Travel Emergencies are Alarming! Are You Covered by Travel insurance?

This can happen to anyone of us. A medical emergency is no doubt a spoiler of all the excitement of your travel plan. Moreover, other associated risks such as flight delay, loss of important documents, trip cancellation etc. can pose a full stop to all the thrills. The rising threat of terrorist activities can make you drop the plan right away. So, why to allow any external substance to dampen the excitement? By adding travel insurance into your financial portfolio, you can remain financially assured for any such eventuality. Comprehensive travel insurance offers medical and non-medical emergencies that may arise while travelling especially abroad.

What does it Cover?

Travel insurance is an extremely crucial part of your travel plans, as it helps save you against unforeseen events like :

• Baggage Loss
• Accidents
• Cancellations Due To Personal Reasons
• Trip Delays
• Flight Cancellations or Curtailments Owing To Terrorist Attacks, War And Political Emergencies

Buying travel insurance is not always compulsory. However, when you are travelling by a Schengen visa to European countries, travel insurance is mandatory. Keeping in mind the recent spurt of uneventful situations leading to flight cancellations, it is advisable to buy travel insurance for a cancelled flight, even if it is not mandatory.

Let us take a hypothetical situation here; your flight to an international destination had to be cancelled owing to political insolvency or unrest in the country. In case you have not purchased trip cancellation insurance, you are not liable to be paid any compensation, even if it causes you monetary losses. However, if you have planned wisely and invested in trip cancellation insurance, you are very much liable to receive compensations, like refunds for your flight tickets and accommodation.

What Kind of Claims do you have to make?

In case of flight cancellations owing to emergencies like terrorist attacks, which affect your itinerary and could cause you monetary losses as well as affect your holiday plans, you can make “trip curtailment claims” from your concerned trip cancellation insurance provider. Other grounds on which you can make claims are trip cancellations, flight curtailment and flight interruption.

Study the different grounds carefully before applying for a trip cancellation insurance claim. If your flight to the country in question has been cancelled owing to emergency situations, you can make trip cancellation insurance claims. Also, if you are in the country in question and cannot return owing to cancellation of all outbound flights, you can make claims under trip cancellation benefits.

Other grounds under which you can make claims are rescheduling of flights and interruption of flight schedules, which commonly arise in case of flight cancellations. Under this, you can also make claims for accommodation charges, if you have had to make arrangements for alternative accommodations. To clear out confusion among travellers while making claims, insurance companies are sending out guidelines to their customers and outlining the areas covered by their flight insurance policies.

Read Your Travel Insurance Policy Well

It is also very important that you read the coverage areas and policies your insurance company is providing. Given the global concern of rising terrorist activities, you must ensure that your travel insurance covers acts of terrorism, as these can lead to volatile situations. However, there are insurance companies that are yet to bring terrorist attacks under their coverage.

For insurance providers, the parameters of war, terrorism and riots are vastly different. In case your flight was cancelled owing to a terrorist attack, you cannot make any claims if your insurer has excluded acts of terrorism from their coverage. It is critically important that you read the policy related documents well before making a purchase.

It is also equally important that you preserve your bills and documents with care, as you have to produce proof to the insurer when making claims for flight cancellations and the ensuing losses caused. If you had to book another ticket or had to seek accommodation, you must preserve the details to make trip cancellation insurance claims.

Whether you are a frequent traveller or are simply planning an exotic international holiday, do not shy away from buying travel insurance to safeguard you in case of unforeseen circumstances.