InsureMyTrip Blog

A customer from Colorado recently took us up on our offer to stop by the office when visiting Warwick, and here’s what she had to say:

I wanted to thank you for giving me a tour of your office while I was visiting Warwick, Rhode Island.  I was amazed!  I pictured a small two man office but instead found a whole building with state of the art features.  The call center room with the wall/movie size computer screen monitoring all the latest infomation throughout the world was incredible.  I didn’t realize I could call in and talk to one of your 20 plus licensed insurance brokers if I had any questions.  Your independent server room with a window was unique.  I hope others will stop by to view your improvements.  I have a whole new appreciation for your business and am online right now to purchase insurance for our group of 12 on our upcoming cruise.  Thanks again! Jackie

Thank you Jackie! It’s always a pleasure to meet a customer.

Radio personality Stephanie Abrams recorded her weekly show “Travel with Stephanie Abrams” from the InsureMyTrip.com Customer Care center this week. In addition to travel insurance experts from InsureMyTrip, Stephanie’s guests include representatives from the National Hurricane Center, the Providence/Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, Cruise Brothers, Nylo Hotel and Rentabikenow.com. The mayor of Warwick also stopped by for an interview.

Read the rest of this entry »

Becky, Insurance Analyst

If you’re like many travelers concerned with Swine Flu (or the H1N1 virus), you have been keeping close attention to any and all news relating to the Swine Flu outbreak.  So you have heard that the World Health Organization has raised Swine Flu to a level 6 alert, meaning H1N1 is officially a pandemic.  Just what exactly does this mean with regards to your travel insurance? Well that depends on the the travel insurance provider that you have purchased a plan through.  The majority of providers on our site make no exclusions for pandemics, so the coverages remain intact, and the fact that Swine Flu is now a pandemic should not be of any concern to you if you purchased one of these provider’s plans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kerri, VP of Technology

One of the most exciting aspects of working at InsureMyTrip.com is hearing about the great trips our customers go on. We know you plan every last detail to fill your travels with adventures and new experiences. I’m sure some of them are trips of a lifetime.

At InsureMyTrip.com, we’ve been on a journey of our own. We revised our website and built a brand new software platform that we hope will make choosing the insurance policy for your travels even easier. We made the navigation and quote form simpler and added more help content throughout the site. We have reorganized comparative elements to provide coverage information in clear, concise terms and make it easier to find what you’re looking for faster. Read the rest of this entry »

Melissa, Operations Analyst

Many people own timeshares and other people rent timeshares through either a rental agency or directly from the timeshare owner. Recently, we have been asked if this expense can be covered by travel insurance.  I have created 3 cases below which will hopefully help you if you are involved in a rented or owned timeshare property.

Are you renting a timeshare from a Realtor or website which specializes in timeshare rentals?

If so, you may want to cover the cost of the rental in case you are unable to travel. These types of rental agencies will give you a receipt and will have rules related to cancellation fees and penalties. If the cost of the timeshare rental is prepaid, non-refundable, you can insure the cost associated with this. Remember to include your airfare and additional prepaid non-refundable travel expenses so that if you are unable to travel for a covered reason (of course), you will be able to recover the entire cost of your trip.

Read the rest of this entry »

Alexia and Becky, Insurance Analysts

At this point travelers have found that their basic travel insurance plans will not cover canceling a trip due to fear of contracting swine flu.  The only way that someone can cancel their trip because they simply don’t want to travel right now is if they have a plan with Cancel For Any Reason coverage.

Cancel For Any Reason comes included in some plans, and is offered as an optional add on with other plans.  It costs more to get a plan with Cancel For Any Reason coverage, so you should decide if the higher cost will be worth it for you.  Travelers who have plans with Cancel For Any Reason coverage can decide not to travel and receive a percentage of their non-refundable trip cost back.  Make sure you check out all plans with Cancel For Any Reason, because the percentage of your trip cost that you will get back varies from 50% up to 100%.

Read the rest of this entry »

Becky, Insurance Analyst

Many travelers are concerned about Swine Flu and its impact on scheduled trips. You can find much information about what your travel insurance policy will and will not cover in the previous blog post.

We are getting a lot of calls today from people who are concerned that the airlines might cancel their flights because of the Swine Flu outbreak.

Unfortunately, the consensus so far among the travel insurance providers is that they will not provide trip cancellation coverage if the airline refuses to fly into a Swine Flu area.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 1Update: See our new Influenze H1N1 (Swine Flu) Information Page

Becky, Insurance Analyst

Today one of the providers on our site announced an exciting way for people to celebrate Earth Day, protect their travel investment, and help children in Kenya, all at the same time.  This year, each Travel Guard policy purchased on Wednesday, April 22nd (Earth Day) will result in one tree being planted with Trees For Children – Kenya.

As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Tanzania (just south of Kenya) I am very excited by Travel Guard’s announcement.  One of the projects I did in my own village was a tree nursery.  I worked with villagers on planting fruit trees, in the hopes of both diversifying their diets, and creating income by selling the fruit in town.  Trees are so important to everyone, in all areas of the world, but especially in rural East Africa.  Wood from the trees is constantly being harvested for use in cooking, making charcoal, building, and many other things.  I believe that planting trees in Kenya is a great way to encourage sustainability in that area.

Read the rest of this entry »

Vikki, Public Relations

Working in the travel insurance world as I do, you’d think I’d have a pretty good understanding of all things travel insurance. Actually, I guess I know more than I realize, but sometimes I’m slow to fully appreciate some of the neatest things about these products. For instance, coverage for natural disasters.

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen folks snowed in and flooded out in the Midwest, Mt. Redoubt erupting in Alaska, and of course that devasting earthquake in Italy. I know that for people with planned trips to these areas there are a number of covered reasons for cancelling them such as:

• Read the rest of this entry »