InsureMyTrip Blog

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As tensions escalate between North Korea and the rest of the world — most notably, its neighbor, peaceable South Korea — many travelers and American citizens abroad are beginning to wonder whether or not they’re really safe from the potential threat posed by Pyongyang.  As of today, the US State Department issued a statement which assures Americans that they are in no immediate danger, and that despite North Korea’s threats of “thermonuclear war” to be visited upon the South, no one needs to leave South Korea for safety reasons at this time.  Of course, that doesn’t fully allay the concerns of those who are already in South Korea, or who may be scheduled to travel there within the near future.

We’ve received many phone calls and inquiries about the position travel insurance holds on situations of delicate global security such as this one.  In short, the current situation can be broken down into two component parts: What’s happening today, and what may happen in the near future, if North Korea is to be believed.

As of today:
While the prospect of being an American in South Korea may be an uneasy one, according to the opinion of the State Department, there is no real imminent concern.  At this writing, the State Department has not issued either a travel alert or a travel warning regarding South Korea.  It’s worth pointing out, in any case, that the coverage offered by travel insurance policies even if there had been an alert or warning from the government would be somewhat limited and specific.

If you’re already there, while you should certainly exercise due caution, making the decision to curtail your trip and come home would be entirely up to you — and entirely on your dime.  If you’re planning to go there in the near future, your best bet is a travel insurance policy that offers Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) coverage; with CFAR, you can make whatever decision is most comfortable for you regarding whether or not to fulfill your travel plans, as long as you meet the criteria for purchase eligibility as well as stay within the required window of time for cancelling your trip.

In the future:

Certainly, we wouldn’t want to speculate on what may happen, but many cautious travelers are already wondering how the situation might continue to unfold.  In the event that the State Department does, in fact, issue a travel warning, only a thorough reading of the terms of your specific travel insurance policy can answer any question about whether or not you’d be covered for cancelling your planned trip.  In most cases, travel insurance specifies that the warning would have to have been issued as the direct result of a terrorist attack on an itinerary city — a stipulation under which a threat by North Korea towards South Korea would not apply.

It’s also important to make note of the fact that if North Korean aggression escalates, and the worst — an outbreak of war between the neighboring countries — were to happen, war is typically a fully excluded reason for cancellation under the terms of most travel insurance policies.  While that’s bad luck for the traveler, again, CFAR coverage could possibly offer you the opportunity to cancel your trip regardless.

We should also note that there is some coverage available that may help if you’re already in South Korea at a time when war or particularly worrisome political violence has broken out.  Some travel insurance providers offer Non-Medical Evacuation coverage.  In plain terms, this type of coverage offers emergency evacuation to travelers who are facing immediate risk of harm due to circumstances such as civil, military or political unrest; natural disaster; or your declaration as a Persona non Grata by local authorities.  The coverage and stipulations vary by policy and provider, but in general, if the risk becomes great enough that either the host country itself or the U.S. State Department declares that American citizens ought to cease traveling in that region, the Non-Medical Evacuation Rider can be employed to assist you in getting to a safer location.

At this point in time, there is no reason to believe that any of the scenarios we’ve speculated upon are going to happen; we certainly hope fervently that all tensions subside quickly, and that South Korea remains a hospitable place for all travelers.  However, it’s important to be prepared for all eventualities. We offer everyone our best wishes for continued safety and security, and urge you to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have about the impact of this developing political situation on your travel plans.

Image credit: Diego Cupolo, used under Creative Commons Attribution

Recent news of a mysterious outbreak of illness in China has certainly not escaped the notice of informed travelers.  The rare strain of avian flu, H7N9, has sickened a handful of people and killed two so far.  While scientists are still studying the disease and say that the likelihood of widespread human-to-human transmission appears to be low, many people are having a hard time banishing memories of other infectious disease outbreaks in recent history – most notably, the 2003 H5N1 bird flu that killed hundreds, the H1N1 “swine flu” epidemic in 2009, and the infamous outbreak of SARS that resulted in nearly 1,000 deaths a decade ago.

Understandably, news of any potential outbreak of disease around the globe can make travelers wary.  Although there is no reason at this point to suspect that the new avian flu strain will become widespread enough to rise to the level of a serious threat, it seems like an opportune time to remind travelers of the position travel insurance is most likely to take on issues such as global epidemics and pandemics.

Simply put, an identified epidemic or pandemic is generally going to be excluded from coverage on most insurance policies.  That means that if you are intending to travel to a part of the world impacted by illness, you probably will not be able to cancel your trip due to fear of a pandemic and receive any coverage for the cancellation.  However, the exception to the rule – as always – can be found in a Cancel For Any Reason policy.

Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) coverage provides you with the option to cancel your plans for whatever reason you choose, whether it’s listed as “excluded” or not by your insurance provider.  Savvy travelers who are looking at booking trips to Asia at this point in time might be wise to purchase a CFAR policy sooner rather than later; that way, if the situation in China does happen to escalate and becomes a more imminent threat to public health, you would have greater security and flexibility to change your plans under the terms of your travel insurance policy.  Because CFAR is a time-sensitive benefit, to be eligible to purchase the coverage, you need to buy your travel insurance quickly; we generally recommend buying within 10-30 days of your first trip payment in order to be sure that all the possible options are available to you.

Keep in mind that when you purchase a CFAR policy, you may not be required to adhere to “covered reasons” for cancellation, but you do have to remain aware of the terms of your plan.  In general, to file a claim using your CFAR benefit, you have to cancel your trip and notify all travel suppliers 48 hours or more in advance of your scheduled departure.  That means that if you become alarmed by the escalation of a potential flu outbreak in China, and want to back out, you can’t wait until the very last second to make your decision; but you can take some time to see how the situation develops and make an informed choice about whether or not to fulfill your travel plans.

At this point in time, it’s really far too early to tell what, if anything, will happen with the avian flu situation in China; but in the travel insurance world, it’s never too early to prepare yourself for the “what-if” scenario.  To inquire about finding the right travel insurance plan for your upcoming trip, we recommend calling our licensed Customer Care representatives at 800-590-2650.

Image courtesy of http://www.ForestWander.com, used under Creative Commons attribution

This Spring — such as it is — appears to be starting off as one big “whoops” moment.

Groundhog: Whoops.  Expected sunny skies: Whoops.  Warm Spring Break hopes: Whoops.

And then there’s all that pesky cruising news: Whoops.  Whoops.  And Whoops again.

Not to mention, of course, sequester-related shortfalls and furloughs affecting the TSA, FAA, and air travelers at large: Whoops.  We could go on, but you probably get the point by now.  Travel, at least right now (and probably not really ever), is not a simple and predictable experience.

Many people who come to us are asking some version of the question, “Do I really need travel insurance?“  We have lots of answers to that question — most of them involving multiple ways of saying “Probably” — but it seems as if there are moments in time that serve as their own answer.  Travel moments such as this one are examples we can hold up to remind everyone of why this industry exists, and why travel insurance has become increasingly popular as people become more and more aware of the very real meaning of the term “unforeseen event.”

We don’t expect that very many travelers each year are going to fall victim to a splashy, media-worthy travel snafu, or that large numbers of the people who buy their insurance through us will end up needing big-ticket services like emergency medical evacuation.  We don’t think very many of you will get caught up in volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, cruise ship sinkings, terrorist attacks, or any of the other incredibly scary, but also incredibly rare, events that tend to come to mind when we contemplate all the things that could go wrong when we step away from home and the comfort of routine.  But while travel insurance does provide some assistance that might prove useful in those horrific events, that’s not entirely what travel insurance was created for, nor what it does for the majority of travelers each and every day.

This stuff — this “whoops” stuff, this mostly inconvenient, non-disastrous, highly annoying, but not life-threatening stuff — is the real reason we sell travel insurance.  When rodents wrongly predict the weather, and serious snow tangles travel well after the first day of Spring, that’s what travel insurance is for.  When cruises get cancelled and people have to change their plans unexpectedly, that’s what travel insurance is for.  When security slows down and flights get delayed, that’s what travel insurance is for.  This everyday, travel-headache, wish-I-could-fix-it, just-want-to-get-there-already kind of stuff.

Yes, there are important benefits for the scary things like medical evacuation, and comforting benefits for the hard things like working around a pre-existing medical condition.  There are even Accidental Death and Dismemberment benefits to help you care for your loved ones if, by some awful twist of fate, you don’t make it home.  But in travel insurance, as in life, it’s often the little things that make a difference, and this moment in travel is about the little things.

Travel insurance, at this moment in travel, is about getting you there and getting you home.  It’s about helping you to rebook a cancelled flight, getting you reimbursed for non-refundable expenses you paid for a trip that fell apart, and making you more comfortable while you’re waiting at the airport for the next way out.  It’s about making sure that lost or delayed luggage doesn’t ruin that special event you’d packed for, and that a missed connection doesn’t have to mean an entire missed opportunity.  Travel insurance, at times like this one, is really for your comfort and your peace of mind as much as it may be for your safety and security. It’s there to turn the “whoops” moment around and respond with, “That’s okay.”

It may be too late, right now, to buy insurance for the current snowstorm or the latest cruise snafu, but it’s not too late to start thinking about insuring your next trip.  You never know when the “whoops” moments will come, and being prepared is the best way to relieve that worry altogether.