InsureMyTrip Blog

Editorial Update: It’s clear to us that, in the past two months, Ratings and Reviews on InsureMyTrip.com has had a huge impact on the way people purchase travel insurance.  In less than ninety days, we’ve seen tremendous gains in the scope and popularity of the feature.  Our customers have generated six times more content than any other review site, and with nearly four thousand original, unbiased traveler ratings, InsureMyTrip.com has emerged as the leader in not only online travel insurance offerings, but impartial reviews of travel insurance as well.

We’re thrilled to announce the latest site improvement to InsureMyTrip.com: Customer Ratings and Reviews. This exciting feature allows users to view, submit, and comment on thousands of ratings by fellow travelers of the travel insurance plans sold on the site.  It also shows travelers the star ratings for plans they are comparing, offers sorting and filtering features for usability, and breaks down the ratings into categories so travelers can see how specific travel insurance policies measure up in areas such as cost effectiveness, coverage options, and claims processing.

Our reviews have been submitted only by travelers who purchased their policies through InsureMyTrip.com, which means that visitors to the Ratings and Reviews forum can be confident that the people rating the products have direct experience with only those plans that we sell.  However, commenting and actively engaging in discussions on the page is open to all users, whether they have purchased through InsureMyTrip.com or not.  Ratings and Reviews on InsureMyTrip.com is a community forum, where we hope to see travelers engaging with one another, with IMT moderators, and even with the companies whose products we represent.  Our vision is to build a community of informed, passionate, engaged travelers whose thoughts and opinions about travel insurance can not only serve to benefit other travelers, but also shape the way companies within the industry think about, discuss, and improve their products and services.

We’re pleased and proud that as of the launch of the new Ratings and Reviews feature, the plans we sell have an average rating of 4.25 out of 5 possible stars.  97% of reviewers would recommend the policy they purchased to a friend or family member, and even among those travelers who had to file a travel insurance claim, 84% would still want to recommend that policy.  We’re honored that our customers have shared such positive feedback with us, and hope that Ratings and Reviews can be a tool with which we can continue to communicate even more closely with travelers.

Like the new Ratings and Reviews?  Have suggestions to offer?  Visit our Facebook page and drop us a note telling us what you think of InsureMyTrip.com’s Ratings and Reviews.

We’re pleased to welcome a guest writer to our blog today.  Eileen Ogintz is a travel writer who runs the wonderful site Takingthekids.com, which is an indispensable resource for families planning to travel with children.

Taking the Kids and Getting Travel Insurance
By Eileen Ogintz

For once I kept my mouth shut. I resisted the temptation to say “I told you so!”

When I heard about the couple’s honeymoon plans — a Caribbean resort during hurricane season – I suggested travel insurance.  I worried about a storm derailing their plans.

But they were too busy with the wedding to consider insurance that they were sure they wouldn’t need. None of us could have anticipated a power outage at Los Angeles International Airport that grounded all flights for several hours on the day they were leaving, causing them to miss their connecting flights and, ultimately, the first two days of their honeymoon. Their bags didn’t arrive until two days after they did.

The travel snafu ultimately forced them to spend several hundred dollars on airport hotels, meals and clothes — money that travel insurance would have refunded. Travel insurance may also have been able to get them rerouted and on their way more quickly.

Too many people think travel insurance is for seniors with serious medical problems. Not anymore. Not with volcanic ash, blizzards, hurricanes, terrorism and old-fashioned family emergencies causing travel plans to implode. These days, I like the idea of having a fairy godmother watching over my shoulder when I travel, even if I have to pay for it (typically 4-8 per cent of the trip.)

