Pamela Travel Journal

Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, purchasing travel insurance can help save you money. It is the same principle that applies when you buy something of value like a car or a classic piece of jewelery. Should anything happen, you do not want to lose your investment in one day. Most likely, you would want that car or ring replaced at full purchase value. If you have purchased air tickets, you would want to protect that investment as well. Who wants to lose money especially in these dire economic times?

Ways that Travel Insurance Can Help You Save Money

There are at least three situations where purchasing travel insurance can help you save money:

• Cancellation of flights – If you or the airline decides to cancel the flights you are booked in, your airfare will be partially covered by travel insurance. Say if you spent $4,500.00 worth of air tickets for you and your family, and suddenly the airline closes down for business or cancels a flight for any reason, you do not lose all of the $4,500.00 because travel insurance will reimburse that amount. Of course the airline will probably refund you the money if it is their fault, but having travel insurance will compensate you for the inconvenience and trouble. Also, if you cancel the flight yourself, travel insurance will get you back your money.

• Loss of luggage – When you purchase travel insurance, make sure it covers lost luggage as well. Imagine landing in some foreign country with none of your luggage! While most airlines are efficient about recovering lost luggage and delivering them to your door, don’t rely on that efficiency. There have been instances where luggage was never recovered.

• Medical problems – You may be in perfect health when you leave for vacation but you increase the likelihood of getting exposed to viruses or bacteria either in the plane or in your country of destination. There’s also the chance that you could accidentally drink the local drinking water or eat contaminated food. Medical visits in some foreign countries can cost an arm and a leg so you wouldn’t want to spend all your vacation money on doctor’s visits! If you have travel insurance that covers expenses for brief hospitalizations, medicine and emergency situations, think about how much all these could add up if you didn’t have travel insurance.

Tips for Purchasing Travel Insurance

• Ask your insurance provider – If you have an insurance company that insures your car, house and other property, they may also offer travel insurance or they may work with a partner or affiliate who does. Because you are an established customer, they may offer you travel insurance at lower rates. It doesn’t hurt to ask. In fact, in some instances, you may be better off going with your existing insurer than purchase separate insurance from the travel agent who books your flight.

• Go for the whole nine yards – What this means is if you are traveling with the family, you might be better off buying family travel insurance instead of separate insurance policies. It also means that because traveling with children entails more risk than traveling alone, you may want to consider travel insurance that offers comprehensive coverage; that is, plane fares, luggage, and health and medical visits.

• Multi-trip travel insurance – If you make more than one trip every year, you might be better off purchasing an annual multi-trip travel insurance policy. This would save you the hassle of purchasing travel insurance several times during the year. Some travel insurance companies will usually sell you a 12-month package that is renewable yearly and this is a huge convenience if you travel a lot during any given 12-month period. The single biggest advantage of buying an annual policy is that you don’t need to worry about arranging for emergency medical coverage.

• Compare packages and prices – As for most major ticket items, it pays to shop around for insurance. If you know you will be travelling six months from now, don’t wait until the month before your travel date to do some bargain hunting. Start now so that you are not rushed about reading the fine print and you can make a more informed decision about the kind of travel insurance that is ideal for your situation.

Remember to do the cost analysis if you are ever tempted to skip travel insurance. Even if your ticket is discounted, say you paid $600.00 to go to the Caribbean. Travel insurance will cost about $85.00 to $100.00. If you are forced to cancel your trip, you lose $600.00 (restricted and discounted tickets are usually non-refundable or non-transferrable) versus the $100.00 you paid if you had purchased travel insurance. If you want to save money, put travel insurance on the top of your list.