5 Reasons To Purchase Travel Insurance

A vacation adds to your life experiences, allows you to bond with friends and family, and improves your mental health. If you’re like most Canadians, you can spend thousands of dollars on a vacation when you factor in flights, hotels, car rentals, meals, souvenirs and incidentals. Businesswire reports that the average Canadian spent $4,200 on their last vacation.

Your vacation is an investment. And like any other investment, it’s important to protect your money. Travel insurance costs a fraction of your trip and can help you recoup the money you’ve spent if things don’t go as planned. 

From the moment you leave home until you return, travel insurance protects you.

Trips get canceled — a lot

Life is unpredictable. Your situation can change due to a financial setback, an unexpected family death or illness, an unforeseen natural disaster, or even a legal obligation such as being called for jury duty.

If you need to cancel a flight or hotel, you stand to lose a large portion or all of the money you spent. 

Fortunately, travel insurance policies offer trip interruption and cancellation, including “cancel for any reason” coverage. Depending on the insurance you purchase, you could recover close to 100% of your trip costs.

Medical emergencies happen at home and abroad

It’s not unusual to get sick when you travel. Travel can mean less sleep, exotic foods, questionable drinking water or heightened risk of infectious illnesses.

You could be more likely to get injured on vacation, especially if you participate in adventures like zip lining, biking, kayaking or hiking. Even driving in unfamiliar environments could increase your risk of an accident.

Even with provincial health or supplemental health insurance, you likely won’t have the same level of coverage when you travel outside your province or outside Canada. Travel medical insurance helps fill coverage gaps.

Before you go on vacation, find out what coverage your provincial health plan and any supplemental health insurance provide during your trip. Knowing what your health insurance does and doesn’t cover will help you choose the right medical travel insurance so you can get treatment during your trip.

Medical evacuation insurance coverage may be a good idea if you are traveling to a remote area. It covers the cost of being airlifted or transported to medical treatment in a different location.

If you plan to be away from home for six months or more, travel medical plans can cover routine medical visits and prescription medication refills.

Natural disasters are unpredictable

Mother Nature doesn’t follow travel itineraries. A hurricane can disrupt or cancel your getaway. Your trip to Japan could be shaken up by an earthquake. Snow in Chicago could delay or cancel your connecting flight, even if your destination wasn’t the Windy City.

Travel insurance can cover you in all these instances, whether you have to cancel your trip entirely or just a flight. If you miss a connecting flight because of a weather delay, missed connection coverage can also protect you from monetary losses.

In addition to trip cancellation coverage, you can purchase travel interruption coverage. Travel interruption coverage will help you return home if something occurs in the middle of your trip, such as a medical issue or a natural disaster.

Together, these policies cover the loss of money from the remainder of your trip, as well as the costs of getting a last-minute flight home.

Replacing lost luggage is expensive

Millions of bags are lost, damaged, delayed or stolen every year. And no one wants to end up at their destination with just the clothes on their back. Even if you lose your baggage on your return trip home, it’s expensive to replace.

Lost or delayed baggage coverage can help replace these losses. If your baggage is delayed, it can cover the cost of purchasing necessary items while waiting for your bags. It can also include the cost of repairing any damaged items. If you plan to bring valuables with you, you can buy insurance for them, too. 

You never know what might happen

All the situations mentioned above happen fairly frequently. But travel insurance can help even when rare or unusual circumstances disrupt your vacation.

• Terrorism travel insurance covers you if your destination experiences a terrorist attack before or during your trip.

• Some travel insurance plans will cover you if the airline, hotel or travel company you booked through goes bankrupt. If you find yourself with tickets for a flight that will never take off, you won’t lose out on the money you’ve invested.

• Lost passport coverage helps you with the fees and difficulties of replacing or traveling without a passport abroad. It can also help if you need to rebook a flight due to a lost passport.

Call us

Contact us for help finding the right type of travel insurance for your trip. No matter what life throws your way, you won’t need to worry about unexpected out-of-pocket costs.

This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your attorney, doctor, broker or advisor to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.

Copyright © 2024 Applied Systems Inc. All rights reserved.