Many people think travel insurance is too expensive and that they will never need it, so why pay for insurance?
Travel insurance usually costs about 10% of your trip cost. This varies by the age of the travelers, the per person cost of the trip, and the amount of coverage you desire. However, a vacation costs a significant amount of your hard earned money and should something come up that causes your trip to be canceled, delayed, etc, insurance can make all the difference.
Examples:
Your mother breaks her hip and needs surgery
You are delayed getting to the airport because of a car crash
Your luggage
A snowstorm, hurricane, or even an ash cloud in Europe causes you to be delayed or canceled
There are hundreds of scenarios that can cause you to lose your money invested in your vacation. And once something happens, such as a hurricane or the ash cloud, it is too late to insure your trip to cover you for those reasons. That would be like insuring your car after it is hit or insuring your house after a fire.
A family of four will invest thousands of dollars in their vacation but it only takes a second to lose that money if the vacation is not insured. Wouldn't you rather have that peace of mind, knowing that if the unexpected happens, you are insured and your money will be refunded?
There are exclusions when it comes to travel insurance and one exclusion is pre-existing conditions. But if you insure your trip, usually within 14 days of your initial deposit, most pre-existing conditions (i.e. heart condition, severe asthma, etc) will be covered if you have to cancel your trip. And in most cases, if your travel companion has to cancel, you will be insured to cancel as well.
Most policies offer free insurance for your children under the age of 18. So, for example, you would only pay for the adults portion of the total trip cost. This saves quite a bit of money when buying the insurance.
If you cancel your trip before there are any penalties from the supplier (cruise or land), most times you can also have the insurance applied toward the next trip, as long as it is within the guidelines of the particular insurance company.
So do yourself a favor, insure your trip and ensure your peace of mind!
