This post is a guest post written by Chelsea of Travel Insurance Master. All thoughts and opinions are hers alone.
Celebrating a milestone birthday, school vacation, honeymoon, or solo trip? No matter the reason, every trip should be well protected with travel insurance. Whether you’ve purchased travel insurance numerous times, or never before, Travel Insurance Master shares their favorite tips to find the best plan to suit your travel needs.
ABOUT TRAVEL INSURANCE MASTER
Travel Insurance Master is an online aggregator based in Boston, MA, which does the research for you and brings the world’s leading travel insurance providers and their large variety of plans and benefits all to one website. Simply input your travel details in just 3 steps to request a quote and quickly find your recommended plan and side by side comparisons. If you’re looking for a specific benefit mentioned in this blog, simply filter using the left-hand side bar. Select the plan you’d like to purchase, checkout, and receive the plan straight to your email!
Traveling around the country or the world calls for preparation and the right travel protection. Travel insurance is now more important than ever, and should be purchased for any trip that takes you 100 miles or more from home. It’s a smart purchase for flights, tours, road trips, and cruises. Any time you leave on a trip, the unexpected can happen and there’s even more potential for that on an international one.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Comprehensive travel insurance plans with Trip Cancellation are the most popular plans amongst travelers. Trip Cancellation gives you the ability to cancel your trip before it starts for 100% reimbursement of your non-refundable prepaid trip expenses. There are many covered reasons for trip cancellation that you can find outlined in your specific plan certificate including sudden illness, injury, death of a family member, or natural disaster affecting your home or destination.
It’s important to keep in mind that your regular health insurance rarely offers coverage outside your home country. A travel insurance plan with a Medical benefit can help you fill that gap in coverage. Without this benefit, an emergency could leave you with hefty medical bills that you may need to pay for out of pocket. The Medical Evacuation benefit is an important one in case of medically necessary evacuation. The Non-Medical Evacuation benefit is there for you in the event of scenarios outlined in your plan certificate that may include Political, Security, or Natural Disaster evacuation.
A travel insurance plan with 24 Hour Travel Assistance can be useful on any trip but is especially beneficial outside your home country. These services offer a wide range of help and advice if you find yourself in various unfortunate situations. They can help with travel document and ticket replacement, emergency cash transfers, medical assistance and evacuation, and much more. If you’re on a significantly more complicated trip involving multiple countries or just visiting an unfamiliar destination, you’ll be happy to have access to this service. You can find your out of country assistance number on your plan certificate – a good reason to keep this information readily available when you travel.
There are travel insurance options that can cater to a wide variety of trip types and itineraries. TravelInsuranceMaster.com has a variety of customizable filters on the left-hand side of the plan results page that allows you to filter plans down by the benefits most important to you. You may also find options you can add on the Plan Purchase page. One of these options is the Wedding Bundle. If you are attending a destination wedding, choose this to add an additional unforeseen event for Trip Cancellation which covers cancellation of the wedding at the destination. This does not apply to the bride or groom. You can also find an Adventure Sports Bundle which removes exclusions for adventure and extreme activities. These bundles and more are available with select AIG plans on TravelInsuranceMaster.com.
START PLANNING EARLY
When should you buy travel insurance? The earlier the better, for the most benefits.
Cancel for Any Reason or CFAR benefits are just that – you are able to cancel for any reason whatsoever usually up to 2 days prior to departure for a reimbursement of up to 75% of your non-refundable trip expenses, depending on your specific plan. To purchase a plan with CFAR, you’ll need to purchase your travel insurance early, usually within 1-21 days of initial deposit. Remember CFAR is an added benefit and does not replace your regular Trip Cancellation that covers you 100% for covered reasons, most common when you, your family member, or travel companion gets sick.
Another time sensitive benefit, the Pre-existing Medical Conditions waiver, is another reason to purchase your travel insurance within the same day or a set number of days of your initial deposit. For plans without the Pre-existing Medical Conditions Waiver, normally a medical condition present prior to your travel insurance policy’s effective date would not be covered. Most plans have a look-back period which means the plan investigates your medical history, anywhere from 2 to 18 months, to check if your condition appeared or was treated during that time. If you or someone you are buying insurance for has a pre-existing health condition, you should seriously consider the likelihood of it flaring up or reoccurring before or during your trip. If so, look for plans with the Pre-existing Medical Conditions Waiver – it usually doesn’t add to the cost of your plan!
READY TO FIND THE BEST TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP?
The small amount of your travel budget that will be used for travel insurance is well worth the peace of mind. Whatever the occasion, with the right travel insurance you’ll be ready to celebrate and make memories for the right reasons, not the wrong ones. Find the best travel insurance plan and value for your next trip in just 3 super easy steps at TravelInsuranceMaster.com.
