Terrorism scares and hurricane warnings have spurred an increase in sales of travel insurance, but there’s a catch. Most policies offer only very limited protection, if any, should you want to cancel a trip because you’re afraid to go. If you fear possible bombings in subways or malls with liquid explosives, you can count that it won’t be covered. It’s a fact that your policy will not coverage your fears toward a thousand mile hurricane that might come and hit your favorite beach. Do you feel any trepidation over a major airline strike disabling your from your doctor’s college sendoff? Well purchasing a travel insurance policy now won’t be of any help.
What most people find attractive about these travel insurance plans is its promise that it will cover for even the non reimbursable parts of the travel plan like hotel deposits made or airline tickets bought, as well as financial assistance for food and hotel expenditures in the event that your trip is canceled or delayed. Policies often cover medical care if you get sick overseas and medical evacuation. That’s potentially important since medical insurance may not be accepted by hospitals overseas. But you can expect exclusions brimming in these programs.
But you ought to know that the disasters that drive the sales op policies up aren’t covered at all. Some policies exclude terrorism coverage all together, forcing worried consumers to choose carefully. For example, there are only 6 insurance plans listed by one travel insurance team that features terrorism protection. Eighty percent of the sales are accounted for by the comprehensive plans that do not feature this.
But more than this, they ought to know that they are only entitled to the reimbursement of their canceled trip due to terrorism if it occurs in their place of destinations within a month of the departure schedule. If a London bombing scares you from a Paris or Manchester trip, your insurance won’t be of much help. Your greatest fears are not covered by insurance. While people’s fear fuel the sales of insurance policies, it is simple ironic that a majority of these policies don’t even guarantee those fears.
The other story behind this is that you may well be unlucky as if you did not buy the insurance within 15 days of booking and then a terrorism plot arises, then you won’t have any security. After the aircraft explosion plot that got people stranded in London, it is great to know that many of the insurance firms covered the costs of the people there on food and lodging. If you wanted to withdraw your purchase and the event did not materialize, you won’t get any pay.
Like any travel insurance policies available in the market, it will rely basically on the expenditures the entire trip will incur as well as on the level of coverage the person wants. One can simply purchase a comprehensive policy with guarantees on various flight cancellations, ruts that get you in a stranded situation, insurance for any lost luggage, emergency medical and evacuation coverage but then you also have the choice of getting the coverage that you desire.
There are two travel agencies which void the kinds of travel insurance deals that reimburse 75 percent of travel cost reimbursement when suddenly, the buyer decides that he no longer wants to go. These packages are higher by 40 percent than the average insurance plans. It was recently revealed by the Travel Insurance Association of the U.S that over 17 million travel insurance packages are sold each year and this is what drove the annual sales to doubled up since back in September 11, 2001. One must not forget that when stuck in a major disruptions, hotels, cruise lines and airlines should no longer charge them additional for any rebooking fees and neither should they implement any restrictions. There are still a lot of good in the absence of insurance.