To Buy or Not to Buy: The Eternal Question of Travel Insurance

Bob N. and his family were booked on a Disney cruise, with travel insurance, in 1997 when Uncle Tommy died. The family cancelled the cruise and asked for their money back. The insurance company said Uncle Tommy had a pre-existing condition so this circumstance was excluded from the insurance. Bob explained to the agent that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1973 and there was no possible way they could know that he would die a week before the cruise. The company asked for a Doctor's statement detailing his death, which a cousin managed to obtain, and the company eventually reimbursed the family for the cancellation. This is just one example of travel insurance going wrong. On the other hand, the family did get the insurance to eventually reimburse them for the price of the tickets. Here we will explore some possibilities for travel insurance.

When booking plane reservations/checking-in online, or really reservations for any travel, the questions that you will come across are; how many travel bags are you checking and are you sure you don’t want travel insurance? The number of bags to check is a pretty easy question to answer, since you should probably know the number of bags you have with you. The question of travel insurance has caused all of us to doubt, if even for a millisecond. It seems like a really good idea, just in case something goes wrong, but on the other hand is it really worth the extra money? Here are some pros and cons to getting travel insurance.

Pros: The number one pro of travel insurance is that in case something unexpected happens, you will be covered. This can be anything from a torrential downpour when you left you baggage outside to an accident while traveling. This also includes lost or damaged luggage or a medical emergency.

Cons: If you run into bad weather and your plane, train, or automobile gets delayed you won’t be reimbursed. Nor will you be reimbursed if you change your mind about the specific travel plans, or traveling at all. Often, there are a lot of restrictions as well on what you can and cannot claim. Generally expensive electronics are not claimable by travel insurance because they should have their own insurance policy. This is particularly unfortunate, since when you want to claim something it is more often than not the expensive electronics and not the clothing that you want reimbursed. Travel insurance will also not cover your medical expenses if you have a pre-existing condition or contract an illness causing neurological problems.

These, of course, are just a few pros and cons to buying travel bags. Depending upon your specific vacation the pros might outweigh the cons and vice versa. For example, if you are traveling to a remote island and plan to be moving around a lot, travel insurance would probably be a good thing to consider since you never know what could happen with all the moving from place-to-place. On the other hand, if you are taking a short vacation across the country it’s probably not necessary to buy travel insurance. Nor is it one hundred per cent necessary to buy travel insurance if you are going on a long vacation, but only to one place, particularly in Europe. Although it would be an unexpected expense, if something completely unfortunate happens, there are a myriad of stores where you can replace what has been lost or stolen.

In general, however, there are more horror stories about travel insurance than things making it completely necessary. It just depends upon how much effort you are willing to put into getting reimbursed because, more often than not, there is some loophole that the company will go through to avoid having to pay.

In summary, you need to be sure that you are asking questions about specifics of what will and will not be covered. You need to be sure that you know ALL of the details before you dive in and purchase travel insurance. Make sure that you do this research for more than one company. This way you will have a lot of information to choose from and you can make an informed decision about which travel insurance could be right for you and your vacation.