Even in the best of times, traveling with kids can be as unpredictable as hurricane season. A broken ankle, appendicitis, even an ear infection can force parents to delay departure. In other cases, families have to return from vacations early because of emergencies at home. Think of travel insurance as a way to protect your investment in your trip.  It can pay for hotels if you are stranded like so many were after last year’s holiday blizzard in the Northeast or out of pocket medical expenses—as it did for me when a scratched cornea sent me to the ER.  On a ski trip, my travel insurance picked up nearly $1,000 in costs that my medical insurance didn’t cover. Had it been necessary, the travel insurer would have arranged for medical evacuation and covered all of the costs if we’d needed to change our flights to return home earlier.

The key: Assess your needs before you sign on the dotted line, and read the fine print. Will your kids be insured free?  Once, we were delayed overnight without our bags when our connecting flight was canceled. I was annoyed to discover that, because our bags were returned to us within 24 hours, our travel insurance didn’t cover the essentials we had to buy.

Still, I think  travel insurance is worth it, especially if you’ve invested a lot of money up front — like for a cruise, for plane tickets to Hawaii, or for a ski condo during a holiday week — or if you’re visiting a country that might not have the best medical care.  It’s worth it for the peace of mind too, just knowing you don’t have to worry if your elderly mom gets sick and you have to return home or if your backpacking college student needs medical care far from home.

Most families opt for a package plan that will cover any costs incurred if they need to cancel or disrupt their trip because of a medical emergency, a hurricane, or a terrorist act. The insurance should cover the cost of changing your flight, as well as the unused portion of your vacation, if an emergency forces you to return early. If you’re traveling solo with a child and become sick or injured, some of these policies will even provide for a chaperone for your child.  But you can buy insurance just for what you need—medical evacuation, for example.

As for the honeymoon couple, their airline ultimately gave them some vouchers to make up for the inconvenience. They had a terrific time — once they got there.

Copyright 2011 Eileen Ogintz

For more on Eileen’s adventures and misadventures, visit www.takingthekids.com Her TakingtheKids  family travel guides are  newly updated and available for the NOOK and Kindle with individual sections starting at 99 cents.

When asked what the most common concern of travelers might be, during Hurricane Season, most of our reps immediately answered; “They’re worried that they can’t get where they’re going.”  Inclement weather can, of course, close airports and other travel hubs, or cause a domino-effect of delays and cancellations rippling outward from affected cities and wreaking havoc with the plans of travelers even in areas with clear blue skies.  During Hurricane Season, it’s not hard to understand why travelers would be somewhat nervous about getting from Point A to Point B, or at least getting there in a timely fashion.

If  you’re concerned about hurricanes affecting the travel forecast in your city of departure, your destination city, or really, anywhere — that ripple effect is a tough reality of air travel — then travel insurance is one of the best investments you can make.  We suggest you become familiar with these types of coverage:

Trip Cancellation: This coverage, which is included in all of the package policies sold on InsureMyTrip.com, will help you recoup any pre-paid, nonrefundable expenses related to your trip if you cancel your plans due to a delay of 24-48 hours or more (make sure you understand what the specific time frame is for the policy you choose).

Trip Delay: Again, this protection is included in our package policies, and allows you to file for reimbursement of unexpected expenses you might incur as a result of a shorter (but still significant) delay– usually 6 hours or more.  If you need to purchase meals, for example, or pay for overnight lodging to avoid sleeping on the airport benches, travel delay coverage can help cover those incidental costs.

Of special concern is the possibility that your home or destination – -and logically, your travel plans — might be damaged by storms.  While many policies do state that a home or destination rendered “uninhabitable” by a hurricane would be a covered reason for cancelling your trip, we also urge travelers who are especially concerned about this possibility to look into CFAR.  CFAR, or Cancel for Any Reason coverage, would allow you more flexibility to change your plans as you see fit.  In some cases, minor storm damage to your home or destination might mean that you’re uncomfortable traveling, but may not meet the definition of “uninhabitable.”  If you happen to have purchased CFAR, you’d be able to cancel and receive reimbursement for your travel expenses in that scenario, while you may not receive the same benefit from a standard package policy.

