• 31
  May
  2010

• Cruise Insurance: Should You Buy It?

  
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Consider these facts before you make a decision on whether you want to buy cruise insurance or not. Fact number one: Cruises are typically undertaken to sunny beaches, when the weather at home is cold, i.e. winter. Fact number two: Cruises are not like airlines. They are not just a means of going somewhere; they are the destination, in most cases. Fact number three: Cruises cost a lot of money and are typically booked months in advance.

Now ask yourself whether you can afford to lose the money you paid up for a cruise, if you are unable to make the cruise. For example, when this year’s winter storms hit, most cruise lines departed on schedule. However, passengers from the Northeast, especially those from the DC area, could not make it. Without cruise travel insurance, they lost all the money they had paid.

Also, it pays to remember that cruises are unlike air travel. Cruise operators spend millions of dollars for the entertainment, food, accommodation, and other extras that they offer on board. If a cancelled ticket means that one less person will travel on the cruise, it represents a loss, however small It might be. And this can add up over time.

Be wary of “insurance” that is merely credit for a future cruise, however. These do not include any medical coverage, which is an important part of cruise travel insurance. Research cruise insurance plans before purchasing your cruise ticket, so that you can buy the insurance as soon as you make the payment for the cruise.

Travel tip: Cruise insurance is valid throughout the world, in most cases. Ensure that coverage includes emergency medical evacuation, which can be vital in case of an emergency.

• 28
  May
  2010

• Trip Cancellation Insurance for Travel to Any Corner of the World

  
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There is usually many a slip between the cup and the lip—in life, and especially in international travel. Purchasing travel insurance, most commonly in the form of trip cancellation insurance, can help you absorb the financial strain of a trip not going according to plan.

The RoundTrip plan from Seven Corners International offers just such coverage. The plan offers two options RoundTrip and RoundTrip Choice. Along with enhanced benefits, RoundTrip Choice also offers coverage for trip cancellation due to any reason. Both plans offer coverage for the non-refundable parts of the travel.

The RoundTrip Choice plan offers nearly double the maximum benefit amount for most benefits. Both plans offer optional flight accident and collision damage waiver insurance. These benefits can be purchased on paying an additional premium.

The medical benefits offered by both plans are minimal. The RoundTrip plan offers $50,000 for emergency medical expenses, and the RoundTrip Choice plan offers twice that amount. The RoundTrip plan also offers an emergency medical evacuation/repatriation benefit of $350,000, which is $1 million in the case of the RoundTrip Choice plan. if additional medical coverage is needed, Seven Corners offers a whole bunch of other plans as well.

• 26
  May
  2010

• Sam’s Insurance Escapades-II: Missionary Insurance and Emotional Trauma

  
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Sam Traveler counts among his friends a great many travelers who do so for humanitarian purposes. Most of them, he finds, are covered by missionary travel insurance. He recounts the tale of a co-passenger on a flight who told him about why it is important to look for some kinds of coverage in travel insurance for missionaries in particular.

His friend, Sam says, first started as a career missionary with a stint in the forests of Namibia. He had gone as part of his church group. Not only did his group face extreme pressure and resistance, the conditions there were simply abysmal.

He witnessed atrocities that he had never even imagined possible, and being just 21 years old and fresh out of college, he bent toward the bottle. Soon, he was drinking like a fish, and obviously needed professional help. The silver lining was that his insurance plan was a solid one—HTH Worldwide’s Global Navigator health insurance plan.

Many missionary insurance plans include coverage for mental, emotional and nervous disorders; alcoholism, and drug abuse as well. Sam’s friend was covered at 100% for alcoholism and drug abuse when in Namibia, and at 80% or 60% up to the coinsurance maximum upon return to the U.S., depending on whether the caregiver was part of the network or not.

Travel tip: While religion is a great salve for emotional needs, do not underestimate the conditions under which you will be working, especially in under-developed areas of the world.

• 25
  May
  2010

• Jane’s Adventures with Travel Insurance-II: Hotel-Like Hospitals

  
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Jane Wanderlust, our intrepid traveler, loves telling people that she has had two types of experiences: staying in hotels that were like hospitals, and hospitals that were like hotels! The first was because of an unfortunate incident which, thankfully, her international travel insurance covered.

When Jane was traveling in Cambodia, she suddenly felt ill. She, as was her practice, had an international travel health insurance plan with Liaison Majestic. The problem was that when she felt ill, there was an outbreak of the flu going on where she was traveling. So, although she needed hospitalization, there just weren’t enough beds to accommodate her. The doctor whom she consulted as an outpatient said that he was willing to take care of her where she was staying.

Jane somehow managed to get a hotel room very close to the doctor’s clinic. The hotel room literally served as her hospital bed. So did she have to pay for this hotel room out of her pocket? Fortunately, no. Under the Liaison Majestic plan, the hotel room charge when no hospital room is available, is covered. So Jane was able to get reimbursed for the accommodation on producing a certificate from the doctor and the hospital.

Travel tip: In such cases, the hotel room is considered hospitalization, and you must inform the insurance company either before check-in (if not an emergency) or as soon as possible after check-in (if an emergency).