Know the Importance of Travel Insurance

travel insurance, mexico, yellow umbrella events, travel tips and tricks

Travel insurance (sometimes called travel protection) is one of those things that people think they don’t need – until they do.  We recommend it for everyone traveling internationally and we personally purchase it for all of our trips. In fact, since we travel so frequently we have a yearly travel policy.

There are lots of options for travel insurance and depending on the option you select, it could cover between 75% – 100% of your trip’s cancellation, plus many other things, like baggage delays and flight delays. 

Travel insurance could even cover accidents that happen during travel and on your vacation, like a broken ankle, for example. Slip and falls are the number one most common accident that occurs on vacation, followed closely by road and water accidents. 

Can you purchase travel insurance from your travel agent, like Yellow Umbrella Events? Not unless they have an insurance license! Did you know that you are legally required to have an insurance license to sell travel insurance? Most people don’t realize this. Since we’re not licensed insurance agents Yellow Umbrella Events can not directly sell travel insurance or give specific answers about travel insurance coverage or policies. 

We are more than happy, however, to recommend a travel insurance company, that we have been happy with, based on our personal experience. Who do we personally purchase our travel insurance policy from? We purchase our personal travel insurance policies from Travel Insured.

The easiest way to receive a quote from them is to click HERE.

You’ll answer a few questions about your trip and then you’ll receive policy options and pricing. The quote will give you 2 different plan options (Worldwide Trip Protector Plus & Worldwide Trip Protector) as well as optional add-on coverage for other areas of your trip that are found at the bottom of the page

The “Worldwide Trip Protector Plus” policy option includes CFAR (Cancel for Any Reason). It’s important to note that you must purchase this travel insurance within 21 days of making your initial travel reservation.

The “Worldwide Trip Protector” policy, which does not include the CFAR option, can be purchased any time after you booked your travel reservations, but this policy will not cover the Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion Waiver or the Bankruptcy/Default of an airline, cruise line, tour operator or other travel providers.

However, you can still cancel your travel plans for a covered reason (definitely check out the covered reasons directly with Travel Insured to learn more about what is covered) and potentially get up to a 100% refund of your lost travel expenses, as long as it’s a covered reason.

As a traveler, you are able to purchase travel protection through any entity that you choose and purchase any travel policy that makes sense for you and your travel plans. We strongly suggest that you call and verify what each policy covers if you have any questions. You can reach an insurance agent at Travel Insured at 1-800-243-3174.

Not purchasing travel insurance could result in the loss of your travel cost and/or require more money to correct the situation. Without proper travel insurance there may be no way to recoup any losses, costs, or expenses incurred from cancelling your travel plans.

Don’t think you need travel insurance? Think again! We work with hundreds of travelers each month and we have seen and heard so many reasons for cancellations before travel and have seen so many on site medical incidents that were (or would have been) covered by travel insurance. 

Here are some of the real life reasons that a few of our clients have had to cancel their travel plans in just the last couple of months –

  • Father in law had a heart attack
  • Father died
  • The traveler had covid symptoms the night before travel (was later determined that they had covid)
  • Home was destroyed by a hurricane
  • Childcare fell through 
  • Sudden marital separation

Thank goodness, most of these travelers had travel insurance and were able to file travel insurance claims that will be covered but some of these travelers, sadly, did not. 

A common misconception about travel insurance (or purchasing travel) is that the traveler “has travel insurance” through their credit card company. This is not usually the case. Please read the fine print and call your credit card company to fully understand what they may or may not cover in various situations, depending on your particular card’s coverage. You may find that what your credit card offers is “travel assistance” – like being available by phone to help you find a local hospital or doctor in case you need one while abroad. While this might be handy to have, if you have the time, and are not in an emergency situation, this is not the same thing as travel insurance that may cover an actual medical situation. Another common offering of credit cards is a service that will help you track down your luggage if it is lost. Again, while this may be helpful, there’s no actual travel insurance or protection being offered in this situation. Travel coverage that is offered by most credit cards is often worded in a way that makes you feel like you will be protected or reimbursed if there is a travel situation, but this is not normally the case. Again, I strongly advice you to contact your credit card company and read their full travel coverage details, to understand what coverage they may or may not be actually offering. 

I always tell people that if they knew all the things I’ve seen from travelers, regarding trip delays and cancelations, they’d never travel without an arsenal of travel insurance ever again.