It’s understandable for travelers to feel nervous about making plans during Hurricane Season, but the good news is that most of the major concerns you probably have can be addressed with a simple purchase: the right travel insurance policy for your needs.  We encourage you to speak to one of our licensed Customer Care Representatives,who can assist you in finding that policy, so you can secure your travel plans with confidence.

One of the reasons we’re so adamant about trying to stay in touch with our customers is that it’s often the experience of one traveler that helps us better serve the needs of all travelers.  One person’s experience can sometimes help us to uncover unique questions and concerns about travel insurance that might help somebody else in choosing the right policy for their trip.  That’s why, for many of our Customer Care Representatives, the most memorable Hurricane Season stories are the ones that involved slightly less common questions from travelers.

“I had clients call who were in Mexico at the time of a storm, and their hotel mandated that everyone had to evacuate.  Luckily they made it to the airport before it was shut down, so they were able to get home.  They used their trip interruption coverage to help recover their costs.” Lynne, Customer Care Training and Communications Specialist

Why it was unusual: Although Lynne’s clients were told by their hotel manager that they had to leave the property, there was actually no mandatory evacuation from the city in which they were staying.  While some travel insurance plans state that a mandatory evacuation is a covered event, many travelers could be confused by what a “mandatory evacuation” really means.  In this case, while the term didn’t apply, the travelers were still able to recoup the expenses involved in cutting their trip short, because uninhabitable accommodations — i.e., a hotel that’s closed and evacuated due to the storm — are often covered as reasons for trip interruption.

Confused?  Here’s what to ask: What happens if  a hurricane hits while I’m on vacation, and I can’t stay in my hotel any longer?  What kind of coverage would I have if I left early?

“This is kind of an unusual one, but it’s something I think people should really be aware of.  I spoke to some travelers who were supposed to be spending the night on a sailboat while the hurricane was coming through.  They were covered, fortunately, because it was a charter boat – but I want to make sure people know that they have to ask questions about getting coverage for something unique like a stay on a sailing vessel, because it’s not the type of thing that is covered by every standard policy.” –Darryl, Customer Care Representative

Why it was unusual: Cruising might be a popular travel choice, but spending just one or two nights on a private boat isn’t for everyone.

Confused?  Here’s what to ask: If there is anything about your travel plans that you think may be somewhat unconventional — unusual accommodations, adventure sports, wilderness experiences, whatever it may be — please share that with a Customer Care Representative.  You may want to say something like, “I’m not sure if this is significant, but I’m planning to spend the night on a raft going down the Nile…what happens if the river floods unexpectedly and I can’t fulfill my plans?”  As Darryl’s experience with the charter-boat passengers illustrates, there may be specific coverage readily available for certain things, while others may require a bit more research, or may not be covered at all.  It’s best to know well in advance of your trip whether or not your exotic plans can be protected by travel insurance, so there are no surprises in the midst of your adventure.

“I do remember speaking with an insured that had purchased (one of the policies offered on InsureMyTrip.com).  There was a hurricane warning and she was able to cancel her trip and receive the cost of the trip back.  She wanted us to know how extremely happy she was that she had spoken to a knowledgeable customer care specialist who had suggested purchasing one of the policies that offered cancellation due to a hurricane warning. “ –Nancie, Customer Care Representative

Why it was unusual: As Nancie points out, not every package policy will cover you if you decide to cancel your trip based on a hurricane warning alone.  Many of them stipulate that a hurricane must actually occur, and cause certain complications for travelers, for coverage to kick in.  However, we do have some plans that extend the cancellation coverage to travelers who want to change their plans based on a warning, so this particular customer was fortunate to have made an informed choice.

Confused?  Here’s  what to ask: If you really feel that you’d be among the people who would want to cancel due to the threat of a hurricane, then it’s absolutely worth asking one of our Customer Care Representatives to explain to you about not only policies that will cover cancellation due to a hurricane warning, but also Cancel For Any Reason coverage, which provides a broader spectrum of protection and may be the most comfortable choice for some travelers.

