Bri, Marketing
In my life, there are various people who travel. One of my oldest friends from my junior high school days racks up serious frequent flier miles globetrotting for business. My sister, a professor of antiquities, is always flying off to some envious locale for a conference or a “research” trip (note, dear, sister, that all those photos of you posing with a glass of wine in front of a gorgeous seascape don’t quite match up to your talk of dusty library carrels and hours spent poring over engravings). And a dear friend from graduate school invariably spends her summers, unfettered by work responsibilities, exploring various corners of the world with the kind of adventurous yen that I can’t quite muster. I admire it, but I can’t muster it.
Aside from the business-travel guy, whose needs are covered entirely by his company, most of the travelers in my life find themselves in frequent need of travel insurance. For my sister, it’s a need usually heightened by the requirements of embassies, host organizations, and other entities; for my adventure-traveling friend, it’s a need identified, somewhat regretfully, by a rather embarrassing incident on a backpacking trip in the Highlands. (More on that in a moment.) And while both of these women are quite educated, savvy creatures more than capable of researching and purchasing their own travel insurance, guess who they usually call to help them?
Luckily for both of them, they not only have me — they have my husband, who happens to be the Product Underwriting Manager here at IMT. He’s the one who got on the phone with my sister last summer and convinced her that she was about to be penny-wise and pound-foolish in purchasing a lesser (and therefore less expensive) policy for her upcoming sabbatical. It’s a good thing he did, too, because between flight delays and unexpected problems with accommodations, she certainly ended up needing the coverage he recommended. As for my adventurous friend, she received the tag-team approach on a recent visit to our home.
As she was detailing the plans for her upcoming trip to Africa, I managed to gently prod her several times into proclaiming “Oh! While I’m here, I should ask you guys about insurance.” My husband then took over with the details, as I helpfully chimed in from time to time. For example: “You know, he’s right about getting medical evacuation and hospital of choice. You may not want to, say, fall over a waterfall in Africa, gash your leg severely — or worse — and end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, until some strange men pull up in a Jeep and offer to try to transport you to a hospital 20 miles or so away.”
Obviously I’m not usually so specific, but remember that embarrassing incident I referred to earlier? This scenario at the waterfall was the spectacular ending to her Highlands adventure. Had it not been for the kindness of (fortunately altruistic) strangers, she’d have been in a very dangerous predicament. She knew it, too. She left our house armed with plenty of information and several quotes for appropriate policies.
I’m certain that both my sister and my friend would be able to find travel insurance on their own, but they don’t have to. That’s what friends (and relatives) are for. When you need advice on any subject, research is great — but let’s be honest; if you’ve got a friend who knows something about it, you’ll ask them as well, and be more likely to feel comfortable that the information they’ve given you is correct. And while not everyone has an old college buddy or close relative working in the travel insurance industry, you do have the next best thing: InsureMyTrip.
Our Customer Care representatives are licensed insurance specialists who don’t work on commission, so they not only know what they’re talking about, but they’ll only recommend the policies that are best for you. They don’t have a certain number of calls that they have to take in a day, so they can give you the attention and time you need to make an informed decision. Just like a good friend, they’re available to help you out when you need it, by phone, live chat, or email — and they’re here seven days a week.
You may not have an actual friend who works at IMT (and who can oh-so-kindly remind you of your most embarrassing travel moments), but we’d like to be your travel insurance companions nonetheless. It’s often said that in life, it’s not what you know, but who you know. Why not get to know InsureMyTrip?
