When You Have Travel Insurance
by Daniel Peterson
Because the summer travel season is starting, what a number of travelers are concerning themselves with is protecting themselves, their family, and their vacation investment. It is a good idea to get travel insurance if you will be going on a trip that involves a sizable financial outlay. It can cover missed flights, bungled connections and illness. Taking cancelled trips into consideration not to mention any delays or interruptions, this can be a safeguard for financial loss.
Included in travel policies are baggage loss and flight insurance, accident, sickness, and financial protection in the event of trip interruption and delay even though they vary. The best policies also come with medical evacuation, a feature rarely offered by conventional health insurance plans. In this case, it comes with an expense because one or more airplanes or helicopters are used to retrieve the sick traveler.
Trip cancellation is probably the most likely occurrence, due to illness, accident or weather. Another possible scenario involves trip interruption wherein a traveler must cut short a trip to go home. The price runs to around 5 to 7 percent of the trip cost per person when it comes to the cost of travel insurance. So for a $3,000 per person trip, it will run an additional $150 or $210.
It is important that you consider one with a 24 hour hot line providing international access as this is essential for medical emergencies when shopping for travel insurance policies. When you plan on traveling abroad, check the US State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. It will be possible for you to get information on crime, medical care, drug supplies, and on areas prone to natural disasters and political instability.
When it comes to robberies abroad, most US Embassies and Consulates maintain 24 hour operators or answering services to assist Americans in difficulty. In this case, they can help you when it comes to canceling stolen credit cards, dealing with local police, expediting the replacement of a stolen passport, and assisting with language problems. Other things they can do is direct travelers to the right source for replacing airline tickets, provide a list of English speaking lawyers, and instruct travelers on getting money transferred.
What they can provide you for lost passports is temporary identification. Usually, passports can be replaced within 24 hours but because of security reasons this has changed. There is a chance that Americans will lose their passports while abroad and when this happens, new passports with computer generated digital photographs will be issued to them.
For all travelers, they should consider packing separate from the passport a notarized copy of a birth certificate, a copy of the information pages of the passport, and two passport size photos. If the actual passport is stolen then this could speed up the process. What the State Department advises travelers to pack include photocopies of credit cards, airline tickets, and drivers' licenses and a second set of photocopies should be left behind with a friend or family member.
You should consider keeping a copy of the police report so that you can file insurance claims when you get back. When exposed to political instability abroad, what travelers need to do is consult with the nearest US Embassy or Consulate for advice. When it comes to foreign travel, you can get tips from the State Department's publication including those on street safety, driving, and terrorism. It can be read in its entirety on the Internet at the State Department's Web site or it can be ordered from the State Department.
Included in travel policies are baggage loss and flight insurance, accident, sickness, and financial protection in the event of trip interruption and delay even though they vary. The best policies also come with medical evacuation, a feature rarely offered by conventional health insurance plans. In this case, it comes with an expense because one or more airplanes or helicopters are used to retrieve the sick traveler.
Trip cancellation is probably the most likely occurrence, due to illness, accident or weather. Another possible scenario involves trip interruption wherein a traveler must cut short a trip to go home. The price runs to around 5 to 7 percent of the trip cost per person when it comes to the cost of travel insurance. So for a $3,000 per person trip, it will run an additional $150 or $210.
It is important that you consider one with a 24 hour hot line providing international access as this is essential for medical emergencies when shopping for travel insurance policies. When you plan on traveling abroad, check the US State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. It will be possible for you to get information on crime, medical care, drug supplies, and on areas prone to natural disasters and political instability.
When it comes to robberies abroad, most US Embassies and Consulates maintain 24 hour operators or answering services to assist Americans in difficulty. In this case, they can help you when it comes to canceling stolen credit cards, dealing with local police, expediting the replacement of a stolen passport, and assisting with language problems. Other things they can do is direct travelers to the right source for replacing airline tickets, provide a list of English speaking lawyers, and instruct travelers on getting money transferred.
What they can provide you for lost passports is temporary identification. Usually, passports can be replaced within 24 hours but because of security reasons this has changed. There is a chance that Americans will lose their passports while abroad and when this happens, new passports with computer generated digital photographs will be issued to them.
For all travelers, they should consider packing separate from the passport a notarized copy of a birth certificate, a copy of the information pages of the passport, and two passport size photos. If the actual passport is stolen then this could speed up the process. What the State Department advises travelers to pack include photocopies of credit cards, airline tickets, and drivers' licenses and a second set of photocopies should be left behind with a friend or family member.
You should consider keeping a copy of the police report so that you can file insurance claims when you get back. When exposed to political instability abroad, what travelers need to do is consult with the nearest US Embassy or Consulate for advice. When it comes to foreign travel, you can get tips from the State Department's publication including those on street safety, driving, and terrorism. It can be read in its entirety on the Internet at the State Department's Web site or it can be ordered from the State Department.
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