The bottom line: We can never know too much about your travel plans.  The more information you provide to us as we’re helping you research your options, the better able we’ll be to provide you with a policy that truly meets all of your unique needs as a traveler.  Call one of our Customer Care Representatives at 800-487-4722 to receive personalized service and answers to all of your travel insurance questions.

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?

Bri, Marketing

Much has been said, on this blog and elsewhere, about the unimaginable devastation that’s occurred in Japan over the past several days.   However, what no one seemed to anticipate, back on Day 1 of the crisis, was that we’d soon be discussing not natural disasters, but man-made ones; not earthquakes and tsunamis, but a tangible nuclear threat.  From where I sit, it seems that the entire travel community is embarking on a somewhat familiar, though entirely unpredictable moment in time — as the ongoing radiation crisis unfolds, there’s no telling how much of an impact it may have on flights, transportation, accommodations, tourism, and the confidence of travelers themselves. (more…)

Bri, Marketing

Yesterday, as I was chatting with another IMT-er, he abruptly asked me the following question:

“Did you know it snows in Turkey?”

I’ll admit, it gave me a moment of pause.  Did I know that it snows in Turkey?  Well, yes, I supposed I did; after all, I knew that Turkey was not a wholly tropical climate, and I knew that it was perfectly possible for temperatures there to dip into the 30s and 40s, if not often, then at least every once in a while.  Logically, snow might follow.  While Turkey might not top the list in my mind of picturesquely frosted, wintry destinations, I had to answer that certainly, I could see how it might snow there.

“But I mean,” my colleague pressed, “a LOT of snow.  They don’t know what to do with it.  Look.”

He showed me the article he was perusing at the time, which confirmed that Turkey was in the midst of its worst snowfall in 10 years, and that as a result of the unaccustomed weather, air and road travel in and around Istanbul was nearly at a standstill.  Yes, I conceded, it was a lot more snow than I would have pictured if you asked me how much snow might fall on Turkey, especially at this time of year.  But with all the odd weather patterns the world has endured in recent weeks and months, how surprised could I really be?

It’s a fact of traveling that the unexpected will happen; in fact, I’d go so far as to say that from my personal perspective, if you’re traveling because you crave predictability, you may want to re-think your plans.  Fortunately, as I so often remind people, there’s travel insurance for many of those unexpected occurrences.  However, it seems to me that among people who tend to buy insurance for their trips, there are two camps: those who always buy some sort of insurance, because “you never know,” and those who only insure trips when they’re relatively convinced that something may happen — like buying coverage for a cruise during hurricane season, or making sure they have coverage for a flight to the Midwest in December.  For the latter group of travelers, I’d venture to guess that buying travel insurance for a trip to Istanbul in March wouldn’t have been a top priority.

Was the major snowstorm in Turkey a fluke occurrence?  Probably.  But then again, so was the now-legendary volcanic eruption in Iceland last year.  In some ways, having travel insurance seems to me to be a bit like traveling with your overly cautious grandmother.  You might scoff at her for packing all those extra umbrellas, fleece jackets, and mittens when you take off for a Floridian vacation; but when the temperatures dip to record lows and it rains the whole time you’re trying to enjoy the attractions, you’ll be awfully glad that Grandma came prepared.

Yes, it snows in Turkey — sometimes, apparently, quite a bit — even in March.  While the snowstorm there isn’t exactly splashing all over the headlines, it’s fairly likely that if you were a traveler whose plans got derailed yesterday by the wintry mess, it would have felt like big news to you.  None of us has a crystal ball to alert us to possible pitfalls; but we do have the opportunity to at least pack a little extra security.  And the really good news is that a travel insurance policy, unlike Grandma’s overstuffed carry-on bag, won’t take up too much space in the overhead bins.

