Many membership-based organizations also offer travel insurance. If you’re a member of USAA or AAA, you can receive discounted travel insurance via a partner. You can purchase discounted travel insurance plans with membership-based retailers like Costco. If you’re already a member of one of these organizations or retail clubs, you may as well use that to your advantage by saving money with their travel insurance providers! I’m a member of USAA, so I saved money by purchasing insurance through its partner, TravelInsured, at a special USAA rate.
American Express also provides some travel insurance coverage. Cardholders have access to a Global Assist hotline, and if you paid for your trip using your American Express card, you automatically receive some trip protection and baggage insurance.
Don’t buy insurance from a travel booking site as an add-on to your flight or hotel.
You’re much more likely to find a good deal buy doing pricing comparisons yourself, and the best coverage is more likely to be offered by a company that specializes in travel insurance. Be wary of buying travel insurance through a travel agent, as it will probably cost more that way.
Travel insurance would have reimbursed us for our World Cup tickets if interruptions in our trip prevented us from going to the match.
Travel insurance would have reimbursed us for our World Cup tickets if interruptions in our trip prevented us from going to the match.
Understand how much coverage you need.
Most comprehensive policies offer everything from medical coverage to baggage protection, some even reimbursing you for expenses you might incur when your bags are only delayed by a certain number of hours. The medical is a must because even if you have health insurance at home, anything in another part of the world will be considered “out of network” and could quickly become very, very expensive. If you take any prescription medications, it’s important to make sure your travel insurer will help you cover the cost of replacing them if they get lost.
Many policies will reimburse you for the costs you might incur if your airline cancels your flight or your trip is interrupted for a variety of reasons, including bad weather, illness, a childbirth you need to get back home for, job loss or a work emergency that requires you to get home right away. Many plans also allow you to purchase additional “cancel for any reason” insurance that pays you back if you need to cancel your trip for any reason at all, but this is usually quite pricey — so only buy it if you truly think you need it. Insurance plans already cover trip cancellation for a variety of reasons, so be sure you understand what those are before shelling out for this optional coverage.
You may not want or even need all of this, so it’s important to think carefully about your trip and what kind of circumstances are most likely to arise.
For example, on my recent trip to Brazil for the World Cup, I made sure my travel insurance covered trip cancellations or interruptions due to transportation strikes. Indeed, a few weeks before we left, workers of the airline we’d purchased our flights on were organizing a strike, so it gave me peace of mind to know that even if we had to change our trip in some way, we wouldn’t take a hit financially to do so. I also thought it was nice that my plan paid for additional days of pet care should my flight be delayed on the return home or some other circumstances caused me to come home later than planned. If you pay to board your pet or hire a pet sitter when you travel, this coverage is nice to have!
