"We're Going, No Matter WHAT"

Travel insurance exists in various forms. Several companies I use who put together vacation packages offer "cancel for any reason" trip insurance. Cruise lines offer insurance. There are separate travel insurance companies not affiliated with any specific cruise line or company.

The purpose of this discussion is not so much to delve into the different kinds of insurance, although I will touch on that, as to look at the value of travel insurance compared to the cost.

Frankly, I am one of the least likely people to purchase travel insurance. I think I purchased travel insurance for our EuroStar tickets because it was relatively inexpensive. However, I didn't insure our river cruise in France, which was much more expensive than the EuroStar tickets to take us from London to Paris. Some insurance I ALWAYS take, read on and see why!

Since I am not always quick to purchase insurance, I seldom insist clients buy it for themselves. I can think of only one family who I insist purchase insurance. After I learned their medical history, this after they missed a cruise, I pretty much refused to sell them vacations unless they took insurance. They have booked around 6 vacations with me, at least half of those had to be canceled due to chronic health problems.

Insurance is fairly costly, however the total price of a cruise or vacation is far more costly. When people have spent their limit on a vacation I often have them tell me "We are going no matter what". OK, works for me! I would probably say the same thing. This from the agent who fell DOWN the up escalator at LAX and, bloody but unbowed, went on the trip anyway.

Falling down at LAX caused me to seriously re-think what I tell people about insurance. Events on Thursday caused me to think even harder about insurance. My husband was returning to work at his office after his afternoon break. One door into his building was blocked by someone doing clean up. The other door appeared to be open and available. He went through, belatedly noticed rolled up carpet, attempted to step over it but was off balance. He has a torn Achilles tendon, and yes, it could have been much worse and we are grateful it was not, and he is in a cast from toe to knee. Can't drive, would not be able to fly for very long distances, would not enjoy a cruise because his movements are fairly limited. What if we had been going on a vacation?

Most vacations start at around $2,000. That is a pretty basic vacation price for two people. What if you simply couldn't get on the plane? What if it were a cruise, but you know you wouldn't enjoy the cruise because you are unable to move around comfortably? Are you REALLY prepared to gamble that much money? If you purchase the insurance and you are unable to go, you get ALL of your money back, except for the cost of the insurance. Didn't buy the insurance? Mostly, you're stuck. A few companies will work with me and allow me to try and re-book your vacation for a later date. Cruise companies seldom are willing to re-schedule, you just lose the money.

Cruise companies will sell you insurance but it is for "medical reasons only". That means if you, your travel partner, or someone in your immediate family or the immediate family of your travel partner becomes ill, AND you can provide a doctor's letter or hospital information, you get your money back or you get, at the very least, a voucher to take the cruise at a later date. Your money is not lost.

Packagers who put together vacations that include air, hotel and sometimes car to places like the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, South Pacific or other surf and sand destinations usually offer what is known as "cancel for any reason" insurance. You get right up to the date of travel and have a flat tire on the way to the airport. At that point, you call the 800 number that is in your travel documents and tell the company what has happened and inform them you are not taking the trip because a set of new tires costs more than your entire vacation did and now you have to replace ALL your tires. No problem. You lose the cost of the insurance but you get all the rest of the money back...no questions. You didn't even need to make up that last little story about having to buy new tires!

All this is going through my mind as I look at my husband on crutches and confined to quarters for a while and wonder if I would have been smart enough to buy us travel insurance. They are called "Accidents" because we don't know they are going to happen. If we knew they were going to happen we would call them something else! Who knew the roll of carpet in front of the door at work would be there? Who knew he would see it too late to step over it? These things happen in a flash and are often not preventable. I would rather know I could get the bulk of my money back and have my vacation at a later time, than to think I had lost our vacation money permanently and had nothing to show for it. I insure our house. We insure both our cars. It is not pleasant to pay either of those items, but the house and the cars are major investments and need to be protected. After you have paid me for a major vacation are you really prepared to gamble the money?

This brings us to insuring rental cars and my own personal experience. Obviously, everything I know about travel I have learned the hard way. I was always told your regular car insurance would cover your rental car, there was no need to buy that pricey rental car insurance they always try and force you to take every time you rent a car. So, I picked up a car in Flagstaff, AZ from a company who shall remain nameless. It was to be a short trip. We flew to Flagstaff, picked up a car, drove to the Grand Canyon and then over to Ashfork, AZ. This was in the pre-cell phone days, so I was driving across a giant parking lot looking for a pay phone. I was looking so hard for a pay phone I failed to see the doghouse size boulders marking a dividing point in the parking lot. I scraped the drive side door, hard! The car could be driven, it was just hard to open the driver's door. No problem, I have a great car insurance company that I have had for 46 years. Oh, WAIT! My personal car insurance DOES NOT PAY for the time the rental car is out of service?? OH MY! The car company sent the rental car to Phoenix, AZ to be repaired. The car was out of service a full two weeks. I was charged for every single day the car was out of service, just as though I were renting it. The bill was well over $800. No recourse, just pay it, please. Ask your car insurance company if they would pay the charge for that set of circumstances. My guess is, their honest answer will be NO! I no longer rent a car without taking the car insurance offered by the car company. If it ever happens again, I was to be able to drop the car off, give the car company my sincere apology (and nothing more!) and walk away.

Travel insurance not offered by a specific tour company or cruise company is based on the age of the people traveling and the total cost of the vacation. The older you are and the more expensive your vacation package or cruise, the more the insurance will cost. However, it is insurance that will cover emergency medical evacuation, loss of baggage, flight delay, hospitalization, any number of things.

I have guided groups of people into Mexico and done guide work in the Copper Canyon area of Mexico. Sometimes, the group was my own. Other times, I was working as a free lance guide for a packager. The packager, who is still in business and has a great reputation, was very insistent that clients either take travel insurance or sign a waiver saying they did not want it. I really didn't think too much about it at the time. It was only walking through the trails around Divisidero and Creel and taking people on hikes that the full realization hit me. Anyone falling and breaking something in that area would need to have helicopter transportation to the nearest hospital, which was several hundred miles away. Not all the people taking trips are in the best of health or are sure footed. There are people with medical conditions, some unknown until there is an emergency. The Copper Canyon tour takes you through country that is at an elevation of around 8,000 feet. A fall, heart problems, any sort of trouble and you will find yourself hundreds of miles from the nearest doctor or hospital. I don't want to hazard a guess about the cost of being helicoptered out of a wilderness area, but I know travel insurance would cover it.

Guided tours vary in what insurance is offered. Some only will let you cancel for covered reasons (medical); a few will let you cancel for any reason. If you are canceling a trip and the insurance will only let you cancel for medical reasons, please be prepared to work with your doctor and fill out all the paperwork. That is the only way you will get your money back.

If this gives people a reason to consider taking insurance I am glad. I still tell people insurance is optional and I can't force anyone to take out insurance. However, as the travel agent, I really do worry when clients cut corners by not taking insurance. They are accidents. They DO happen. They DON'T always happen to other people.

The above information is a very rough outline of what insurance covers. When you are booking a trip with me, please ask me what the insurance covers and we can do a thorough discussion of which insurance, if any, would be best for you. However, "We're going, no matter what" simply doesn't always work.

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Until next time,
Sonia