I’ve never been one to buy travel insurance, but when there were two hurricanes headed to Hawaii this summer the same time we were vacationing there – I sure was wishing I had purchased it! I immediately looked into trying to add insurance to our trip, but I needed to do it within 15 days of booking (I was 9 months past that date). After researching what travel insurance would’ve cost if we needed to cancel a pretty expensive family vacation – it would’ve definitely been worth it. Luckily, we didn’t need to cancel, but going forward we will be getting insurance.
So why and when is a good time to buy travel insurance? After doing some research we wanted to share what we found with all of you….
Travel insurance helps reimburse travelers for their pre-paid and non-refundable trip costs if they have to cancel their trip due to a covered reason. Covered reasons vary by provider and plan. Here are some top reasons to get travel insurance:
- Weather – is something you don’t have control over and could lead to travel delays or cause you to cancel your trip altogether. If a flight is canceled due to bad weather passengers do not get compensated.
- Lost luggage – whether lost, stolen or damaged, it could get expensive to replace all contents.
- Someone gets hurt or sick – if someone gets sick before a trip and needs to cancel, you could lose the full cost of the trip. Or if a medical emergency happens on your trip and you need to come home early, in many cases there may be no reimbursement available.
- Loss of a friend or family member – you may be able to cancel or postpone your vacation if you have insurance
- Early returns – if you have to fly home immediately and cancel the rest of your trip, the airline could charge you for your flight changes
- Damaged destinations – when a hurricane or winter storm closes the airport for days keeping you from reaching your destination you could lose the cost of the airfare
Travel insurance is inexpensive compared to the potential risk of having to cancel a trip. It costs roughly 3%-8% of the total trip and is based on the length of the trip, destination, and age of policy holder. So before the 15 days expire, I would recommend looking into the cost if it makes sense to you and your upcoming trip.
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