The Value of Travel Insurance, with Examples

If you’re travelling abroad, you should buy travel insurance. It will not only possibly save you money, but it might also possibly save your trip. Those memories of your trip have a value greater than a plane ticket or a hotel in the long run, even if it doesn’t seem that way when you’re typing in your credit card numbers. Don’t believe it? Well, I’ve got a few examples from my personal life that might illustrate the value of travel insurance. Then we’ll get into how easy and cost effective it is to purchase.

• 3 Examples

The first time was covid. I was in Ireland and preparing to leave for my trip home to the US. It was during the covid era, but it was after the vaccines came out. At that time, you still basically couldn’t travel if you weren’t vaccinated, with every country having requirements, including quarantines, that made travelling not really worth it for the unvaccinated. But if you were vaccinated it was almost back to normal. Unless of course, you came down with covid.

My traveling companion got covid. You needed a negative test in order to enter the US. I passed mine, but she did not pass hers. How it got her and not me, I’ll never understand. We were both vaccinated. I found another testing facility, another positive. So, we missed the flight.

Thankfully, I had travel insurance. Unfortunately, their emergency line was not particularly responsive, so I was operating on faith for a while, but we stayed in Ireland another couple of days until she tested negative and went home. I put the new flight on my card, I didn’t have to worry about the cost, given how I was buying it last minute, and just kept the records of everything. Now I’ll be fully transparent, I had to wrestle with them for a little while, not that they wanted to deny the claim, but the customer service left a little to be desired, in the way that is typical nowadays where there is an online portal and an AI chat, neither of which are as capable of handling things as whatever company deploying them hopes they are. But it all got paid in a fairly reasonable amount of time.

The second time, the airline changed the flight. I was going to Spain at the time and looking at a map I couldn’t help but notice how close it was to Morocco, and then I couldn’t help but to look up round trip flights from Spain to Morocco, and then to notice how cheap they were. Anyway, the flights changed. The one to Morocco was the issue as it was changing from morning to night, and I had prebooked things during the day. So, I cancelled that flight, and booked one that allowed us to arrive when we intended. Without travel insurance we either would have had to miss some of the experience that we had, or we would have had to pay extra for it.

Now, the airline that cancelled the flight, they did offer a refund if I needed to cancel. However, I did not get that refund for 14 months. It’s really not worth it to get into why it took them 14 months, but suffice it to say the customer service issues laid with the airline this time. But, the travel insurance came through. It didn’t just come through money-wise, or time-wise, but the chaos and stress that can come with a changed or missed flight, was not felt. I just did whatever I had to do to make the trip great.

The third time, there was a war. I was on a pretty long trip where I would visit some countries in Europe and then head to the middle east. Once in Jordan I would take a bus through Palestine to Isreal. From there I would take a flight which would connect in UAE on the way home. I left for my trip in the beginning of October 2023. I was in Germany on October 7. With the terrorist attack in Israel and subsequent war in Gaza, I was wondering if I should still go.

I thought Jerusalem seemed relatively safe and not subject to any violence. To some degree that was accurate, but with everything happening so recently, it was hard to know what was going on to an extent that would make you, or at least me, comfortable heading into a country at war. I have been in countries that are in conflict before, but so early on it is very hard to understand what is going on, and then eventually things become a little more entrenched, and it becomes a little easier, thought not without risk, to understand where you can and cannot go safely. But regardless, those are the kind of thoughts you have when you don’t have travel insurance, those are the kind of risks you take, or else throw away thousands of dollars. But I had travel insurance.

So, I called the insurer. Much better result than calling the first insurer in Ireland. We talked through it, and I was covered. There were certain timing provisions, just to make sure you weren’t recklessly going into danger and just changed your mind, but since it began after I had left for my trip, those weren’t applicable.

What I ended up doing, was, rather than going from Jordan into Palestine and Israel, I stayed in Jordan for the planned amount of time, then took a flight to Greece and stayed there for the amount of time I would have stayed in Jerusalem. Then from Greece I booked a flight to meet up with my layover in UAE and just take the same flight home. The insurance was nice and easy, and paid for it all. That’s two new flights, one missed flight, one new hotel, and one cancelled hotel. And I didn’t lose any money. And not because the airlines offered refunds, they didn’t. And not because the hotel did either, they never technically declined but I received enough copied and pasted ‘we’ll get back to you eventually’ messages to take a hint.

