Travel Insurance vs Travel Protection

Travel Insurance is so important to protect your travel plans, and most people decline it so quickly and easily without understanding the benefits or what it fully means.
Your travel plans are often expensive, and your hard earned money should be protected should something prohibit you from being able to travel, or if you have issues before after you leave and before you're able to get home.

Travel protection is different from travel insurance.
Often suppliers will offer a protection plan that you can purchase to protect your trip directly with them.  These protection plans generally will allow you to make changes to your trip with no additional fees, or to cancel within a certain time frame (often 72 hours before departure), and receive a travel credit.   This is not the same as travel insurance. 

So what's the difference?  Let's break it down.  

Cancellation insurance will cover you from the time you purchase your policy for your trip up until the minute you leave your home to start your trip.  Cancellation is value-based (ie - the cost of your trip).  It covers you for the unforeseen and unexpected and allows you to be able to submit a claim for the full amount of your non-refundable trip costs for specific reasons (ie - loss of job, death, sickness, etc - there are 27 reasons).  If you needed to cancel for a reason that was not one of these 27 reason, then you can file a claim called "Cancel for ANY Reason".  This means that you would have coverage for 50% of the value of your trip that you have insured.  For those who purchase their insurance plan within 72 hours of making the deposit, you also have a chance to insure your trip to cancel for ANY reason for up to 80% of the value of the trip for the amount you have insured.  This is based on the policy that you buy.  It is also important to know that cancellation insurance only works on UNKNOWN events, you cannot purchase a trip cancellation policy for an event you are aware of that may cause you to want to cancel (unless you are using Cancel for ANY reason).  That is why it is important to purchase cancellation insurance from the beginning before an event becomes known and won't be covered.  

Often overlooked is the very important trip interruption insurance!
This kicks in when cancellation insurance has ended.  Trip interruption insurance covers you from the minute you leave your home to start your trip, until the minute you get home from your trip.   

It will cover you for things like (examples):
- you left the house and there is an accident and can't get to the airport
- your flight has been delayed
- your flight has been canceled
- meals, hotel, and/or transportation needed due to a delay or cancelation
- your airline doesn't have a new flight that works and you need to book a flight on another airline
- loss of part of your land/cruise portion, you have coverage for a prorated amount of your trip for the lost portion
There are limits to each portion that is covered, but they are very generous.  

If you don't have trip interruption coverage, then all these expenses are coming out of your own pocket your should experience some type of interruption to your trip. 

With trip interruption insurance you simply keep all your receipts, open a claim and submit the receipts for reimbursement. 

In addition, Manulife offers "Flight Assist" as part of the Trip Interruption benefit. 
Flight Assist will deposit immediate money straight into your account if there are long delays to help with unexpected expenses!

Cancellation and Trip Interruption Insurance does come bundled as one package, and as mentioned, the price of the policy is based on the value of the trip (and the traveler's age; and when applicable, medical condition of travelers).   This makes it very easy to protect your trip from start to end.   There are also bundled packages that include funds for lost baggage, and out of country medical coverage as well. 

If you don't want trip cancelation coverage, but are interested in the interruption insurance, we can enter the value of your trip as ZERO.  You would still have the benefit of the trip interruption portion of the policy and all those benefits, but it also means if you need to cancel, you would not be eligible to submit a claim for the cost of your trip because the value of your trip was noted as zero.

Whew!  That's a lot to understand!!

That is why as your travel consultant we are here to advise you to make sure you have the best option for your travel dollars and to understand how it will benefit yet should you need to utilize it.  

"I don't need to buy insurance, I have work coverage."
Often people want to check their work policy for insurance, which is great, although 99% of the time the insurance that is covered through employers is out of country medical insurance, not insurance that covers trip cancellation and interruption.  Make sure you understand what is being covered and what is not.  

"I don't need to buy insurance, my credit card has coverage."

If you feel your credit card has trip cancelation and interruption protection just make sure to look into detail on what that coverage is. 

Please use this handy link to check and be sure what exactly is covered and what the limits are for that each of those options.   

Check your credit card insurance

Not all insurance is created equal.  Not all coverage is the same.  

Want to take a peak and get an idea of what your insurance might cost?
You're in the right place, our website has a fantastic tool - just click https://www.igoinsured.com/direct/Step1.aspx 

This is the exact same price and policy as if our of our travel consultants did the quote for you, although any of us are happy to review your insurance options with you at any time.

You've worked hard to earn the money to pay for your travel.  Protecting your trip with insurance should be factored into your budget when planning your travels.