Record cancellations increase demand
Wild winter weather in the US has spurred more travellers on to find out about ways in which they can protect their trip, according to Jim Grace, CEO of comparison website InsureMyTrip. He said: “This season, we have observed an unprecedented number of flight delays and cancellations nationwide, and more travellers are turning to travel insurance to safeguard their investment.” The company is keen to highlight the benefits offered by trip cancellation, trip delay, trip interruption and cancel for any reason travel insurance policies.
Grace added that the need for travel insurance remains even when the country is not in the grip of a snowy winter: “I’ve always been fascinated that a plane taking off out of Providence, continuing on to Las Vegas, then San Jose and finally Orange County – if any of those legs get disrupted, everyone down the line is affected as well.” He went on to explain how travel insurance could aid people in such a situation: “Let’s say [the airline] cancels the flight. The advantage of having travel insurance is that your trip is not just isolated to air travel. The benefit of travel insurance here is if you were flying to Miami to pick up a cruise ship and you’ve now been delayed, these more complex travel plans are affected and the airline has no reciprocity or concern about other parts of your trip. Travel insurance is about protecting all the aspects of your trip downstream.”
Grace also recently tried to dispel some lingering misconceptions about travel insurance, the first of which is that it is too expensive. “Price is interesting,” said Grace, “because clients sometimes think [travel insurance] is really expensive. What we find is that when you survey the entire market, most coverage is only four per cent to eight per cent of total trip costs.” Other misconceptions Grace was keen to put right is that domestic US health insurance will cover people for medical problems abroad, or that homeowners insurance will always cover items that are lost while on holiday, and finally that the travel insurance offered by credit cards will cover you for a missed trip.”