Is travel insurance actually necessary?

Most often, after settling the flight, accommodation, tour component part , most people would ask: “Do we need travel insurance? ”

In my opinion, certainly, you would need to purchase travel insurance! Go ahead to buy it, what are you waiting for?

Why should one buy travel insurance? 

In today uncertainty world coupled with many unexpected happenings and terrorists activities, the last thing you would want to worry is about money.  Of course, I am not telling you to stay HOME and not travel because no one say by staying in your own country, nothing happen to you. In fact, honestly we have no inking of what our life will turn out the next moment. Having said that, please do not hit the panic button, stay calm and just travel.

What kind of travel insurance coverage should one purchase? 

Whenever one purchase travel insurance, always be on the lookout at the payout. There are commonly either a choice of deluxe of classic plan. Without doubt, the more one pay, the better payout one will get should it happen. When purchasing it, one should always look out if it covers common yet important issues such as:

–Flight delay (commonly, at least 6 hrs of delay) . In the event of flight delay, always have the airport manager to write a letter to certified that the flight has delayed and to input both the original and new departure timing.

– Missed connections (If you are travelling with different airlines. For example, point A to point B, you travel by EVA Air. Point B to point C, you travel by American Airlines.)

– Baggage delay and damage 

– Losing travel documents 

– Travel medical claims (Look for the payout, this is important! You don’t want to have the payout to be little as it is expensive to get sick and does it cover emergency medical evacuations such as Helicopter airlift)

Note: Insurance do not usually cover extreme activities such as River Rafting, Bungy Jumping, Sky-Diving, etc. You play at your own RISK. Although having said that, please go all out to enjoy such activities because as the saying goes, YOU LIVE TO TELL THE EXPERIENCE! (But for goodness sake, please always ensure the safety track record of such companies are good. Still, incidents do happen of course. )

What kind of travel insurance you should not buy? 

With airlines needing some ancillary revenue in today competitive world, airlines at time do sell travel insurance and have the option to purchase it when one buy tickets online. From my personal opinion, highly recommended not to buy these insurance policy from airline as they firstly, should there be a flight delay, it is difficult to claim. Airline will find excuses to avoid being accountable for it. Next, airline are a third party provider only. Should you want to claim from the parent company that sells it, very often it will take a longer time for claim amount to be processed.

When should one buy travel insurance? 

Most often than not, the best time to buy travel insurance is right after you have settled all the travel arrangements. Flights booked, hotel booked, tour package purchased, car rental checked, next up is insurance. Most people think that you can leave it to the last minute when you are at the airport checking in to purchase travel insurance. However, do you know that depending on which insurance company, most of them cover up to 30 days before your travel period.

What does this mean? It simply mean that should you have any last minute illness that deters you from travelling. For example, in my previous job as a tour consultant, my client had purchased a tour package from me and also bought travel insurance from me after the recommendation. And truth to be told, 1 week before his departure, he came down with cancer. His doctor written a memo to have him immediately admit to hospital for urgent surgery. As a result, he could not travel and managed to have the insurance company claim back for the package paid to the travel agency.

Another good time to buy insurance is during Holiday fair (e.g. NATAS Singapore travel fair in end Feb and Aug period every year). Always have a particular travel insurance one would normally buy from. With the mobile applications such as NTUC Travel insurance, one may receive special promotional discounts to purchase it.

How should one claim travel insurance? 

On a personal note, I have seen my travel companions claim travel insurance thrice. Remember in order to claim back money from insurance companies, normally they would require many documents. One of the most important thing is not to throw away your air ticket boarding pass slip (to show that you had really flew to that destination and back). Next, you would need copies of original receipts for your claim. Make sure to make a photocopy of it for your own record purposes. Ensure that on the receipt, should it be a medical claim, always make sure you have the signature of the doctor and best if have doctor address.

Past experience when my travel companion needed medical attention in countries such as Nepal and Myanmar, the doctors do not have an official receipt. They simply written down the medicine costs and you have to make sure in order to prove its authenticity, the doctor have to verify by signing on it. Have the doctor to state down the medicine name as often is required by insurance companies. Insurance companies would often have people who have medical knowledge to ensure that the doctor prescribed a medicine that was described by your medical condition when you reported it.

The claiming of travel insurance is at time a long process. Key is to submit as soon as you return home and to give full account details of what had happened.

Certainly, we do not want to claim any insurance amount. However, it is always better to be safe than sorry. Because of travel insurance, my travel companion who got injured during trekking of Nepal trip claimed back the high costs of medical treatment in one own country which sum up to roughly SGD$9,000.

Categories: Travel Tips