Travel insurance is something nobody wants to think about, because, of course, insurance is only needed at the worst times. However, it’s necessary to purchase and keep, for the worst case scenarios. If you read our blog regularly, you’ve seen our entry discussing the importance of having travel insurance. This time around, we’ll discuss insurance itself in more detail, including what you need to look for when you purchase it.
The broad points of travel insurance
Travel insurance can generally be purchased either annually or in trip-specific form. If you are a frequent enough traveler, the annual insurance may be the more cost-effective way to purchase coverage. You’ll have to calculate and compare for yourself, based on your expected needs.
Even before your trip, travel insurance can protect your from things like a trip cancellation or interruption– an emergency prevents you from going on the vacation, or something happens that forces you to cut it short. Similarly, travel insurance can protect you in the event something goes wrong with one of your flights– for example, a delay on one flight causes you to miss a connection, or the airline loses your luggage. Airlines aren’t necessarily obligated to provide recompense for these situations, even when they are at fault. Travel insurance always covers it.
The finer points of travel insurance
While the general coverage and the pre-travel coverage mentioned above is sound to have, it can be easy to gloss over important details in travel insurance if you don’t know about them. You’ll want to review the list below and make sure your travel insurance covers everything you need in specific terms. (Some of these are more important than others.)
Some of the specific benefits your travel insurance should provide on your vacation:
- Coverage for the country you are traveling in. Obviously, if your coverage doesn’t cover you where you’re headed, it’s worthless.
- Coverage for personal injury. A personal injury is the worst thing that can happen on a trip (aside from death, but in that case your problems are bigger than travel insurance can handle), so it’s the one you most want to be prepared for. Good insurance will provide substantial personal injury coverage.
- Coverage for emergency medical assistance and transportation. See above. It’s important to make sure your plan specifically provides for this.
- Coverage for loss or theft of valuables and documents. This one speaks for itself. It’s best not to travel with too many expensive things, but some of them are unavoidable necessities. Even more important than the financial restitution is having a backup plan in case your paperwork is stolen.
- Coverage for electronics and other expensive personal goods. In addition to being lost or stolen– and generally being a target for the latter– electronics in particular can break in a number of ways.
When you plan your next vacation with AffordableTours.com, our seasoned professionals will be more than happy to help you find the travel insurance that’s right for you. Visit our website or call us at 1-800-935-2620.