Travel Insurance Tips

Looking to get away for spring break? To enjoy traveling, you need to anticipate all the fun, and that starts with planning. Your vacation may have taken months to plan. Insure your investment for non-refundable losses with a travel insurance policy. Let us know if your travel plans are domestic or international!

What is travel insurance?

Travel insurance can protect against the loss of non-refundable travel costs such as airfare, hotel and tour expenses. Some types of travel insurance offer protection against losses that may occur due to medical emergencies, damage to personal property and even death.

Why do you need it?

As easy as it is to pretend everything will always go as planned, that is just not reality. Buying travel insurance covers us for those unfortunate mishaps that can potentially ruin a vacation. Some of the most common issues covered include:

• Trip Cancellation – One of the most common reasons for canceling a trip is unexpected illness. It can happen to any of us. If you pre-booked hotels, rental cars, or excursions it can be very hard to get your money back when cancelling at the last minute. That is where travel insurance comes in. You can get reimbursed for pre-paid expenses if you aren’t able to take your trip because of a travel delay, such as a flight delay or cancellation.
• Trip Interruption – Covers you for pre-paid expenses if your trip is cut short because you or a family member becomes ill or dies, or because of any other misfortune listed in the policy. Covered reasons might include bad weather, airline strikes, terrorism, jury duty or fire or flood damage to your home.

• Health Coverage – I know you’re thinking “I already have health insurance. I’m good!” Unfortunately, many health care plans do not cover medical emergencies that happen internationally.  You can be reimbursed for medical and emergency expenses that you have because of an illness or injury while you’re travelling. Something as normal as food poisoning could land you in the hospital with multiple medical bills.
• Lost (or just delayed) Luggage – Do you say a little prayer after tossing luggage on the belt, hoping to see it again on the other side? Travel insurance has you covered if you never see each other again.
• Medical Evacuation – provides emergency transportation to take you either to a hospital in the geographic region where you are or for transportation back to the hospital near your home.

What are the benefits?

Includes licensed ambulance, emergency dental expenses, prescription drug reimbursement, emergency medical transport, family transportation expenses, board and lodging for the insured person(s) or the travelling companion while confined to the hospital, escort home of insured children and more.

Coverage for unexpected sickness, injury and/or death of the insured traveller or travelling companion, the insured traveller’s immediate family or the travelling companion’s immediate family, natural disaster, travel advisory, missed connection, the non-issuance of a travel visa.

Hopefully the tips you learned here can help create the perfect plan to make your travel dream a reality!

Make sure that your vacations are properly protected. Review insurance coverages with a specialist at Access Insurance Group. Get advice, a quote or make a change from anywhere or in person at one of our locations in Edmonton, Lacombe, Lloydminster, Red Deer, and Stony Plain.