By Emily Miller
Whether you’re traveling for business or for pleasure this holiday season, careful advance planning can make a substantial difference in how your experience unfolds.
As with most travel planning, taking into account the possible need for insurance is something worth considering – because of the high volume of travelers, possible winter weather complications, and other unique seasonal disruptions – travel insurance might be just the right holiday gift to give yourself.
With this being said, InsureMyTrip offers five tips for researching travel insurance for a holiday-season trip:
Evaluate Your Needs
Before purchasing travel insurance, take into consideration where you are going, how long you will be gone and the monetary value of the trip. If you are simply going to relative’s house for a few days than travel insurance may not be in your best interest.
But, if you are taking the whole family on a 7-day Caribbean cruise for New Year’s Eve than you have a lot more to lose, which is where travel insurance could come into play.
So, take a good look at everything you would stand to lose if you had to cancel your plans, and decide for yourself whether or not travel insurance is a good investment for this particular trip.
Assess Your Luggage
During the holiday season, it’s not uncommon for people to be traveling with additional baggage – such as holiday gifts, luggage for the whole family, and any expensive or valuable pieces of jewelry – that people would rather not lose.
If you’re looking into baggage lose coverage for your holiday gifts, make sure to keep as much documentation (original receipts and/or photos of each item) as possible, and make sure the policy’s limits, both the total and per-item maximums, match your needs. Also, keep in mind that your high-priced items – such as jewelry – may already be covered through your homeowner’s policy.
Watch the Weather
Unfortunately, trips planned for this time of year may be derailed because of harsh winter weather conditions that can easily ground flights and delay, or outright cancel, your plans. Even if you don’t think you home or final destination are likely to get hit with a blizzard, remember that flights originate from hubs all around the world.
For example, a snowstorm in Chicago could easily cause systemic delays and cancellations in Arizona but, fortunately, travel insurance can provide protection for lengthy delays. Usually, the threshold set by most insurers is five hours or more and flight cancellations.
Consider the Kids
The holiday season not only brings harsh weather, but is also the prime season for colds, viruses and all kinds of illnesses that kids are especially prone to getting. So, if you’ve planning to travel with them this season, it may be wise to take out a travel insurance policy in case anything happens.
Keep in mind that a licensed, qualified physician must certify that your child is in fact too ill to travel.
Keep Your Options Open
Like any other type of insurance, there are numerous options to choose from with certain policies working better for you than others.
For some travelers, a Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) policy is the right solution during the holiday season. It is an extremely flexible policy that allows you up cancel your plans if something were to happen. Since it’s a time-sensitive benefit, you’ll have to purchase it within 10-30 days of making your initial trip payment and you must notify all travel suppliers 48 hours or more prior to your scheduled departure.
