Travel Insurance is a special type of insurance policy designed to cover property damages, financial losses, and medical treatment expenses while traveling. A typical travel insurance policy covers a wide range of events, from minor inconveniences like delayed luggage to more serious issues, including medical conditions, illnesses, or injuries. Some travel insurance policies even pay the cost of a ransom in inevitable circumstances. Travel insurance is mainly sold as a travel package, including a variety of coverages. What type of travel insurance policy is best for you depends on your coverage needs, nature of the trip, rules, and regulations of the destination country, and more importantly, how much budget you have.

In this article, we’re going to summarize the coverages included in a standard travel insurance policy. We’ll also take a look at the exclusions that are not covered by travel insurance. So, let’s get started!

What Does Travel Insurance Cover?

A standard travel insurance policy offers the following significant coverages:

§  Trip Cancelation or Trip Delay

Trip Cancelation coverage, also known as trip delay or interruption insurance, is among the most significant travel coverages of travel insurance. It reimburses the policyholder the travel expenses that are prepaid and nonrefundable in case of trip cancellation or delay. However, to be paid by your travel insurance provider, your trip must be canceled or delayed because of acceptable and covered causes. The most common reasons for trip cancelation under which the policyholder is entitled to be reimbursed include:

• Illness
• Accidental Death
• Sudden Business Conflicts
• Weather-related issues

Trip cancelation or delay can only be beneficial on your part if you pay more upfront than what you could lose. For example, if you pay $3000 for your travel package and your trip gets canceled, and your travel policy stipulates that all is refundable except $200, your travel insurance policy will reimburse you for this $200. So, getting a travel insurance policy make you able to claim the nonrefundable amount from your insurance provider, if your flight get canceled.

§  Lost Luggage or Personal Property

Travel Insurance provides you with financial coverage if you lose your luggage or any personal belongings were stolen while traveling. For example, if your luggage is lost by your airline and it doesn’t reimburse you completely for it, your travel insurance provider will pay you for it depending on its actual value. This coverage is applicable while traveling from or to the destination. Most airlines are bound to reimburse the travelers if the luggage is lost, stolen, or damaged, but the reimbursement amount has certain limitations. Therefore, you must have travel insurance to add additional layers of financial protection to your luggage and personal belongings.

§  Medical Coverage

Most Travel Insurance policies offer medical coverage under which your insurance provider will help you pay expenses of medical treatment if you get ill or injured due to unforeseen accidents while traveling. There’re two major types of medical coverages depending on the amount of coverage:

• Short-Term Medical Coverage
• Major Medical Coverage

As the name implies, short-term medical coverage provides the policyholder with financial protection against medical expenses from 5 days to one year. The duration of short-term medical coverage also depends on the worth of your insurance policy and the insurance company which is providing it.

Major Medical coverage is suitable for people on considerably longer trips that can range from months to years.

Medical coverage can offer you the following major advantage:

• Help You Pay the medical expenses and treatment bills
• Help you locate the doctors and health clinics in your vicinity
• Assist you in getting hospitalized in case of severe illness or injury

Besides these, medical coverage helps you get foreign-language services to contact your embassy and family members without any problem.

§  Accidental Death Coverage

If a flight or road accident causes death to the policyholders, the insurance company will be liable to pay the Accident Death benefit to the guardians or family members (beneficiaries) of the policyholder. Accidental Death coverage is one of the mandatory coverages in most travel insurance policies. However, the death benefit is only provided if the death is while traveling through a flight of a licensed commercial airline. The policyholder will not be entitled to the death benefits if death occurs due to drug overdose or chronic sickness.

You don’t need the Accidental death coverage if you already have purchased a life insurance policy. However, if you want additional benefits to those offered by your life insurance policy, travel insurance with accidental death coverage is a good option.

Besides these coverages, there’re some optional add-ons that you can get by paying more in premiums. For example, some travel insurance providers offer:

• Emergency Medical Evacuation Coverage
• Repatriation flights
• Emergency Medical Transport coverage

This coverage can be helpful for you if you want an emergency evacuation to your home country on medical grounds. If you have these coverages, your insurance provider will arrange the emergency medical transport to ensure your evacuation. Your insurance provider will also arrange the repatriation flights or other means of transport if you want to travel back to your country in emergency conditions.

What may Travel Insurance not cover?

Now that you know what travel insurance does cover, you should also be aware of the things that may not be covered before deciding to buy. The first and most important thing that is not covered by travel insurance is any pre-existing medical condition you’re suffering from before getting the travel insurance. Some travel insurance providers don’t offer their services in areas with political unrest. Following are some other things that the travel insurance may not cover:

• You can’t get medical coverage against any unapproved medical condition.
•  You can’t get covered by travel insurance if you take part in any physical activity that involves high health risks.
• Travel Insurance coverage may not be applicable if you travel against the advice of Government authorities.
• Travel Insurance is not applicable if your luggage is lost because of being unattended.