subject: Travel Insurance - Are You Covered? [print this page] Lately, sales of travel insurance have grown by leaps and bounds due to terrorism scares, environmental disasters and outbreaks of diseases. But as it is with anything, there is a catch. If you get scared and want to cancel your trip, your policy may not cover you.
Say you're afraid of a bombing in the subway or something like that, it may not be covered. If you think there's a chance of a tropical storm slamming into the shore you love, it probably isn't covered. Travel insurance doesn't have to cover any of these things.
What travel insurance will cover, is payment to you for non-reimbursable portions of your vacation. For example, a typical qualified expenditure would be plane fare. This could happen when the person with travel insurance has to revise travel plans or not travel at all, or is stuck away from home and expenses for motel and meals are incurred.
The policy may possibly provide medical treatment in the event that you are under the care of a doctor in a foreign country. Many medical policies that cover a person at home may not cover expenses in another country and the individual must pay for them unless they have travel insurance. However, each of these programs will have certain exclusions.
a lot of what are known as acts of God are excluded with many travel insurance policies and some of those are what prompted the person to buy the policy. A lot of programs don't cover terrorist acts at all. It is important to peruse these contracts.
Even if travel insurance is found and it doesn't exclude terroristic acts, there could be a provision that it will cover the insured only if there has been a bombing or act of terrorism in the travel area within a month. So if there is a terrorist act in Paris, and your trip was planned for London, your insurance will not cover the costs if you cancel. Being afraid is not covered under travel insurance.
However, people buy travel policies because they are concerned and afraid. Most travel insurance will not cover those circumstances even though they were the prompting factor for their purchase. These policies will also require you purchase the specific insurance coverage you want (i.e. terrorism) within 15 days of booking your trip, or you will not be covered.
In 2006 London, after a terrorist plan to attack planes was uncovered, the majority of insurers did pay for hotel rooms and meals for their insureds who were delayed due to fears that the terrorists would be able to follow through with their plans. However, if you wanted to cancel your trip altogether, the insurance did not reimburse you because there was no actual attack.
What that travel insurance policy is going to cost you depends on the price of your actual trip as well as what you are going to want to cover. There are comprehensive policies available that will cover delays that may leave you stranded, lost luggage, emergency medical, cancellations, flight accident and medical evacuation coverage. You may prefer to shop for a policy that covers only your concerns, they are available.
Though not common some policies can be purchased that include a "cancel for any reason" clause. If you purchase this type of coverage, your policy will reimburse you 74 percent of the cost of your trip, should you decide not to go. Because this policy offers more leniency, it costs much more than regular travel insurance.
Travel insurance brokers sell roughly seventeen million policies every year in the U.S. As expected, since the September 11 tragedy, travel insurance sales have almost doubled. It is expected that they will continue to increase, due to recent events such as environmental disasters and outbreaks of disease that affect the travel industry.
The thing to remember when there's a major disruption that affects your travel plans, most cruise lines, airlines, and hotels will waive their fees and restrictions for re-booking. So, you do not necessarily need to purchase extra insurance.
by: Nicholeehrlich
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