Travel insurance is a must these days. I know, I know. The topic is boring and makes your eyes glaze over. I get it. I was just like you until I became a travel advisor and started seeing the travel craziness and horrible situations that are hard to avoid sometimes. Travel advisors share stories when we get together. You should hear all the insanity and anguish I hear. Yikes!
I’ve even been guilty of thinking “Oh, it’s just a flight to Florida, I can handle it if it gets delayed.” On that same trip my family sat in Fort Lauderdale airport for 6 hours waiting for our delayed plane. We missed our connection at JFK airport and had to rent a car to drive ourselves home. We had missed the last connecting flight, so our choices were to spend the night or drive three hours.
We spent the cost of a rental car out of pocket. Was it a ton of money? No. But it was money that we didn’t need to spend. We were lucky that our connection was relatively close to home and renting a car was a possibility.
People don’t want to deal with insurance. I understand. It’s confusing and boring but is almost always necessary. Here are some things I have recently shared with clients that you may want to think about as well.
You could lose all your vacation money. You aren’t planning on cancelling your trip, but life happens. Especially with kids. Germs, broken bones, or changing work commitments can mess with your schedule. With the right insurance, if you cancel your trip for a covered reason, you will have your money back to rebook your trip for another day.
Here is something else many of my clients don’t realize: Most health insurance doesn’t work outside of the country. This means if you need medical care in another country or on a cruise, you are paying for it out of pocket. Did you know that in some popular destinations, they won’t even start treating you until they have received full payment upfront. The beauty of travel insurance is that they can make payment arrangements for you so that you get the treatment you need in a prompt manner. They will even tell you where the good doctors are and help you get there. All without emptying your savings account.
Airlines these days are crazy, right? I read somewhere (who knows where) that some years, 80% of flights are delayed. This isn’t to bag (see what I did with the luggage pun?) on airlines. I love my former airline family and all my friends that still make travel a wonderful adventure, but the skies require a back-up plan. You need travel delay and baggage delay benefits. Reimbursement for added hotel stays and meals might not make you less disappointed in your delay, but at least you won’t have the extra frustration of wasting money you weren’t planning on spending.
In the end, I decided I needed to make sure I always practiced what I preached, so now I have a year-round travel policy. This year I’m also buying year-round policies for my family. We have a big travel-year planned including a multi-generational trip to Alaska. You probably don’t need a year-round policy, but you should protect your trip. I work with some great travel partners who offer travel insurance. While I’m not an insurance agent and I’m not able to answer specific policy questions, I can put you in touch with my favorite insurance people. They are nice and not boring. They will also make sure you have the correct amount of coverage for your needs. Just let me know if you need help.
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