Whether you’re going on a business trip or the vacation of a lifetime, it would be a good idea to seriously consider taking out a travel insurance policy. Going on the theory that you can never be too careful, and that whatever can go wrong will at some point, you would be well advised to carry adequate travel insurance. It’s relatively cheap, and if something were to happen you’d be sorry if you didn’t have the foresight to take out travel insurance. Following are a few travel insurance policies to consider.
Lots of Options
Travel insurance comes in many forms. In fact, the options are practically limitless. If you search long enough and hard enough, and are willing to pay for it, you can get a travel insurance policy to cover you for nearly any possibility. You can purchase a travel insurance policy over the phone, or use the Internet to get cheap insurance quotes. You can also get it through your travel agent. Travel insurance policies can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make them.
Trip Cancellation Insurance
One of the most popular and useful types of travel insurance is trip cancellation insurance. No matter how carefully you plan, or how much you pay attention to details, something could come up that would cause you to have to cancel your trip. Although most airlines would be willing to work with you given sufficient warning, most problems that would cause you to cancel your trip at the last minute would be of the emergency nature, meaning you can’t give the airline company a lot of warning. That being the case, they would probably not be prone to reimburse you for the price of the ticket. That’s where trip cancellation insurance would be invaluable. In this case, it is wise to check and contact cancelled flight compensation companies before booking, since it would only be right to be reimbursed if some unfavorable situations arise beyond your control.
Medical Travel Insurance
In order to get the most out of a trip, you need to remain healthy. If you don’t feel good or an emergency comes up, such as broken bones resulting from a trip and fall, or you come down with a sickness or disease that threatens your life, you would most likely require some sort of medical treatment. Even if you have health insurance coverage. you may not be able to receive the sort of care you’re used to, and possibly not in a timely manner if you’re overseas. In fact, your regular health insurance may not cover you at all in a foreign land. That makes carrying medical travel insurance a necessity. You’d be very sorry indeed if you were injured or became ill while sightseeing in a remote part of Africa or Asia and had no medical insurance. You can get a travel policy that will take care of virtually any medical emergency you could think of, including evacuation to the nearest modern medical treatment facility.
Flight Delays
Given the number of planes in the air at any given time, and the variety of reasons a flight could be delayed or cancelled, you would be well advised to think about a travel insurance policy that included reimbursement for flight delays. If you have to change planes in Atlanta for a connecting flight to Miami, but the plane you’re supposed to board is still on the ground in Boston because of fog, you’re not going to make it to your destination very quickly. Sure, the airlines will attempt to reroute you, but that won’t always be possible. If that happened on a pleasure trip it would be merely an unpleasant, although somewhat expensive, inconvenience. However, for a business traveler it could cost a fortune in missed opportunities. By carrying insurance for flight delays you could at least recover the cost of the ticket as well as immediate expenses caused by the delay.
Lost Luggage
Everyone has heard the horror stories of arriving at the airport in any given city and finding out your luggage missed the trip or ended up going to a city a thousand miles away. While you’re stuck in your hotel room without a change of underwear the airline tries to find your suitcase. By the time they locate it in Istanbul, your business meeting in London is over and you looked foolish giving a lecture to a group of psychologists dressed in a polo shirt and Bermuda shorts. Of course, you probably wouldn’t do that. Instead you’d go out and buy a suit for the presentation. If you carry travel insurance for lost luggage, you could be reimbursed for the expense.
Special Danger Policies
If your trip includes something dangerous, such as mountain climbing, backcountry skiing or whitewater kayaking, you may be wise to consider some sort of travel insurance that includes compensation for medical treatment above and beyond what a normal medical travel insurance policy would cover. These sorts of policies are more costly, because of the type of activity you’d be engaged in, but may be well worth the expense.
Guest post from Bailey Harris. Bailey enjoys writing about travel, insurance, finance, and related topics.
