What Justifies Travel Insurance?

You Become Ill Enough to Travel

Even if you might be in good health and shape right now, your holiday getaway might be far off. You can never predict what might occur.

Recently, we went through this ourselves. A medical emergency occurred four days before we were scheduled to leave for our family vacation. My spouse was unexpectedly taken to the hospital and was in surgery within hours. The good news is that we have travel insurance, will get a refund, and can rebook at a convenient time.

For those of you who were curious, my hubby is doing OK. A few days after being admitted, he was discharged from the hospital and is now attending follow-up visits. He hasn’t been given the go-ahead to fly yet.

The weather is even more unfavorable.

Lousy weather is yet another event that can occur before your holiday travel or have an impact on you while you’re there. Even volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, blizzards, fog, and ice. They are unpredictable. You can miss connections, be stuck in a foreign country, or have your travel plans delayed by inclement weather.

Therefore, if poor weather causes you to cancel your vacation plans, your travel insurance may provide coverage. Your travel insurance policy will determine the extent of your coverage.

Your luggage disappears in transit.

Okay, you’ve safely boarded the train, cruise ship, or airplane without experiencing any delays due to illness or inclement weather. But what happens if your luggage disappears while traveling to or from your destination?

Really! How frequently do bags go missing, you wonder? Sadly, it happens more regularly than airlines would like you to believe. I am aware because I formerly worked in the lost luggage division for the premier airline in Australia. Generally, at least one bag did not arrive on almost every flight. On the plus side, it was common for a person and their luggage not to be reunited within 24 hours. However, you, the passenger, must put up with the inconvenience. You might need to buy a few pieces of essential clothing and extra toiletries.

In case you were wondering, human error is the usual reason for your suitcase disappearing, accidentally loading the wrong flight with bags, or forgetting to load them. Or, on the highly odd event, something catches the thermal tag the airline attaches to your bag and tears it off. Since it takes money to reunite you with your bag, the airline wishes it hadn’t happened.

Be courteous to the individual you report the lost bag, just as an aside. They are working to correct the mistake, not them.

Loss or Theft of an Item

However, there are situations when you are to blame for the missing item. You may have accidentally put your reading glasses or cell phone in the seat pocket on your flight. Or perhaps your iPad was taken because you left it in the hotel room charging while you were gone.

Or you can be a victim of bag snatching because you were in the wrong area at the wrong time.

You Fall Ill or Are Hurt

What would happen if you were hurt during the bag snatch, slipped on a banana peel, or had a rough day of adventure and required medical attention?

You will need medical travel insurance if you require more than just a band-aid and some aspirin. Hospital costs abroad might be astronomical.

Repatriation or Medical Evacuation

You might need to be returned home if you’ve suffered severe injuries. This indicates that even if you had treatment at the hospital at your vacation destination, it would still take some time for you to recover fully. It would help if you lay on a stretcher to get home; sitting in your airplane seat is not enough. On a plane, a stretcher takes up nine seats. How do you intend to pay for that?

Other repatriation causes include urgent needs to return home for safety owing to unanticipated circumstances like civil upheaval or terrorist attacks.