InsureMyTrip Blog

This morning, some news from the Weather Channel caught our eye: Although June 1 is marked as the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane season each year, it’s not unheard of for tropical storms to develop earlier than June 1.  In fact, in recent years, early formation of storms has happened several times.

What does that mean for travelers?  Better safe than sorry; better early than late.  In other words, don’t forget the cardinal rule of purchasing travel insurance for hurricane season: Buy it before the storm is named.  Once tropical storms are named, they’re officially considered an active threat, which makes them “known perils” in travel insurance parlance.  And if you’ve ever read a travel insurance policy from cover to cover, you probably figured out somewhere in that reading that “known perils” are not generally covered by even the best of travel insurance plans.

If this information surprises you, picture this: You’ve just purchased a vacation home and are calling to have the house insured.  While you’re on the phone with your insurance company, water from the nearby lake is rising and lapping at the back door.  Would you expect to be able to purchase flood insurance for your house?  That’s the scenario travelers are facing when a major weather event has been identified as a threat.  For this reason, we have always strongly encouraged travelers to make sure that they’re aware of hurricane season as a period of high potential for travel disruptions, and that they purchase their policies well in advance to avoid any issues that might prevent them from being eligible for coverage.

Knowing that June 1 is fast approaching, and that it’s no magic number — realistically, as the Weather Channel reminds us, a storm could strike at any time from here on out — the smartest and safest thing you can do to protect any upcoming trips you’ve planned is to look into purchasing a travel insurance policy as soon as possible.  That way, you’ll be protected fully within the parameters of your plan if a storm does strike, while those who haven’t planned ahead could find themselves out of luck.

For more information about travel insurance during hurricane season, you may be interested in reading these posts from our archives:

How has travel insurance coverage changed since Hurricane Katrina?
What happens if my travel plans are delayed or cancelled due to a hurricane?
What if my accommodations are destroyed by a hurricane?
What if my home or the area I live in is severely damaged by a hurricane, and I can’t travel?
Are there any “little known” scenarios I should learn about before I travel during hurricane season?

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.

Yesterday marked the beginning of NOAA’s National Severe Weather Preparedness Week, during which the government agency hopes to highlight key pieces of information and steps people can take to stay safe throughout potentially catastrophic weather events.  Today’s theme is “Know Your Risk,” which couldn’t be more applicable to travel and the travel insurance industry.  Our entire business, and our education of travelers, is centered around assessing and understanding what risks might be inherent in different travel decisions, then helping people to make a plan that will hopefully address those risks.

Severe weather is the kind of unforeseen event that travel insurance is truly intended for.  Obviously, there are many risks that come with venturing away from home, ranging from mild scheduling disruptions at the airport to the kind of major tragedies none of us like to envision too vividly.  But if you’re thinking about the likelihood of any one particular type of travel disruption occurring, catastrophic accidents are pretty far down on the list; weather events, on the other hand, have got to be in the top five.

There’s no way to stop severe weather from derailing your plans, but there is travel insurance coverage available to help with many of its effects.  For example, if your flights are delayed or cancelled because of the weather, you might be able to file a claim to be reimbursed for incidental expenses such as food and lodgings, as well as for possible additional costs incurred by having to make different arrangements to reach your destination.  If your accommodations are destroyed and made entirely uninhabitable by a weather event, you may be able to receive assistance from your travel insurance provider in making other suitable arrangements, recovering nonrefundable expenses, or both.  And if the severe weather strikes your home, rather than your intended vacation spot, you might be able to cancel your travels in order to stay home and take care of necessary repairs, depending on what kind of travel insurance policy you’ve purchased.

A travel insurance policy can be a useful tool for severe weather preparedness, no doubt; but how do you know if you really need one?  Here are some questions you should ask yourself when booking any trip, to help assess the risk that severe weather may impact your plans:

1. Am I traveling during a time of year when there is a known risk of severe weather?  The Atlantic Hurricane season, which runs from June through November each year, is an excellent example of a season during which any traveler may want to seriously consider insuring him or herself against the possible effects of a weather event.  However, hurricanes aren’t the only thing worth thinking about.  Consider whether or not you’re traveling at a time when snow and winter weather may cause travel backlogs.  Research rainy seasons in more remote countries.  And truly, it’s important to factor in where you live, not just where you’re going.  If you’re a Midwesterner planning to travel during the height of tornado season, travel insurance may not be a bad idea.

2. Did my trip cost enough to be a financial burden to me should I lose that money?  If you wouldn’t be comfortable losing your pre-paid, non-refundable expenses, travel insurance is a smart investment.  Many of us wouldn’t be able to take a financial loss on a significant trip, and still be able to rebook without some degree of financial difficulty.  Ask yourself whether or not that hurricane or blizzard would be as disappointing to your wallet as it would be to you.

3.  Where am I going?  This probably seems obvious, but it’s worth just taking a minute to confirm for yourself whether your destination is a place where the likelihood of severe weather taking a toll on your plans is at all heightened.  If you’re going to, say, London in May, your severe weather risk is probably a bit lower than the risk you might take in traveling to Costa Rica in September.  But it’s not just about seasons; thinking about how remote your destination is may also be a factor.  The chances that a romantic little beach hut far from the touristy crowds might be badly damaged by a severe weather event — even one that happens quite some time before your scheduled trip — are probably somewhat greater than the likelihood of the same thing happening to a suite in a large, established five-star resort in a metropolitan area.

Of course, there are many other factors that should go into making a decision about whether or not to insure your next trip.  Severe weather is far from the only event that could cause major travel headaches.  However, this week of severe weather preparedness gives us a great opportunity to remind all travelers to take a close look at their plans whenever they may be hoping to travel, and think about the way Mother Nature could impact their trip.