Why travel Insurance is must-Travel Insurance

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When I heard about the couple’s honeymoon plans – a Caribbean resort duri

ng hurricane season – I suggested travel insurance, worrying that a storm would derail their plans.

But they were too busy with the wedding to consider insurance and 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 a

nd, 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 re-routed 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 four to eight percent 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.  Websites like www.insuremytrip.com can help you compare policies and costs.

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 to know 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 a chaperone for your child.  But you can buy insurance just for what you need – medical evacuation, for example.