Unsurprisingly, our Customer Care representatives have been fielding quite a few calls over the past few days about the escalating civil unrest in Egypt.  While we covered the basics of the State Department’s travel warning and some other related topics in yesterday’s post, we felt it was important to cover in more depth a few of the most common questions and concerns our customers are voicing at this time.

I’m planning to travel to Egypt within the next few days, but I didn’t purchase travel insurance.  Can I buy a policy now?

Probably not.  There’s a reasonable likelihood that you’d run into difficulty with your plans due to the ongoing instability there; that makes this sort of akin to trying to get flood insurance for your house when the water is already trickling into the basement.  Situations like this one are among the many reasons we always urge travelers to purchase their insurance when they are making their initial trip arrangements.

I’m supposed to be traveling to Egypt quite soon, and I do have a travel insurance policy.  Why did your Customer Care Center tell me that I can’t get reimbursed for canceling my trip?

Civil and political unrest are not included in the standard coverage under most travel insurance policies.  While there are several policies that do cover expenses incurred if you’re delayed as a result of civil unrest, most do not allow you to cancel your trip because of current instability in the region.  Any exceptions to this rule generally come into play only if there is a terrorist act in your destination city or a city on your itinerary.  However, if you happen to have purchased a Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) policy, then you should be able to cancel your trip and receive reimbursement.

I’m not actually planning to travel to Egypt, but I’m thinking about booking a trip either to another country in the Middle East or with flights that may connect through Middle Eastern cities.  What kind of travel insurance should I consider?

This is the question we hope all potential travelers are asking themselves right now.  Most of the major news outlets have been reporting for several days now that it appears that political uprisings, such as the one in Egypt, have been planned in many other countries — Syria, Jordan, and Yemen among them.  It would be wise for travelers whose plans may take them to, or through, any part of the Middle East to be proactive in the face of these reports and make sure that they purchase appropriate coverage for any upcoming trips.   We highly recommend calling our Customer Care center at 800-487-4722 to discuss the best coverage options for your specific itinerary as soon as possible.

I heard that it would probably be impossible from now on to get any kind of travel insurance for trips to Egypt.  Is that true?

Happily not!  Travel insurance is intended to provide protection for all different kinds of scenarios; civil unrest is only one small piece of the whole travel insurance puzzle.  In fact, the major take-away lesson from these events is that in general, civil or political unrest is the kind of “wild card” occurrence that most likely wouldn’t be covered anyway, unless you have a Cancel for Any Reason policy.  That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get travel insurance for a future trip to the pyramids, though — far from it.  The more likely causes of travel woes — illness, injury, delays, and other relatively routine but still unforeseen events — can still befall you in Egypt, or anywhere in the world.  Travel insurance is still available to cover you for those concerns, and will continue to be available, despite the current political situation.  Although it’s hard to think about the more mundane things that can happen when something major grabs the headlines, it’s just as important now as it ever has been to think about the big picture and protect yourself against every eventuality, even the things that seem small when compared to the cataclysmic events of the past few days.

As always, we urge all travelers to carefully review their needs and call us to discuss the best options for insuring any upcoming trips, regardless of where in the world they may be traveling.  While events like the civil unrest in Egypt certainly put travel insurance in the spotlight, our goal today remains unchanged from what it always has been: to provide every possible protection for your trip, so you can continue to explore the world with confidence.

It’s an annual travel industry ritual: Wave Season.  Traditionally, January marks the beginning of this highly-anticipated time, during which bargains on cruises are at their peak.  Travelers looking to get a good deal on their next seafaring vacation are already scouting the different offers at various cruise lines and travel sites. (more…)

Bri, Marketing

You may have heard that the TSA has issued a new set of regulations for airlines and passengers, which went into effect on November 1, 2010.  While most of the news coverage about the switch has been focused on what will be happening from now on as you navigate the process of booking your flight and being cleared through security, we’ve noticed that the TSA itself is recommending that passengers who already have flights booked for departure dates after 11/1 take some action to be sure they’re cleared under the new Secure Flight guidelines. (more…)