You’ve just booked your holiday vacation. You’re excited and can’t wait to go. But there’s one more thing to do before you can tick off “√ booked travel plans”. It’s to purchase travel insurance. The sooner you buy your travel insurance the sooner your entire trip is covered.
You may be thinking,but why do I need travel insurance? Let’s have a look at six reasons why travel insurance is necessary.
In this Article You Will Learn Why to Get Travel Insurance:
- Medical emergency before travelling
- Your luggage goes missing
- Bad weather
- Lost or stolen items
- You get sick
- You need to be repatriated (evacuated)
This post by Tips 4 Trips contains affiliate links*. This means I may receive a small commissionif you click on these links. Learn more at the bottom of this post.
Why You May Need Travel Insurance
1. You Get Too Sick to Travel
You may be fit and healthy now, but your holiday vacation could be some time away. You never know what might happen.
We’ve recently just experienced this ourselves. With only four days before we were due to fly out on our family holiday, a medical emergency struck. My husband was suddenly sent to the hospital and within hours he was in surgery. On the plus side, we have travel insurance, we will receive a refund and be able to rebook at a suitable time.
In case you were wondering, my husband, is doing well. He was released from the hospital a few days later and is now going to follow-up appointments. As yet, he has not been given the all-clear to fly.
Top Trip Tip: As soon as you book your holiday vacation plans, purchase travel insurance so that you are covered from the time of booking. We use Cover-More*
2. The Weather is Worse than Bad
Another thing that can happen before you leave on your holiday vacation or affect youduring your trip is – bad weather. Hurricanes, blizzards, fog, ice, and even volcanic eruptions. You can’t predict them. Bad weather can delay your travel plans, causing you to miss connections or even leave you stranded in a foreign location.
So if your travel plans are disrupted due to bad weather you may be covered by your travel insurance. How much you are covered will depend on your travel insurance policy.
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Top Trip Tip: Read the travel insurance disclosure for your policy as some weather conditions are sometimes not included
3. Your Bags Go “Missing” During Transit
Ok, so you’ve safely got on the plane, cruise ship, or train without any medical emergencies or bad weather delaying you. But what happens if your luggage goes missing en route to or from your travel destination?
Really!you’re thinking, how often do bags go missing? Sadly more often than airlines would like you to think. I know, I used to work for Australia’s most well-known airline in the lost luggage department. Generally speaking just about every flight had at least one bag not turn up. On the plus side, it was very rare not to be able to reunite a passenger with their luggage within 24 hours. But the inconvenience is there for you, the passenger. You may need to purchase spare toiletries and a few basic clothes.
If you were wondering what usually causes your bag to go missing – it is human error. Bags accidentally get loaded onto the wrong flight or forgotten to be loaded. Or on the rare occasion that the thermal tag that the airline places on your bag gets caught on something and rips off. To be honest the airline wishes it didn’t happen as it costs the airline money to reunite you with your bag.
As a side note: be polite to the person to whom you are reporting the missing bag. They did not make the error, they are trying to fix it.
Top Trip Tip: As a bag does go missing on most flights, place an additional tag on your bag with your name and phone number. It would also be wise to pack a spare set of undergarments or must-have necessities for arrival in your hand luggage. Pop your items into one of these great hand luggage bags*
4. Theft or Loss of Item
Then again sometimes you’re at fault for your own missing item. You could have mistakenly left your mobile phone or reading glasses in the seat pocket of your flight. Or perhaps you’d left your iPad out charging in the hotel room and it was stolen.
Or, you could be just in the wrong place at the wrong time and become the victim of a bag snatch.
Top Trip Tip: You will need to get a copy of a police report or document from the airline/cruise line detailing the event to pass on to your travel insurance company
Help protect your money with these…
Safe Travel Wallets
5. You Get Sick or Injured
What happens if during that bag snatch you get injured, or you slip on a banana peel, or an adventure day trip goes badly and you need medical assistance?
If you are going to need something more than a band-aid and paracetamolyou will need medical travel insurance. Hospital bills in foreign countries can be HUGE.
Top Trip Tip: Disclose any pre-existing medical conditions. Some will be covered and others may require an additional fee
Put together your own…
DIY First Aid Travel Kit
6. Medical Evacuation or Repatriation
If you’ve been severely injured you may need to be repatriated. This means that even though you have been treated in your vacation destination’s hospital it will be quite some time before you fully recover. To return home is more than sitting in your aeroplane seat, you need to lay on a stretcher. A stretcher takes up nine seats on a plane. How are you paying for that?
Other reasons for repatriation could be civil unrest or terrorist acts of violence and your sudden need to return home to safety due to these unforeseen events.
Top Trip Tip: Many tour companies require repatriation to be included in your travel insurance. In addition, you will need to check if it is considered safe to travel to your holiday destination. If there is an existing embargo then you may not be covered
Just recapping
Buy travel insurance preferably at the same time as booking and paying for your trip – if not as soon as possible – you never know what may happen:
- Medical emergency
- Bad weather
- Lost luggage
- Stolen items
Top Trip Tip: For further information on the safety of travel check with your government’s travel website. Here in Australia, we have Smartraveller which offers all sorts of travel advice including:
- Register your travel plans
- Visa requirements
- Safety and security including embargos
- General travel tips
A Final Note on Reasons for Travel Insurance
Generally speaking, it is rare to make a claim on travel insurance. You may be questioning whether it is really worth the cost.
So ponder this, as someone once said to me,
think of it like house insurance, you don’t expect your house to burn down, but what if it does?
The reason why travel insurance is necessary – is the same. You don’t expect these instances to occur on or before your trip, but what if it does?
In the long run, the small cost of travel insurance could save you a fortune!
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