If you’re planning a trip, you may wonder if you need travel insurance. The answer is: it depends. Travel insurance is designed to protect you from financial losses resulting from your trip, but it is not a replacement for all of the other types of insurance you may need.
For example, if you rent a car, you must purchase car insurance. If you are flying, your health insurance will not cover you in the event of an accident or illness while you are in the air. In these cases, you would need to purchase travel insurance to be covered. To learn more about what travel insurance covers, read on!
What is Travel Insurance?
In one way or another, we have heard about canceled flights and lost baggage, and most do not think about what travel insurance covers. Travel insurance helps to protect from unexpected events that may occur before or during a trip.
If anything goes wrong during a trip, your savings may be affected seriously if you don’t have travel insurance. Unexpected happenings like flight cancellations, accidents, or lost baggage can throw a wrench in your well-laid travel plans.
Therefore, knowing that your trip is protected will help give you peace of mind before, during, and after a vacation. Let’s then find out exactly what travel insurance covers and what it does not cover.
Read Also:
- Top 10 Best Motorcycle Insurance For Learners In Australia
- Are Dermatologists Covered by Insurance?
- How to get Rhinoplasty Covered by Insurance
What Does Travel Insurance Cover?
Below are what travel insurance covers and what it does not cover:
1. What travel insurance covers
Most travel insurance covers the following:
- Accidental dismemberment and death insurance
Ensures coverage for death and loss of limbs or eyesight due to an accident. But note that natural death from illness or suicide is not covered by travel insurance, so it is not the same as a life insurance policy.
- Delayed baggage
Insurance pays back the essentials for delayed baggage, like clothes, toiletries, or a phone charger, that might be needed if your bag is delayed. Your luggage must have been delayed for several hours before receiving the insurance, say from six to twenty-four hours, depending on the policy.
- Loss of baggage
Insurance for the loss of baggage pays back the cost of your suitcase and belongings in case a checked bag gets missing, stolen, or damaged during a covered trip.
- Emergency repatriation and medical evacuation
Travel insurance covers the cost of medical evacuation if you have a medical emergency and cannot be treated at the facility closest to you. It covers the transport costs to another hospital or your home country, if required, and includes transportation of dead remains.
- Missed connection
Missed connections are one of the benefits covered by travel insurance. Extra expenses will be paid for if an expected carrier delay causes you to miss an organized tour or a cruise, for example, and you need to pay extra to catch up to it at the next port of call.
- Reinstate frequent traveler awards
If you paid for a trip with airline miles or hotel points and it is subsequently canceled, this insurance benefit will cover any fees required to redeposit your rewards to your frequent traveler account.
- Cancellation of trip
This insurance pays you for prepaid, nonrefundable costs if you must cancel a trip for a specific covered reason. Reasons that are covered include:
- Financial insolvency.
- Loss of employment
- Natural disaster.
- Airline strike.
- Military duty.
- Stolen passport or visa.
- Jury duty
- Inclement weather.
- Sickness or death of a family member.
- Delayed trip
Delayed trip insurance covers costs associated with transportation, meals, or lodging in case your common carrier is delayed and also reimbursement of any prepaid, nonrefundable expenses. This insurance coverage takes effect after a specified time, depending on the policy but usually ranges from five to twelve hours.
- Interruption trip
Interruption of trip insurance pays you for unused, nonrefundable costs in case you must cut the trip short and return home for a covered reason. These reasons include a family member’s sickness or death, inclement weather or a natural disaster, and terrorism.
2. What travel insurance does not cover
Travel insurance may not be able to cover you in certain conditions, like adventure sports or foreseeable weather. Some incidents that aren’t covered by a travel policy include;
1. A named storm: Most travel plans protect you from problems that come with inclement weather. But If you purchase coverage after a natural disaster has begun, it won’t be covered.
2. Activities performed under the influence: Drug and alcohol use are a notable exception to most travel policies.
3. Extreme sports: High-risk sports, such as bungee jumping, scuba diving, or rock climbing, are not covered by a comprehensive travel insurance plan.
4. A general travel policy won’t cover fear of travel because of a pandemic or another reason.
5. Medical tourism: Expenses outside regular medical expenses are not covered here.
6. Pregnancy: Cancelling a trip because you’re pregnant is not allowed; you can do so only if you had already purchased the plan before you became pregnant.
Benefits of travel insurance
Various kinds of benefits provided through travel insurance are as follows:
1. Emergency Medical Expenses: All travel insurance covers medical expenses incurred during your travel.
2. No Age Discrimination: Originally, insurance policies, like health and life, had some age restrictions as to who could apply for their insurance products. But travel insurance has no such discrimination based on travelers’ age. It ensures a newborn baby as well as a senior citizen.
3. Loss/Delay of Luggage: In case of loss of your luggage or damage to your items, the travel insurance policy compensates you for up to the insured amount.
4. Cancellation Refunds: There is always a possibility of canceling a trip due to personal challenges. In such situations, if you want to get back the money you spent on tickets and other things, you must go through a travel insurance policy that invests in the cancellation coverage provision. This provision ensures that if you were to cancel your trip in the future for legitimate reasons, you would be compensated adequately for the costs incurred by you in planning the same trip.
5. Cash Crunch Allowance: Thefts are commonplace in any corner of the world. However, through a travel insurance policy, your insurance provider will look to provide a fixed cash allowance to you in such emergencies.
6. Personal Liability Coverage: Accidents can happen anywhere, anytime. If you end up hurting anyone during your travel, they can pose legal charges against you. If you have invested in a robust travel insurance policy, your insurance provider will cover your expenses.
7. Peace of Mind: The most crucial benefit of travel insurance is the peace of mind it brings to the policyholder.
Conclusion
In all, travel insurance is a very vital thing to be acquired by anyone, especially people who travel a lot due to one thing or the other. What travel insurance covers and what it does not cover, including travel insurance benefits, are described in the above article.