[Wine] Palm Vacations, A Review On Travel Insurance - Do You Need It Or Not?

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Palm Vacations, A Review On Travel Insurance - Do You Need It Or Not?

Personally I think it would be very foolish not to have some sort of travel
insurance, especially if you are flying abroad. People sometimes make the
mistake in thinking that their local insurance policies will cover any
losses and have a big shock when they come to make a claim. Besides, if you
have the right policy, it takes all the worry out of your trip.

You should always be offered insurance, by your travel agent, when you
arrange your trip. If not, ask, because it will be on your own head if
anything goes wrong.

A Cheap Policy or Not?

When a travel insurance policy is issued there are a number of allocations
if the premium, agents commissions, administrative costs, some goes towards
profit and what's left over goes towards the actual insurance coverage. So,
you can see, if it's a cheap travel insurance policy, something is going to
miss out and you can bet it will be the level of coverage.

If you buy a regular travel insurance policy, that is, you fill out a form
and send it to the insuarance company with your remittance there are a lot
of costs involves. A better way would to get a wholesale policy (which
travel agents do sell) where the administration costs are dramactically
reduced, meaning more money is spent on the actual coverage.

Some tour operators and agents provide an "in-house" travel insurance policy
and, often, all it covers is their own cancellation fees and little else. It
may be cheaper but will not give you much travel insurance coverage.

Another way to reduce costs, which depends on the level of travel you are
going to do, is to purhase an annual travel insurance policy. This is buying
in bulk and is likely to be much less expensive than the one-off trip
policy.

Primary or Secondry Travel Insurance Cover?

These 2 types of cover determine the way the payouts are made. The primary
travel insurance cover means that the company will "Pay First", that is the
payment will be paid to the claim maker. The secondary travel insurance
cover means they will pay only after you've have claimed as much as you can
from other insurance cover that you may have. So, you can see that the
primary cover is a lot better than the secondry cover.

What Type Of Coverage Will You Need?

It's fair to say the 2 biggest risks that are covered by most travel
insurance policies are the costs of changing your travel plans and and any
medical care and emergency assistance that is required while you are away.

Most travel insurance policies will include a few hundred dollars for
baggage/loss/damage/delay, loss of travel documents and other small sum for
flight delay or interuption. Some will also cover for someone to fly out to
you if you are to be hospitalised for more tha 2 or 3 days.

Another major cost, and I must admit I never thought of this one before, can
be supplier bankruptcy. Many time the supplier of your travel insurance
policy are unable to have the policy to cover thier own bankruptcy. This
would be another good reason to have an independant policy from the company
arranging your travel.

Most travel insurance policies include a large ammount of air death
insurance, but surprisingly, it's of very low value item about 25 cents for
a $100,000 cover. I suppose this indicates how safe air travel is.

Some travel isurance policies will also cover car rental risks and this may
be an important thing to consider as car rental insurance policies are
extremely expensive.

Trip Cancellation/Change Coverage

To understand the possible costs that you may need if you have to change
your itinery or cancel the trip, if you have pruchased an unrestricted first
class ticket there may be not any costs associated with changing the ticket
as this is usually covered in the purchase price.

It may seem strange but the the cheapest ticket has the most risk attached
to it as far as cancellation/change is concerned. It can cost a heap more to
change the cheap fare to return home on a different flight than the original
purchase price of the ticket.

You will have to be aware that when some travel insurance policies state
that they will cover 'your total trip cost' you may think that the full
charges are covered, but this may not be so. Let's say that your discounted
fare cost $590 and you have a package that actually costs $895 and you have
to change you may find the return trip will cost more than the whole
package. Maybe you will have to pay another $1120 to get home on a no
advanced one way return ticket.

I had this experience a few years ago when I had to rush home for my
Father's funeral. Because of time restrictions I had to buy a non-discounted
ticket. After not feeling well all day, when I finally arrived at the
airport I succumbed to a middle ear infection. So with all the vomitting and
the different air pressures that come with flying there was no I could get
on a aircraft. But, as I had purchased a full fare, there was problems in
changing my flight to the next morning. Goes to show that you can't always
control your circumstances.

The more restictive travel insurance policies may exclude circumstances that
are deemmed 'under your own control', and perhaps this may include work
related issues. Let's say you are about to leave work and you are told there
is an issue that has to be solved and that you leave has to be deffered.
There's a very good chance that this type of travel insurance would no pay
out because of this reason.

Medical Care and Emergency Assistance

Some people mistakenly think that their home medical insuarnce policy will
cover all costs wherever they are in the world. They may find that that it
doesn't cover at all, or the deductions will be much higher or perhaps their
medical costs are covered but not any related transport costs.

You may be on a cruise and you need some medical attention by the ship's
doctor. There is a good chance that their services are charged for as with
any other doctor. You may have to be flown home on a stretcher and this will
involve blocking out nine seats, can you imagine how much that would cost.
You should make sure that you have travel insurance of at least $10,000 or
more to cover these emergencies. Let's imagine you are in a remote area and
you break a leg and you need to be lifted out by a helicopter, this is what
good travel insurance is all about.

To Summarise

Imagine your worst case travel mishap scenario and decide whether you need
travel insurance. This may be the cancellation of the whole trip coupled
with the associated cancellation costs or some emergency medical mishap that
will require medivac and local care. I know these are horrible thoughts but
if you can't afford to self-insure the expenditure of around $100 on travel
insurance will give you the piece of mind and one less thing to worry about.
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