August 18th, 2009
Travel Insurance
I wanted to write a quick blog about Travel Insurance again. As in my previous blogs regarding Travel Insurance, I said that "travel insurance is optional, but highly recommended". This is true for travel agents who travel too.
I went on a trip this past June. I did not do a pre arranged package but a ala carte package where I booked the Air, Hotel, and Car separately. One air ticket was used with miles and the other purchased. The total of my trip was 1600.00 for a 2 week stay. There were just 2 of us traveling and neither one of us were sick or have pre existing medical conditions. That is the main reason people say they don’t want to get the insurance. But being sick is not all that travel insurance covers. Well I followed my own advice and purchased the standard travel insurance. For $1600.00 it only cost me 36.00 to be covered for various reasons, mainly if you cancel do to illness.
I did not need to cancel due to a pre trip illnesses. But I did experience damage luggage. Other than reimbursement for canceling due to illness most travel insurance covers many other travel mishaps. And it was a good thing it covered damaged luggage.
As a travel agent I travel with my notebook computer and a portable printer for various business reasons and for the convenience of printing my boarding pass for my return trip. I carry the notebook and printer in my carry-on luggage to avoid it being damage or lost. Well on one of my flight segments the plane was too small for the carry-on’s and the airline stowed the carry-on in the belly of the plane. Well, after I got to the hotel, I had to print something and my printer would not work. Once I got home I took it the the repair shop and they told me the printer head was bent/damaged. So I filled a claim with the insurance company and I got a check in 4 weeks and was able to get a new portable travel printer. The insurance covered the cost to have a repair person look at it plus the cost of the original printer. So the only thing I was out was the insurance premium of 36.00. If I did not get the insurance, I would have had to dish out 250.00 for a new portable printer.
So, the lesson here is although "travel insurance is optional, it is highly recommended".
Lisa Zablan - Hawaii Aloha Travel