Travel Insurance 101

 

 

Before you leave for please take a look at your passport—you might want to reconsider trip protection. You will see that the United States State Department recommends checking your health insurance benefits before traveling abroad because most policies (including Medicare) will not cover you outside the United States. This means unless you have travel insurance, you could be on your own if you get sick or injured during your trip—and we do not want that to happen to you.

Caribbean Dream Getaway and our partner, Allianz Travel Insurance, can get your vacation back on track after an unexpected covered emergency by helping you find a pre-screened hospital and covering the cost of your treatment. Plus, it can protect you from trip cancellations and interruptions, lost or stolen luggage, and more.

What Is Travel Insurance?

 

 

Travel insurance is a plan you purchase that protects you from certain financial risks and losses that can occur while traveling. These losses can be minor, like a delayed suitcase, or significant, like a last-minute trip cancellation or a medical emergency overseas. In addition to financial protection, the other huge benefit of travel insurance is access to assistance services, wherever you are in the world. Our elite team of travel and medical experts can arrange medical treatment in an emergency, monitor your care, serve as interpreters, help you replace lost passports and so much more. Sometimes, they even save travelers' lives.

A few things you should know about travel insurance:

• Benefits vary by plan. It’s important to choose a plan that fits your needs, your budget and your travel plans. Here are definitions of all available travel insurance benefits.
• Travel insurance can’t cover every possible situation. Caribbean Dream Getaway and Allianz Global Assistance offers named perilstravel insurance, which means it covers only the specific situations, events, and losses included in your plan documents, and only under the conditions we describe.
• Travel insurance is designed to cover unforeseeable events— not things you could easily see coming, or things within your control. If, for example, you wait to buy insurance for your beach trip until after a named hurricane is hustling toward your destination, your losses wouldn’t be covered.

How Does Travel Insurance Work?

 

 

In most scenarios, travel insurance reimburses you for your covered financial losses after you file a claim and the claim is approved. Filing a claim means submitting proof of your loss to Allianz Global Assistance, so that we can verify what happened and reimburse you for your covered losses. You can file a claim online, or do it on your phone with our free TravelSmart app.

How does this work in real life? Let’s say you purchase the OneTrip Prime Plan, which includes trip cancellation benefits, to protect your upcoming cruise to Cozumel. Two days before departure, you experience a high fever and chest pain. Your doctor diagnoses bacterial pneumonia and advises you to cancel the trip. When you notify the cruise line, they tell you it’s too late to receive a refund.

Without travel insurance, you’d lose the money you spent on your vacation. Fortunately, a serious, disabling illness can be considered a covered reason for trip cancellation, which means you can be reimbursed for your prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs. Once you’re feeling better, you gather the required documents — such as your airfare and cruise line receiptsand information about any refunds you did or did not receive — and you file a claim. You can even choose to receive your reimbursement via direct deposit, to your debit card or check.

Sometimes, this process works a little differently. Travel insurance may pay your expenses up front if you require emergency medical treatment or emergency transportation while traveling overseas. Or, with the OneTrip Prime and OneTrip Premier plans, you may be eligible to receive a fixed payment of $100 per day for a covered travel delay or $100 for a covered baggage delay. No receipts for purchases are required; all you need is proof of your covered delay.

How to Choose a Travel Insurance Plan

 

 

Caribbean Dream Getaway and Allianz Global Assistance offers a range of travel insurance plans that include different benefits and benefit limits. So how you know which is best for you? To begin, get a quote (see form above) for your upcoming trip. When you enter your age, trip costs and trip dates, we can recommend a few plans for you. Then, you can compare the costs and benefits of each.

If you’re a budget-conscious traveler who’s traveling in the U.S., you may like the OneTrip Cancellation Plus Plan. It includes trip cancellation, trip interruption and trip delay benefits.

If you want protection in case of medical emergencies overseas, but you have few pre-paid trip expenses, you may consider the OneTrip Emergency Medical Plan. This affordable plan includes emergency medical and emergency transportation benefits, as well as other post-departure benefits, but not trip cancellation/interruption.

If you’re planning several trips in the next 12 months, consider annual travel insurance — like the AllTrips Prime Plan. It gives you affordable protection for a full year of travel, including benefits for trip cancellation and interruption; emergency medical care; lost/stolen or delayed baggage; and the Rental Car Damage Protector (available to residents of most states).