Travel Protection
Why Purchase Travel Insurance?
Travel insurance helps protect you and the prepaid, non-refundable, unused trip costs you’ve paid into your vacation or business trip. Because whether you are at home or on vacation, life happens – and that can affect your travel plans.
- You or your child may get sick and you have to cancel your trip.
- The airlines may lose your luggage en route to your destination.
- You may miss your flight connection and lose days on your trip.
- You could be in a foreign country and need emergency medical attention.
A good travel insurance plan provides coverage for all of these situations and more.
Who Needs Travel Insurance?
Even the best-laid plans can go awry when the unexpected happens. Travel insurance can help you protect your valuable trip investment and provide many important benefits. While some insurance programs (through suppliers and credit cards) may include trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage, it’s important to review the options.
Many travel insurance policies may provide additional coverage for emergency medical transportation and medical expenses that often are not covered by other plans. As an added value, some U.S. travel insurance plans also offer primary coverage—which means you are not responsible for copayments or deductibles.
"On Trip" Coverage with No Cancellation Coverage
If you purchased supplier coverage (or prefer to not pay for cancellation coverage or have coverage through your credit card) and would like extra medical and evacuation coverage you can obtain "On Trip" coverage for a very low cost from either of the companies below by entering a trip cost of zero. Medical and accident coverage on these plans can be up to $500,000 and evacuation up to $1,000,000 which is much higher than supplier or credit card coverage.
Travel Protection Options
NOTE: I am not a travel insurance agent but I have several travel partners who are. Read their Coverage of Benefits and choose which option works best for you. If you have specific insurance questions, feel fee to call them at Travel Insured 800-243-3174 or Arch Roam Right at 844-812-2598.
I typically use one of the two companies below for Travel Protection - Travel Insured or Arch Roam Right.
To auto generate quotes for either (or both) click on the links and enter the dates of birth of all travelers, trip dates, trip cost (per person), deposit dates and state of residence. It will immediately give you 2 or 3 options. Review benefits and coverages and select what works best for you. You can purchase directly through the links.
Note the Covered Reasons For Cancellation listed below for each company. You can purchase Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) for an additional cost but keep in mind that is has some complexities. First, cancel for any reason is only available within a short time—usually a week or two—after making an initial deposit on your trip. Second, the policy doesn’t cover 100% of your expenses the way trip cancellation usually does. Most cancel for any reason policies will reimburse the traveler for 50-75% of any pre-paid and non-refundable costs. There may also be stipulations around how close to the departure date you can cancel a trip.
Adding this coverage could impact your policy price, but if you have any uncertainty at all about traveling, it’s still something to consider.
Click for Travel Insured Quote
If you have questions on Travel Insured coverage feel free to call them at 800-243-3174.
Click for Arch Roam Right Quote
If you have questions on Arch Roam Right coverage feel free to call them at 844-812-2598.
Arch Roam Right Covered Events
This is an abbreviated list of the most common covered events for trip cancellation or interruption. For coverage, an event must be unforeseen at the time of purchase. For a full list of events and coverage details, please refer to the policy.
- Sickness, accidental injury or death
- Traffic accident en route to departure
- Residence or destination is made uninhabitable
- Being hijacked, quarantined, subpoenaed, or asked to serve on jury duty3
- Death or hospitalization of host at destination
- Military, police, or fire personnel being called into emergency service3
- Revoked military leave
- Strike of the common carrier
- Inclement weather
- Mechanical breakdown of aircraft
- Bankruptcy of travel supplier3
- Involuntary employment termination or lay off
- Mandatory evacuation due to natural disaster or hurricane
- Pregnancy, provided the pregnancy occurs after your effective date
- Government ordered airport shutdown3
Brief Description of Coverage:
Trip Cancellation & Trip Interruption
Trip cancellation and trip interruption provide reimbursement for unused, non-refundable prepaid trip costs. Trip interruption also provides reimbursement for additional transportation costs.
Occupancy Upgrade
Provides reimbursement for additional cost when there is a change in the per person occupancy rate if your traveling companion needs to cancel their trip.
Itinerary Change
Provides reimbursement for an event or activity if a change to your trip itinerary prevents you from participating, and no comparable replacement is provided.
Trip Delay
Trip delay provides coverage if you are delayed during a trip for more than 6 hours.
Missed Connection
Provides reimbursement if you miss your trip departure because your arrival at your trip destination is delayed for 3 or more hours.
Baggage and Personal Effects
Provides reimbursement of baggage or other personal effects that are lost, damaged or stolen while on your trip.
Baggage Delay (outward journey only)
Provides coverage for the emergency purchase of essential items if your baggage is delayed 12 hours or more from your time of arrival at a destination other than your return destination.
Emergency Accident and Sickness Medical Expense
Provides coverage for the necessary medical and surgical cost if you become sick or accidentally injured while on a trip.
Emergency Medical Evacuation and Repatriation
If you become sick or injured on a trip, emergency assistance will provide benefits such as: arrange transportation to the nearest suitable medical facility; help you return home, if medically necessary; provide round-trip economy air fare for a companion to visit if you are traveling alone and hospitalized for more than 7 days.
Political or Security Evacuation
Provides coverage for reasonable evacuation expenses incurred for your transportation to the nearest safe haven if you must leave your trip for a covered political or security event. Evacuation must occur within 7 days of the event.
Other Options:
Self- Insure
Do you know how to coordinate an emergency evacuation? Can you identify whether a hospital can provide the necessary level of care? Do you speak the language in the country you’re traveling to? With the 24/7 Emergency Assistance included in most policies, you don’t have to. With one phone call from anywhere in the world, the assistance provider can help locate a nearby medical facility, monitor care, issue a Guarantee of Payment for hospital admission, and coordinate evacuation to a higher level of care or home when appropriate.
Supplier Coverage
Supplier coverage often offers reduced benefits, with medical coverage being secondary. This means travelers may need to submit medical expenses to their domestic health insurance first, even if the claim is likely to be denied. Additionally, supplier coverage typically charges a premium for each traveler, regardless of age.
Another drawback is that supplier coverage only applies to travel arrangements booked through the supplier and does not cover the supplier’s own bankruptcy. In contrast, third-party insurance lmay cover supplier default and bankruptcy and can insure all travel arrangements, even those booked independently.
Credit Card Protection
Many travelers today carry credit cards that offer some kind of travel insurance — but they often don’t realize its limitations. Credit-card insurance can be helpful, but it also comes with a lot of gray areas. Their terms and conditions are full of exclusions, limitations and requirements that most travelers don’t realize until they try to file a claim. A full travel-insurance policy is far more straightforward, more comprehensive and designed to support you throughout the entire trip, not just certain pieces of it.
Be wary of credit-card travel insurance. Credit card protections sound appealing at first glance, but they come with low limits, narrow coverage and many restrictions. Medical coverage is often minimal or nonexistent. Evacuation benefits rarely match what a traveler would truly need in a serious emergency. Comprehensive travel insurance is built for real-world situations with higher limits, broader protection and far fewer surprises when a claim is filed.
Which card do you have? Below are links to the common credit card's travel insurance guide to benefits: