If you can afford those medical expenses, you may not need travel medical insurance.
  2. When it doesn’t matter if your travel is significantly delayed. If you’re a slow traveler on no particular schedule and you don’t mind a few unexpected hotel or meal expenses, then you probably don’t need travel delay or missed connection coverage. Those coverages are only important if you want reimbursement for unexpected hotel, lodging, and transportation costs or you are trying to meet a cruise departure or other time-specific event.
  3. When you carry your bags with you on board the flight and you don’t worry about them being lost, stolen, or destroyed by the many people who come in contact with checked bags. You won’t even have to worry about them being routed incorrectly causing a baggage delay. In that case, you can purchase a travel insurance plan with little to no coverage for baggage.
  4. When everyone around you is perfectly healthy and has no pre-existing medical conditions. In this situation, you probably don’t need to worry about trip cancellation or interruption coverage to attend to an ill family member. Of course, remember that you may want trip cancellation and/or interruption coverage for reasons other than illness too. Many travel insurance plans allow cancellations and interruptions for a number of covered reasons.
  5. When you can afford to lose all the money you’ve invested in a trip or it will be a company loss and not your own. In that situation, coverage for cancellations may not be important to you because you won’t need reimbursement for your non refundable pre-paid trip costs.

Passport Day in the USA – September 17, 2011

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U.S. Passport Day - September 17, 2011On Saturday, September 17th, 2011, you can apply for a U.S. passport at a Regional Passport Agency without an appointment!
It’s called Passport Day in the USA 2011and if you’re planning to travel outside the U.S. in the coming months, this is a great opportunity to get your passport.

See the list of Regional Passport Agencies to locate the one nearest you.

Passport processing fees

You can apply for standard processing, which takes 4-6 weeks, or pay an additional $60 for expedited processing, which takes 2-3 weeks.

See Getting your U.S. Passport for more details.

Fun for everyone

There will be passport themed events and fun for adults and children at the Regional Passport Agencies, so if you’ve been waiting to get your passport, there’s no time like Passport Day.

Travel Guard’s Travel Insurance Protection against Terrorist Acts

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Travel insurance protections for acts of terrorism have evolved over the last decade and many travel insurance companies now include coverage for terrorist acts in their travel insurance plans.

Travel Guard offers a number of travel insurance plans with cancellation and interruption coverage for terrorist incidents:

With these plans, trip cancellation and trip interruption benefits are available if a terrorist incident occurs in a city that is listed on the insured’s itinerary within 30 days of their intended arrival.

As with any insurance product, it’s important to understand the definitions. Travel Guard defines a terrorist incident as:

“an act of violence, that is deemed terrorism by the United States Government other than civil disorder or riot (that is not an act of war, declared or undeclared) that results in Loss of life or  major damage to property, by any person acting on behalf of or in connection with any organization which is generally recognized as having the intent to overthrow or influence the control of any government.”

What this coverage means

This coverage means that you can cancel your trip if a terrorist incident occurs within 30 days of your expected arrival in a city that’s listed on your travel itinerary. Let’s say you’re headed to the London 2012 Olympics and you want to have this coverage – if a terrorist incident occurs within 30 days of your arrival, you can cancel your trip and be reimbursed for all your covered trip expenses.

How does a city get listed on your itinerary? When you fill out the form to get a quote and purchase your trip insurance, the destination city, state and/or province must be listed in that form.

What this coverage does not include

This coverage does not mean you can cancel your trip and receive reimbursement simply because you are concerned about the current media reports and worry there may be a terrorist incident. A terrorist incident actually has to occur for this coverage to be in effect.

Further, you can’t cancel your trip and receive reimbursement for a terrorist act that occurs in a nearby country.

Consider ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage

If you want more trip cancellation and interruption protection for situations where you are concerned about the potential for terrorist actions, then you’ll need to purchase the cancel for any reason upgrade. This coverage will let you cancel your trip and receive at least a portion of your trip costs back in the event you decide to cancel your trip for your own reasons.

 

This is only a brief description of the coverage(s) available.

The Policy will contain reductions, limitations, exclusions and termination provisions. Insurance is underwritten by National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., a Pennsylvania insurance company, with its principal place of business at 175 Water Street, New York, NY 10038. It is currently authorized to transact business in all states and the District of Columbia. NAIC No. 19445. Coverage may not be available in all states.

How do you KNOW you have the right amount of travel insurance?

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How much travel insurance is enough?We hear this all the time: “How do I know I have enough, but not too much, travel insurance?” and we all know:

  • Hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms and floods happen.
  • Planes are delayed and cruise departures get missed – it happens all the time.
  • Kids get sick and travel plans have to be scrapped.
  • Emergencies happen back home and you have to be there.
  • Work conflicts arise and you have to abandon your trip.

Look, we’re just like other travelers – we want to be protected, but we don’t want to have a lot of expensive coverage lying around that we never need or use. It’s a waste of money we could be spending on vacation fun after all!

So to answer this question, we did a lot of research and put together the information you need to determine whether you have enough coverage or not. It’s called 4 Steps to 100% confidence in your travel insurance plan, and while that’s a brave-sounding title, we think the content is up to the standard.

This content lays out the four steps you can follow to be sure that you 1. understand your plan and 2. have enough coverage to get home safely.

We all want to be safe and enjoy our trips, but a single injury or illness can wipe out your financial reserves – even if you’re traveling inside your home country! Take a look at the 4 Steps to 100% confidence in your travel insurance plan and let us know what you think.

 

How September 11th changed Travel Insurance

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September 11 changes on travel insuranceA decade after the September 11th attacks on the United States and its people, we took a look back to see how those events specifically shaped and changed the travel insurance industry.

As a result of the September 11th attacks, travel insurance evolved to re-define the coverage for events such as these and added coverages to help ease travelers’ concerns, including:

  • Trip cancellations expanded to include terrorism – specifically, terrorism and terrorist attacks is well defined in travel insurance policies, and some policies allow travelers to cancel their trip for a full refund if a terror attack occurs at their intended destination within 30 days of their arrival. Read about Terrorism and Mandatory Evacuation coverage. It’s important to understand that an attack defined as being a terrorist event must occur within the defined time frame in order for a traveler to make a cancellation claim. If you’re simply worried an attack will occur, you’ll need the following coverage.
  • ‘Cancel for any reason’ is a new addition – after the September 11th attacks, people were very uneasy with the idea of flying and many simply chose not to. ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage extends the covered reasons for trip cancellation and allows nervous travelers to cancel their trips for 50%-100% of their trip costs back depending on the plan.
  • Security evacuations were added too – when a travel encounters a dangerous situation such as a military coup, a civil uprising, or impending natural disaster, they can request rescue from their travel insurance company if they have this coverage. Travelers who simply cannot avoid travel to hot spots find great comfort in knowing they can tap into a coordination team and resources to help them get to safety.

Not all travel insurance plans have these coverages, so as always, it’s important for the traveler to read and understand their travel plan certificate. That document will outline specifically what your coverage includes and, sometimes more importantly, what is specifically excluded.