Don't Leave Home Without It!

You can just never be sure of things.  There are so many things that can intervene in your plans and your travel plans are not immune.

For two days this last week I followed an online conversation involving a woman who missed her cruise out of Miami through no fault of her own.

You may remember the news story yesterday about the Delta plane that slid off the runway at LaGuardia in New York City. As a result the airport was closed to all flights for a number of hours.

The ripple of this action was felt continent-wide, as flights to and from LaGuardia were cancelled. People were being held up at airports all over. There was a mad scramble by passengers, airlines, and travel agents to re-route passengers through other airports. This caused flights loads to be higher and quickly used up available seats. Airlines were not able to keep up with the demand and it created a backlog.

Unfortunately for this woman, she was not able to get her flight or an alternate routing out of LaGuardia to connect with the cruise in Miami.

Holiday letdown! Especially this winter of all all winners, missing a vacation in a warmer climate could be extra-disappointing.

Unusual weather patterns are becoming more common. Storms are happening unlike they have happened before. Incidents such as airport closures for weather or security purposes are beyond anyone's control, and definitely are not planned.

This weekend a good friend of mine was scheduled to fly to Singapore to give a series of lectures. On Thursday, while teaching at his home college he suffered a stroke. He is now in a local hospital being monitored. Obviously Singapore is not in his current plan.

One moment your health is fine, and the next it is not.  You just don't know.

Both of these mishaps occurred before leaving home. This does not take into account any possible situation that may arise while travelling. In the same chat mentioned above, another participant shared how he had fallen down the stairs on a cruise. As a result he had to be medi-evacuated from the ship, get treatment in a hospital, and then arrange to fly home.

Fortunately all of these people had travel insurance.  As the woman who missed the cruise commented, she was already disappointed, but she would have been even moreso had she lost her money, too.

It is so easy to pass off the need for travel insurance. I know myself, I have been guilty of this at times in the past. Yes, hopefully you don't, but for the time when you do need it, the cost is more than worth it.

Some credit cards do cover travel insurance. If you have a credit card with these perks, make sure you know what it does, and does not cover. Not all cards are the same, nor are they all what we think they are. You need to call your credit card company to check.

If your credit card doesn't offer travel insurance, be sure that you purchase it through another provider. Your travel agent can advise you.

You can also use the site Insuremytrip.com that provides a number of options by different providers.  All you need to do is take the time to read the options and compare coverage, and cost, decide and buy. 

No matter how you are covered, make sure you are covered by travel insurance before you leave home. There's no good reason not to.