What to Know About Travel Insurance
A few days ago, one of my clients had to cancel a long-anticipated trip. We’d spent weeks planning it, and he had been looking forward to the experience for months. But when a close family member was hospitalized, he made the clear decision to stay home and care for her.
Thankfully, he had purchased a travel insurance policy when we booked the trip. The policy reimbursed nearly all of his expenses. While it didn’t take away the disappointment, it gave him peace of mind and protected his investment — and when the time is right, he’ll be able to reschedule the trip.
That experience is a powerful reminder of why travel insurance exists: to protect your health, your belongings, and your financial investment when things don’t go as planned.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you should buy travel insurance, here are the basics to help you decide.
What does Travel Insurance Cover?
Comprehensive travel insurance policies are designed to cover three broad areas: your health, your belongings, and your trip itself.
Your health. Travel insurance can provide coverage for medical emergencies that happen while you’re abroad. This includes doctor visits, hospital stays, surgery, and prescription medications. Most policies also include coverage for emergency medical evacuation or repatriation — which can be extraordinarily expensive without insurance.
Your stuff. Lost luggage? Damaged camera? A delayed bag that doesn’t arrive until the last day of your trip? Travel insurance can reimburse you for lost, damaged, or stolen property, as well as baggage delays that require you to buy essentials while traveling.
Your trip. This is where travel insurance can really matter. If you have to cancel your trip due to a covered reason (such as illness, injury, a family emergency, or a natural disaster), your policy can reimburse you for any nonrefundable expenses. Insurance can also cover interruptions to your trip, expenses due to delays or missed connections, and — in rare cases — non-emergency evacuations due to civil unrest, extreme weather, or the like.
Many policies also offer optional add-ons, such as Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) policies, which allow you to cancel your trip and receive a 75% refund, no questions asked.
What Does it Cost?
Insurance is priced based on two main factors: the nonrefundable prepaid cost of your trip and the age of the traveler(s). Your destination and trip length may also affect pricing.
The goods news is that coverage is often surprisingly affordable - a comprehensive policy typically costs between 5-10% of your insured trip value. And you need not insure every dollar you’ll spend – just the prepaid, nonrefundable expenses that you want to protect.
If you are going to buy travel insurance, it’s important to do it before your trip begins, and ideally shortly after you make your first payment or deposit. Booking early is required for certain coverage such as CFAR, and it also helps ensure you get the broadest set of options and the best value.
Do I Need Travel Insurace?
Not everyone needs travel insurance. Here are some questions to help you decide:
Are you booking nonrefundable flights, tours, or accommodations?
Would it be financially painful to cancel at the last minute?
Are you traveling internationally, where your health insurance may not apply?
Would a missed connection or other delay meaningfully affect your investment?
Some credit cards offer limited travel benefits — such as coverage for trip delays or lost luggage — if you use that card to pay for the travel. And some health insurance plans cover international care, but that’s the exception and not the norm. Check with your provider to understand your coverage.
Even when travelers don’t end up filing a claim, many say that insurance gives them the confidence to travel more freely, and book more boldly — including money-saving nonrefundable rates.
Key Takeaways
At Key Travel Advisors, we help clients figure out whether travel insurance makes sense for their trip — and if so, we help them find a policy that’s a good fit for their needs and risk tolerance.
We don’t sell insurance directly, but can recommend trusted providers, walk you through the fine print, make sure you understand what’s covered and what’s not, and support you in the case that you need to file a claim.
We’re here to help you travel with confidence.
