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Everything you wanted to know about Travel Insurance

Travel Insurance is recommended if you are pre-paying for a trip or tour and cannot afford to lose that payment. Simply stated, a travel insurance policy is designed protect the investments and payments you have made towards a trip or tour. Travel is expensive. Once you’ve paid for your trip, what will happen if you or someone in your immediate family unexpectedly becomes ill, injured or dies and you can no longer take or continue your trip?

There are several kinds of insurance included in the general term “Travel Insurance”:

• Trip Cancellation insurance is a policy that will protect (i.e. pay you back) if you have to cancel a trip. If you have purchased a spot on a tour, which costs $4000, and purchased air tickets that are an addition $500, you have a $4500 investment in your trip. A cancellation or interruption of your trip can cause you to lose some or all of your prepaid trip expenses. In addition to the loss of your trip payments, there are a whole host of associated costs that come into play should you fall ill overseas, such as changing airline tickets, additional hotel accommodation, phone calls home, etc.

  Trip Cancellation insurance and Trip /Interruption/Delay insurance can provide protection of your covered Trip cost when you, an Immediate Family Member or Traveling Companion cancel or interrupt a Trip for covered reasons. Trip Delay insurance can reimburse you for meals and accommodation expenses for a covered Trip delay. Covered reasons usually include you, your traveling companion, or immediate family becoming ill.

• Baggage Insurance: Your baggage and personal possessions can be lost, stolen or damaged anytime, anywhere in the world. 24-hour baggage insurance is important as airlines only provide limited protection for your checked baggage and do not cover your carry-on items. Cruise lines and hotels offer little or no coverage. Homeowners or renters insurance may provide limited benefits or have a high deductible.

• Emergency Medical Evacuation Insurance: When you have an accident or become suddenly ill and an ambulance, medical helicopter or other medical conveyance is required to transport you to immediate care, who will pay these expenses? If you need to be medically transported back to your home country, you could owe the expense for a private air ambulance, or for a block of seats large enough to accommodate a stretcher and medical equipment on a commercial flight, plus a medical attendant to accompany you.

  Most U.S. medical policies provide little or no coverage for these expenses. Medicare will not cover you outside the U.S., nor will most Medicare supplements. These costs may be very high. Emergency Medical Evacuation policies offer between $50,000 - $100,000 worth of coverage.

Price
The price of trip cancellation insurance varies according to company, the amount of coverage you want to purchase, and your age. When shopping for insurance, price should not be the only criteria you consider. You should read the coverage information carefully. Most insurers provide adequate medical expenses cover nowadays, but difficulties may arise if you have a pre-existing condition that needs treatment while you are away, or you are injured taking part in a hazardous activity not covered by your policy.

How to purchase Trip Insurance
When you sign onto a Mass Audubon Natural History Travel tour, we will send you trip insurance information that has been used successfully by many of our travelers. You can also view this insurance package online.