Family Travel Insurance: What did we do for our trip?
When I was planning our 6 month Round the World trip, one of the first things I looked into was family travel insurance. I wanted to make sure we were covered under a variety of scenarios. For example, my two biggest fears prior to our trip was that someone would get sick from the food or water, or that an airline would lose our luggage.
We think either the beer glass or the food was the culprit for Anthony’s stomach flu
One of the first things I learned about family travel insurance is that there is a difference between travel medical insurance and trip protection insurance. As you would expect, medical insurance covers things like a medical emergency, whereas trip protection covers things like trip cancellation. We wanted to have both.
In the end, we didn’t have to purchase family travel insurance because it was included with our AirTreks tickets. AirTreks partners with Travelex to provide a travel protection plan for its customers. The travel protection plan was quite comprehensive. It included coverage for lost or delayed baggage, trip cancellation and delay, including for weather related reasons, and medical emergencies. Travelex also includes coverage of pre-existing conditions, though as with any policy, be sure to read the fine print.
The main concern I had about our coverage was that it only covered us for 180 days, whereas we would be gone for 182. We were relying on our credit card insurance for coverage of those last two days.
Did We Use Our Family Travel Insurance?
This is the backpack that was left on an Italian train, never to be seen again!
Luckily, we had no medical emergencies on our 6 month trip. Anthony had a 24 hour stomach flu in Thailand, but that was it. Anthony, did however, leave his backpack on an Italian train and when he went back to get it, someone had already taken it. It had two Kindles, an iPad and iPad mini and Google phone in it, as well as a change of clothes and my daughter’s medication. When he submitted a claim, we learned about the fine print relating to electronics. There was a $500 cap on reimbursement for electronic devices, which barely covered the cost of the devices we lost. He submitted a claim and was reimbursed the $500 for electronics and an additional amount for the non-electronic items he lost.
In terms of trip delay, we had a delay on our last flight – Rome to San Francisco via Istanbul. We missed the connecting flight and had to spend a night in Istanbul. We were not covered by Travelex at that point, because it was after the 180 day window. Fortunately, the airline covered the cost of the hotel rooms, meals, and visas we had to get due to the delay.
Family Travel Insurance Tips
Passing the time by checking out the trinkets at the Ataturk Airport in Turkey
Based on our experience, my two main tips would be:
- Understand what is covered (medical emergencies, lost baggage, trip delay, electronics, etc).
- Check your policy to see if there is a cap on reimbursement for electronic devices. Divide your electronics between more than one carry-on, so that if one bag is lost or stolen, you won’t lose all your electronics.
Family Travel Insurance Resources
Since we did not have to buy our own family travel insurance, I did not do as much research as I had originally planned. However, some families will need to buy third party insurance, and for those families, I’ve included some helpful links below:
Travel Insurance Review (includes a lot of good information on family travel insurance) – http://www.travelinsurancereview.net/trips/family/
Reviews.com article on The Best Travel Insurance (based on robust criteria and includes the best plans for family travel, for solo travel and other scenarios) – https://www.reviews.com/travel-insurance/
BootsnAll Trip Protection Insurance (includes a Comparison Chart) – http://www.bootsnall.com/travel-insurance/trip-protection-insurance.html
World Nomads (travel insurance for independent travelers) – https://www.worldnomads.com/
If you have additional tips regarding family travel insurance, please include it in the comment box below.
Happy Travels!
