WHY SHOULD I BUY TRAVEL INSURANCE?
I love helping folks plan their dream vacations. It gives me such enjoyment to make sure everything is perfect.
One of the topics we always want to discuss is whether or not they would like to purchase travel insurance. I know what you’re thinking. “Wait, you’ve just booked my dream vacation and now you want to talk about the possibility of us having to cancel?” Bummer right?
Bummer is right, but it is a necessary reality. It’s easier to deal with situations that arise if you’ve made the decision to protect your investment. Here are a few real life events we’ve dealt with for our clients:
1. You can’t get to the airport or your flight is delayed because of snow or ice.
2. You get hurt or have some other unexpected medical emergency before your trip.
3. Your house floods before your trip and you must stay home to take care of things.
4. An act of God such as a hurricane damages your destination.
5. Your luggage does not arrive when you do or not at all.
6. Job situations come up that cause you to cancel your trip.
7. Your travel provider files for bankruptcy and ceases operations.
8. While traveling you become ill and need medical attention.
9. While traveling it becomes necessary for you to be life flighted to a hospital.
If you aren’t concerned with reimbursement of the trip cost and are happy to self insure your trip, don’t forget the catastrophic expenses should you become ill or hurt yourself while on your trip. We all know what how much hospital stays can cost. Emergency evacuation off a cruise ship from a Caribbean country to the US can easily reach $30,000. The average cost for an intensive care transfer from China to the United States is around $250,000.
Our office works with one of the most reputable insurers in the business. There are several options but most of them cover the following:
◆ Trip cancellation, trip interruption: trip delay, missed connection, loss of baggage, delayed baggage, medical expense and emergency evacuation.
A rule of thumb is that travel insurance should cost 8 to 10% of trip cost. It is age based so the older you are the more you can expect to pay.
If you travel a lot and only want emergency evacuation coverage from the country you are visiting to your homecountry hospital, my agency offers a great low cost plan.
Call us or read more for yourself at www.cruztrav.com and click on “Resources.”
Next Month: Exercise Programs on River Cruises