12. Finding and Purchasing Travel Insurance
In this chapter, you’ll learn about optional travel insurance and why it could be an important investment. Topics covered include
What travel insurance is, what’s covered, and why it might be useful
How to shop for travel insurance online
How to initiate a claim online
As you make travel arrangements and book travel and accommodations, the online travel service or airline website you use will typically offer you optional travel protection for an additional fee. Likewise, when you rent a car, you’ll be offered optional vehicle protection or loss/damage waiver protection from the rental car company for an additional daily fee.
Because online travel services, airlines, and rental car companies are not insurance agents, what’s being offered to you is typically “trip protection,” “travel protection,” or “vehicle protection” coverage rather than comprehensive “travel insurance.” In many cases, the actual coverage you receive might be similar, although it might not be as comprehensive as travel insurance.
Trip protection for a flight, for example, typically covers issues that occur that are somehow related only to the flight and little else. So, before purchasing any trip protection coverage, read the fine print carefully to determine what’s covered and how much coverage is offered.
For more comprehensive coverage, make all your travel arrangements and then purchase travel insurance from an independent insurance company that specializes in travel insurance, such as Allianz, Travel Guard (AIG), or Travelex. Each offers a variety of coverage plans that includes much more comprehensive coverage related to all aspects of your trip. You can find details about these three companies later in this chapter in the “Shopping for Travel Insurance” section.
Purchase Optional Travel Insurance Before You Depart
If you’re interested in acquiring optional travel insurance, you must purchase it before you depart for your trip.
In general, the one-time cost for travel insurance is approximately 10 to 20 percent of the overall trip cost. The cost depends on where you live, your age, where you’re traveling to, the overall cost of your trip, the level of coverage (or maximum benefit payouts) you select, and the additional coverage options you choose.
The price of the policy is also affected by whether you include a Cancel for Any Reason option to the plan. That option costs more, but it offers a lot more flexibility and coverage if you need to cancel your trip for a reason that’s covered by the policy.
When You Travel, Things Can Go Wrong, So Be Prepared!
No matter how much time and effort you invest to make sure every aspect of an upcoming trip is planned perfectly, sometimes things go wrong. When something unexpected happens just prior to a trip or during your travels, the negative financial implications can be significant. Travel insurance might help you avoid incurring hundreds or often thousands of dollars in extra costs to rectify the problem, obtain medical help that’s needed, and return home safely.
Travel Insurance Coverage
The following are some of the things that can go wrong just prior to or during a trip:
• Your credit cards, driver’s license, or passport are lost or stolen.
• A cancelled or significantly delayed flight dramatically disrupts your trip and prevents you from making a connecting flight or from boarding a cruise ship before its departure.
• Severe weather (such as a hurricane) forces you to unexpectedly change or cancel your travel plans or end your trip prematurely.
• A travel provider you paid goes bankrupt.
• You arrive at your destination but your luggage is delayed or lost by the airline.
• Your hotel room gets robbed, or you get mugged during a trip and some of your personal property gets stolen.
• You have a personal injury, accident, or emergency medical issue before the trip. (In this case, your medical expenses would not be covered but you would be able to recover the cost of your trip, even if it was otherwise nonrefundable or non-changeable.)
• On your trip, you’re involved in an accident that requires emergency medical treatment, hospitalization, and/or evacuation.
• Your prescription medication gets lost, and you need an emergency refill while traveling abroad.
• During a cruise, you get off the ship at a port of call, something happens to cause a delay on land, and you miss the ship’s departure.
• You have prepaid for a trip and have nonrefundable reservations, but you need to cancel the trip prior to departure for personal or medical reasons.
The insurance plan you select determines what situations related to a trip are covered. As with any type of insurance, the hope is that you purchase it but never need to file a claim and actually take advantage of it. However, if something does go wrong before or during a trip, especially if you’re traveling abroad, travel insurance is a relatively small investment that you’ll be very happy you made.
When you acquire optional travel insurance from a company like Allianz, Travel Guard, or Travelex, depending on the plan you choose, most or all aspects of your trip are covered.
Keep in mind that some travel insurance policies include a “cancel for any reason,” provision, which often costs a bit extra. If this is the case, you can cancel the trip prior to your departure and recover a significant portion of the money you spent on nonrefundable and non-changeable airline, hotel, rental car, resort, or cruise reservations, for example. Be sure to read the fine print before purchasing travel insurance to understand exactly what’s covered under the “cancel for any reason” provision.