Consider that last example. Without travel insurance, my choice would have been to lose thousands of dollars or risk going into a country at war, without feeling at all like I had a good grasp on the situation within the country. Instead, because I had travel insurance, I saw the Acropolis and ate Octopus. See the difference? It’s not just in your wallet.

• How-To and Tips

I get that nobody is looking to spend more than they have to. You start thinking, well what if it all goes smoothly? Wouldn’t I have lost money then? Well, it’s not that expensive relative to the total cost of your trip. If you spend $5,000 on a trip to Europe, which is totally doable, you might pay $200 for travel insurance. $5,200 is not that much different than $5,000. But if you find yourself in trouble, it could be a lot different than $5,000.

And that cost for the insurance will pay for itself. No, not just in peace of mind. When you book a flight or hotel it will often present you with multiple prices, including ones that do not allow for refunds, and ones that do, for additional cost. When you have travel insurance, you don’t need to pay extra for refundable or cancelable flights or hotels, which, for a $5,000 trip to Europe would be more than $200. Just get travel insurance and skip paying extra for refundable tickets. You save money, and also you have travel insurance.

Consider also, my examples did not include any serious injuries to me or anyone I was traveling with. That’s really when you would need travel insurance the most. If you or someone with you is seriously injured, you don’t want to have to settle for cheap care, or worry how you’re going to pay, or make compromises, or face delays. You’re going to want to get the best care as fast as you can, and if that requires flying you somewhere to get that, even that is covered by travel insurance.

I’m talking about travel insurance saving you time, money, memories, but don’t forget it can also save your health and or even your life. If you’re planning on taking a trip, especially one that you’re investing an amount of money in that you’d miss, that’s international, or that you might anticipate doing any dangerous or risky activities in, get yourself travel insurance.

It’s very easy to do. As soon as you book anything, flights or hotels for example, look to get travel insurance. The longer you wait the more expensive it will get and the more exclusions it will have. This is done to avoid someone gaming the system and only getting travel insurance when they know they’re going to cancel.

Just go on one of any number of aggregator sites that will show you multiple quotes from multiple carriers. You just follow the prompts and answer the questions, and they’ll show you your options. Here are a few I’ve used:

• Insuremytrip: https://www.insuremytrip.com
• Travel Guard: https://www.travelguard.com/
• Travel Insurance: https://www.travelinsurance.com/
• Squaremouth: https://www.squaremouth.com/
• Faye: https://www.withfaye.com/
• Allianz: https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/

You’ll be shocked by how quickly and easily you can get a quote. They all work the same way. They’ll ask you where you’re going, who is going, how much it costs, and when you started actually spending money on the trip. You’ll get a bunch of quotes. Utilize the compare tool to compare a few you like and pick it.

As far as coverage, use the trip interruption, missed connection, and travel delay. Theft and lost luggage are worth getting some limits for too. Get the health coverage if your insurer doesn’t cover medical coverage abroad. You can get auto if you need it, check with your auto insurer if you plan on driving. That said, it can be difficult to get auto with your travel insurance. It might be easier and more cost effective to work with the auto rental place. Evacuation and repatriation are good too, sometimes more or less important depending on the destination.

As far as cancellation, that depends on your circumstances. But keep in mind, the longer you wait between that first purchase and getting travel insurance the more limited your options will be with regard to cancellation. There are a variety of reasons for cancellation, and they do impact price, so be mindful of what is or is not applicable to your circumstances.

In conclusion, your time, your money, and your memories are valuable. It’s true you only live once, but that’s not a call to recklessness, it’s a call to treat every opportunity like you won’t get another and to take the steps you need to take to make sure you make the most of it. A trip, especially a trip abroad, is a chance to grow and learn and have fun and have experiences, not to panic and scramble and worry about logistics or health or finances or how you’re going to get around after you’ve already left. Every second counts, so get travel insurance so you can spend as much time as possible and as little money as possible, making the most of them.

Happy Travels!

by Zackary Goncz

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