This Is Why You Need to Get Travel Insurance to Protect Your Trips This Year
Introduction
Even though it’s only the beginning of the year, you're likely already planning your vacations. If you plan on traveling at all, you should consider getting travel insurance to cover your trips. Travel often involves a lot of moving parts, and any disruptions can cause major financial losses.
Image Description: A family at an airport checking their travel insurance documents before boarding a flight.
1. To Cover Nonrefundable Expenses When You Cancel a Trip
No matter how well you plan ahead, unexpected things happen. If you end up having to cancel your trip due to a change in plans, you may not be able to recover all your prepaid and nonrefundable trip payments like flights and hotel reservations.
Trip cancellation insurance will cover nonrefundable losses that result from a covered reason such as injury, illness, or death of a traveler, severe weather, jury duty that can’t be postponed, or the financial insolvency of a travel provider. If you need to cancel for another reason, there are more expensive options available.
“Trip cancellation insurance is only necessary when you have made non-refundable pre-payments for your trip like a non-refundable airfare or hotel room. To avoid the fine print of what is and isn’t considered an acceptable reason for cancellation, you may want to look into 'cancel for any reason' insurance, although it may be more costly,” said Grace Henes, editor at TravelPirates.
Image Description: Infographic explaining the benefits of trip cancellation insurance and covered reasons for cancellation.
2. To Cover Losses Experienced While Traveling
Travel insurance can also help you recover from other common losses that occur during your travels. There are many types of coverage to help protect you during your trip:
Trip Delay Insurance
This will reimburse expenses incurred during covered travel delays. For example, if your flight is delayed overnight due to severe weather, trip delay insurance can reimburse you for lodging expenses.
Baggage Delay Insurance
This covers the cost of necessities (think toiletries, clothes, and other essentials) when your baggage is delayed beyond a certain amount of time.
Lost Luggage Insurance
This reimburses you for losses when your luggage is lost entirely — though there are exclusions.
Image Description: Infographic showing different types of travel insurance coverage for losses experienced during travel.
3. To Provide Health Coverage and Emergency Aid
In the case of a medical emergency, your health insurance plan might not be sufficient — many policies limit the types of treatment covered while traveling abroad or only provide partial coverage. If you need to see a doctor while traveling, you might be on the hook for those expenses.
Travel insurance policies can be a literal lifesaver in these situations. Most comprehensive policies offer the option of covering illnesses or medical evacuation, or separate travel health insurance can be purchased to cover any medical emergencies. Henes recommends purchasing additional travel health insurance if you are planning on “adventure travel” like mountain-climbing.
Image Description: Infographic showing the importance of travel health insurance and what it covers.
Using Your Credit Card to Get Travel Insurance
Many credit card issuers already provide some level of travel insurance coverage, especially for customers with travel rewards cards. However, there are limitations and exclusions, and not every card issuer provides the same level of coverage. Check your credit card statement benefits to see what — if any — travel coverage you have.
You may also want to stack third-party travel insurance on top of your card’s existing policies. For example, if your card has cancellation and delay insurance but no medical coverage, you could purchase a travel health insurance policy on your own.
Remember, you generally have to put travel purchases on your credit card to receive the benefit of the card’s insurance.
Image Description: Infographic explaining how to use your credit card's travel insurance benefits.
Conclusion
Travel insurance is a worthwhile investment to protect your trips from unexpected disruptions. Whether it's covering nonrefundable expenses, protecting against travel losses, or providing health coverage in emergencies, travel insurance can save you from significant financial losses. Check your credit card benefits and consider adding a comprehensive travel insurance policy for complete peace of mind.