Most comprehensive travel insurance you acquire from a company like Allianz, Travel Guard, or Travelex offer some or all of the coverage you need in one policy, for a flat fee, that includes protection for the duration of your trip. After you acquire travel insurance, the coverage remains active from the time you purchase it until you return home (based on the dates you provide when acquiring the policy). If after acquiring a policy you change your departure or return date, it’s essential that you contact the company you purchased the travel insurance from and amend the policy to maintain full coverage for the duration of your entire trip.
Comprehensive Travel Insurance
Comprehensive travel insurance offers a wide range of coverage. Be sure to visit the website of the travel insurance company you work with to determine the level of coverage offered and to acquire definitive and detailed explanations for each type of coverage. The descriptions offered here are for general reference purposes only.
Also, some activities might not be covered by your comprehensive insurance plan. If your vacation involves certain dangerous activities—such as skiing, skydiving, scuba diving, hot air ballooning, piloting an aircraft, or driving a race car—you might need additional insurance to have coverage if something goes wrong while you’re engaged in that activity.
When choosing a travel insurance policy, look for the following types of coverage and choose the ones that are important to you:
• Accidental Death and Dismemberment: This aspect of the insurance includes a predetermined amount of coverage if the insured person is injured or killed during the trip as a result of an accident. (Certain types of accidents resulting from the participation of dangerous activities, such as skydiving, are not covered unless additional coverage is added to the policy.)
• Baggage Delay: This covers your checked luggage if it’s delayed by your airline for more than a predetermined number of hours.
• Cancel for Any Reason: This option allows you to decide that you simply don’t want to go on the trip after it’s been booked and paid for.
• Cancel for Work Reason: This option allows you to cancel the trip, if the reason relates to a work-related issue that’s covered by the policy.
• Car Rental Collision Coverage: This is equivalent to the Loss/Damage Waiver Protection offered by rental car companies. It covers the rental vehicle if it’s stolen or damaged.
• Emergency Evacuation: This covers the costs of being evacuated and transported to a hospital for emergency medical treatment.
• Emergency Travel Assistance: This is an added benefit offered by travel insurance providers that allows you to call a special phone number anytime during your trip if you require help.
• Lost, Stolen, or Damaged Baggage and Travel Documents: This covers your luggage, personal belongings, and travel documents (up to a certain value specified by the policy) if they are lost, stolen, or damaged during your trip. This is in addition to any coverage offered automatically by an airline.
• Medical Expenses: This covers any medical attention you require during your trip.
Existing Medical Condition?
If you have an existing medical condition, special requirements apply if you want to obtain maximum insurance coverage and benefits during your trip. The Allianz website offers an informative article about what you need to know when acquiring travel insurance. You can find the article at www.allianztravelinsurance.com/travel/medical/existing-medical-conditions-coverage.htm.
• Missed Connection: This covers the additional expenses or financial loses as a result of missing a connecting flight, train, or ship that results in a disruption of your trip.
• Trip Cancellation: This means if the trip gets cancelled for a covered reason that’s outside your control, you can recover your financial losses.
• Trip Delay: This covers the additional expenses or financial losses as a result of a trip that’s delayed due to a covered reason.
• Trip Interruption: This covers you if something happens that causes your trip to end early.
Always Pay Attention to the Level of Coverage Offered
Every travel insurance policy offers different coverage levels or maximum benefit amounts for each specific type of coverage. Based on your needs, make sure the policy you purchase offers ample coverage. Emergency medical attention involving emergency evacuation and/or hospitalization, for example, can easily wind up costing tens of thousands of dollars or more.
Shopping for Travel Insurance
The easiest way to shop for and purchase optional travel insurance prior to a trip is to call a travel insurance provider, or visit a company’s website to get details about coverage and purchase a policy for yourself and your family members.
Table 12.1 provides contact information for Allianz, Travel Guard, and Travelex, three popular and highly reputable travel insurance providers.
Emergency Calls from Abroad
When you make an emergency assistance call to one of these insurance companies from outside the United States, make a collect call to the number listed in the right column of Table 12.1.
As you shop for travel insurance among various providers, you’ll see varying levels of protection and coverage, as well as varying prices. Make sure you’re acquiring the most comprehensive coverage, with the maximum level of benefits you might need, at the best value.
Allianz Mobile App
If you purchase Allianz Travel Insurance, you can manage the policy, access the TravelSmart Hotline, and have useful information at your fingertips by downloading and installing the free TravelSmart Mobile App for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.
Purchase Travel Insurance Online
For demonstration purposes, this section explains how to shop for travel insurance from Travel Guard (AIG) by visiting this company’s website. If you choose a different insurance provider, the requested information will be similar, but the plans that are offered, their respective prices, and the level of benefits offered will vary. The entire process for finding and purchasing optional travel insurance should take less than 10 to 15 minutes.
