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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Is travel insurance a good idea?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anyone who watched Hurricane Fay crisscross the state of Florida last week knows the havoc that wind and water can wreak. As Floridians begin to clean up and Georgians catch the tail-end of Fay’s dousing, I wonder how many travelers’ vacation plans were doused as well.
How many people plonked down hundreds (or thousands) of dollars months ago to secure a house, resort or cruise only to find airports and hotels closed or flooded when it was actually time to leave for vacation? How many trips were cut short as a result of the storm?
It’s a risk any traveler takes when they plan a trip to a hurricane-prone area during hurricane season (June through November in our neck of the woods, with most storms churning up mid-August through October). And it’s one of the reasons people buy travel or trip cancellation insurance.
When we booked our house in the Outer Banks, we paid the extra money for the travel insurance. You never know what the weather will be like out in the Atlantic in the summer. The idea of losing the rental money or of having to evacuate part-way through our trip made the cost of the insurance palatable.
Naturally, the weather during our vacation was perfect. I’m certainly glad that the insurance was not needed. But since then, I have asked myself if travel insurance is really worth it or just another way to squeeze another dollar out of travelers like me.
Travel insurance averages about five to eight percent of your trip’s prepaid cost, and hurricanes aren’t the only reason folks buy it. Many policies cover cruise ship sicknesses and natural disasters of all kinds -snowstorms, earthquakes, fires, etc. - as well as travel delays that impact your ability to get there, medical emergencies or death, and even terrorist incidents occurring in your destination city. “Listed unforeseen events” is usually the key phrase in travel insurance policies, so make sure you read all of the particulars and compare travel insurers if you are buying a plan.
In the end, I know I would have kicked myself had we lost our vacation AND money due to weather. So I will probably keep buying the insurance.
Tell us…what would you do? Have you ever bought travel or trip cancellation insurance before a big trip? For what reasons did you buy the insurance? Were you glad you did? Have you ever had to use your trip insurance? Was it easy getting reimbursed? Does the cost of the trip have to be a certain amount before you will purchase insurance?
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