Travel Insurance FAQs
We receive lots of good questions about travel insurance, so in this blog post we’re sharing them and our answers in an FAQ style. We hope you find it useful!
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Travel insurance is a type of insurance that covers expenses for when things go wrong either before or or during your trip. This can include medical emergencies, trip interruptions, delayed flights, lost possessions, and other items. You are compensated depending on the specifics contained within your insurance policy.
For more details, we recommend reading this Forbes article on the subject.
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The cost of travel insurance varies depending on the overall trip cost and the age of the travelers. For younger travelers it is around 5% of the overall trip cost. This rises gradually to around 9% for more senior travelers in their 60s.
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This depends on a variety of factors, however we think that the financial safety net that travel insurance provides is worth the cost.
To help you decide for yourself, we recommend reading this Forbes article on the subject.
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Some credit card providers offer insurance benefits when purchasing trip expenses using their card, but they rarely match the benefits provided by a specifically designed travel insurance policies.
Key items to check with your credit card provider are:
What is their trip cancellation coverage? Sometimes this can be limited to only $10k per person, so is not suitable for more expense trips.
Do they provide trip interruption coverage? Many do not, whereas third-party travel insurance generally provide <150% of the insured trip cost for trip interruption.
Do they provide medical coverage, and if so, how much? Some provide a lower amount or no medical coverage compared to third-party travel insurance.
Credit card insurance may be suitable for lower-value domestic trips, where you already have medical insurance in place, and you are comfortable with the residual risks.
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Cancel for any reason (CFAR) is a special type of travel insurance which allows you to cancel your trip for any reason.
Cancel for any reason claims are reimbursed at 75% of the trip cost while canceled for a covered reason is reimbursed a 100% of the trip cost for most policies.
The policy must be purchased within 21 days of first trip deposit, must insure all non-refundable prepaid trip costs, and the trip must cancel at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure date
We provide CFAR quotes so let us know if this is of interest to you!
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The best time to purchase travel insurance is after you have made your initial trip deposit. This begins the countdown to include time-sensitive benefits such as a pre-existing medical waiver. This period varies by travel insurance provider, but is generally between 14 and 21 days after your initial trip deposit.
Don't worry if you don't yet know your overall trip cost at the time of your initial deposit. You can start with an estimate (or just your deposit amount) and adjust the overall trip costs later once you know more.
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We work with a variety of travel insurance providers so we can match the right provider with your needs. These include:
Travelex
Arch RoamRight
Travel Guard
Allianz
Travel Insurance Center
We can also provide medical emergency transportation membership through Medjet and Airmed (explained below).
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We work with Medjet and Airmed, both of which provide global air medical transport and travel security membership programs for US residents. They transport their members from hospital to hospital from anywhere in the world in an emergency.
Trip specific and annual memberships are available.
Please get in touch if you'd like to learn more.
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As part of our service, we will provide you with all supporting documentation needed for you to file your travel insurance claim independently.
If you still wish for assistance in submitting your insurance claim, we can provide this but additional fees apply. Please get in touch if you are interested in this service.