Make all of your travel reservations as you normally would, and calculate your total trip cost by adding up the cost of airfare, accommodations, rental car, cruise, and/or vacation package. Include everything trip-related that you’ve paid for thus far or will pay for before you depart. (Not shown.)
From your computer, use your favorite web browser and type www.travelguard.com in the address field.
Click the Get a Quote tab.
Select where you live from the State of Residency drop-down menu.
Select your destination country.
Fill in the fields displayed below the Trip Details heading.
Enter the trip cost and birth date for each traveler for whom you’re purchasing the same travel insurance policy.
A Policy for Each Traveler
Each person you’re traveling with requires his or her own policy, but it’s easy to purchase the same policy for multiple people at the same time online.
Click Continue.
Review the plan options and the circumstances that each covers.
Click the Customize button associated with the plan you want to acquire.
Click the check box for each option that you want to add to the policy. In some cases, additional information will be required from you once you select an option.
Click the Re-Calculate Quote button to see the updated price of the plan.
Full Description of Coverage
To see a detailed description of coverage for the plan you’ve selected, click the Please Read Description of Coverage Here link.
Click Continue.
Provide the information requested for each traveler. Notice that their birth dates and trip costs (that you entered earlier) are also displayed. Make sure this information is correct. Scroll down.
Use the pull-down menus to select answers to all questions that apply to your trip. If a question doesn’t apply, from the pull-down menu, select the None option.
Click the Add Beneficiary button to enter the full name of the beneficiary you want to designate for the life insurance aspect of the policy.
Click Continue.
Select how you’d like to receive your insurance documents. The By Email option is the most convenient.
Enter your payment information.
(Optional) Click the Description of Coverage, Terms and Conditions, Privacy Notice, Alerts, Strike List, and Fraud Notice options to review additional information about the plan before purchasing it.
Click the check box to acknowledge that you have read and agree to the terms and conditions of the policy.
If you have any questions about the insurance plan or what it covers, click the Have a Question? button.
Click Complete Purchase to finalize your purchase. In a few minutes, you will receive a confirmation email that includes your policy number and related information. Keep this email safe in your inbox until after you return from your trip, in case you need to reference it.
Print Out Your Insurance Documents
Be sure to print the insurance documents that are provided. Included with this paperwork will be an insurance card that lists your name, insurance policy number, and phone numbers to call in case of an emergency. Keep this paperwork with all your other important travel documents. Put the card in your wallet for easy access during your travels. You might also want to keep a copy with your loved ones at home, email a copy to yourself, and store it in the cloud for safekeeping.
Filing a Claim Online
In the best-case scenario, you’ll purchase travel insurance, nothing will go wrong, and you will never need to file a claim with the insurance company. But if something does go awry, call the emergency assistance phone number for the insurance company immediately—or as soon as you are safely able to. You will be asked to provide your policy number, name, and other related information. Follow the instructions given to you during the call.
To file a claim, follow the directions given to you when you call the emergency assistance phone number, or return to the insurance company’s website and follow the directions provided here:
• Travel Guard (AIG): Visit www.travelguard.com, click the Customer Service main menu option and then the Claims option. Click Create an Account. Follow the on-screen prompts to continue. Be sure to watch the instructional video, “How to File a Claim,” and click the Required Documentation option to determine what paperwork you need to provide.
• Allianz: Visit www.allianztravelinsurance.com and click the File a Claim option. Follow the on-screen prompts to continue.
• Travelex: Visit www.travelexinsurance.com, click the Plan Holders main menu option, and choose the File a Claim option. Follow the on-screen prompts to continue.
Based on the type of claim you are filing, you will be required to provide completed forms provided by the insurance company, as well as related documentation (medical bills, letters from medical professionals, police reports, and so on) and receipts for expenses incurred. Failure to provide everything that’s requested will result in delays in the processing of your claim—or the inability to process your claim altogether.
Once all of the correct paperwork has been submitted with your claim, based on the insurance company, allow 7 to 30 days for the claim to be reviewed. You can check the status of the claim any time by visiting the company’s website or by calling its customer service phone number.
If you need to file a claim with your travel insurance provider, be sure to keep detailed notes of all related information, including a timeline, what actions were taken, who you spoke with (doctors, police officers, witnesses, and so on), and what expenses you incurred. Also, be sure to obtain a copy of any printed police, hospital, or accident reports that were created. The more information you gather in advance, the easier it will be to reconstruct the events when filing a claim. Also keep a record of communications you have with the insurance company—whom you spoke with, when, and what their representatives said.