Travel Insurance Claims Are On The Rise - Here's What Travelers Need to Know

Following a summer marred with travel disruptions and delays, travel insurance claims have risen 21% over last year. With travel up 8% this fall and trip costs continuing to reach record numbers, protecting your trip expenses with travel insurance is more important than ever.

Leading travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth, reveals 3 of the top reasons travel insurance claims are denied, and how travelers can give themselves the best chance of getting their claim approved.

You Were Inconvenienced, Not Interrupted

Travelers often think their insurance will pay out because their trip didn't go as smoothly as they planned. However, in order for a traveler to be covered by their travel insurance, their trip must be disrupted by a circumstance listed in their policy. If the disruption is covered and occurred after they purchased a policy, they can be refunded for out-of-pocket trip payments, as well as additional expenses incurred.

Squaremouth Tip: Don't assume you're automatically covered if anything goes wrong. If you have specific concerns, make sure they are covered by your policy. If you realize your policy falls short of your coverage needs, you may be able to cancel the policy for a full or partial refund.

You Didn't Keep Your Receipts

In order to be reimbursed, you must provide proof of the expenses you incurred. Receipts are required to authenticate a claim, whether it's for a cancellation, delay, or medical emergency. Squaremouth Tip: Ask for receipts to document any expenses incurred. If you forget, or if receipts are not available, your bank or credit card statement will usually prove you made the payments you are claiming for.

You Bought the Policy Without Knowing You Were Ineligible

Most travel insurance policies provide coverage for unforeseen medical emergencies, however, many travelers think they can buy travel insurance after they become sick. If a traveler is already sick when they buy their policy, any claim related to that same illness will not be covered.

Squaremouth Tip: Some policies offer Pre-Existing Condition coverage, which can extend benefits to a traveler if their trip is impacted by an illness or injury that existed when they purchased their policy. To get this coverage, you usually must buy a policy within 14-30 days of making your first trip payment. However, even with this coverage, you must be medically able to travel when you buy a policy.

About Squaremouth: Squaremouth.com has insured over 3 million travelers. Using Squaremouth's intuitive quoting and comparison engine, award-winning support team, and verified customer reviews, travelers can save time and money to find the best travel insurance policy for their trip.

How To Make Travel Insurance Better

  By George Hobica, www.airfarewatchdog.com


Over the years, I've received both praise for, and complaints about, the travel insurance industry: trips rescued and finances saved along with claims denied for various reasons. Travel is like any insurance. It's great when it comes through, but there are loopholes and exclusions, and the contracts are so dense with parties of the first part (some run over 7,000-words long) that they're indecipherable. So I asked Stan Sandberg, co-founder of TravelInsurance.com, a travel insurance shopping comparison website, what steps he would take to improve the industry. My questions and his answers follow.


 Q. What are the most important steps you would suggest to make travel insurance better?
A. Make policies easy to understand. Simplifying the basics would be a great start. Throw out the “legal jargon.” The travel insurance providers should write their plans’ detailed terms and conditions, usually referred to as the Description of Coverage, in “plain English” to make them easy to understand.

Next, highlight the common scenarios that are not covered in addition to highlighting what a plan does cover. This will help frustration when a customer thinks they have coverage when in fact they don’t. Then, create more transparent pricing. Most policies, and in particular those with trip cancellation, are largely based on the age of the traveler and the total trip cost. The industry can do a better job of explaining why a policy costs what it does.

Finally, take out the friction in making a claim. Some companies are using social media (Twitter, text messaging) to allow customers to initiate and make claims. This is a great trend. We are encouraging our partners to move in this direction. Insurance companies will always require the necessary documentation and will be on the lookout for fraud, but improvements in submitting claims digitally and minimizing the paperwork, can improve and speed up the process for customers.

Q. What can the travel insurance industry learn from other consumer-facing industries?

A. The most important lesson for this industry to learn is to put the customer above all else. Other insurance categories have figured out how to relate to the customer: think Geico and Progressive. The travel insurance industry needs to do the same. The industry could also benefit by taking a page out of the Zappos’ playbook—prioritizing the customer at every part of the process.

Q. If you could design the ideal travel insurance product, what would it look like?

I’d like to see more travel insurance products designed, tailored to and marketed for specific types of travel. For example, a plan designed specifically for skiers, or a plan designed for river cruising or plans for Safaris. For each type of trip, I’d offer the optimal benefits and coverages. For example, if you're taking a river cruise and the water is too high or low so it can't operate, can you get all your money back or only a part of it if the operator substitutes an "equivalent" trip? Each type of trip has its own hazards and challenges.

Q. Should consumers buy travel insurance from a third party or directly from an airline, cruise company or tour operator?

A. With an airline or other travel supplier, you’ll only get options from one travel insurance provider. Yes, you might get to choose between a basic or premium plan, but for the most part, you’re only going to be given a single “one-size-fits-all” option. By going to a third party travel insurance comparison site you can quickly choose from among all available options and buy the right plan at the right price for that trip.

Q. Although "cancel for any reason" travel insurance policies exist, does one insurer provide a better product than others?

A. Most travel insurance providers offer Cancel for Any Reason as an optional upgrade to their premium plans. Travel Insured International introduced a plan last year called Worldwide Trip Protector Plus, which includes Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) in the plan. This plan is a great option for a traveler who wants flexibility. But in order to qualify for the CFAR benefit, there are certain conditions the traveler has to meet, so it’s important to check with the travel insurance issuer if you’re eligible.

Travelore Tips: How To Make A Claim On Your Travel Insurance

The most common mistakes people make when choosing travel insurance is not to read through the terms and conditions and find out exactly what it covers – I’ve seen sport insurances that only cover the equipment when it’s not being used, which makes the insurance basically useless.

Some travel insurance companies are very elusive in describing what they do and do not cover and you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and dig a little deeper to find out whether they’re legit or just full of empty promises with easy escape routes to everything.

Direct-travel.co.uk offers reasonably priced travel insurances and there are many great reviews about them if you research online, which is another must-do for anyone considering a travel insurance!

But in the end it doesn’t matter how great your travel insurance is if you don’t do your own part right.

Here is what you need to have and do when making a claim on your travel insurance to help make the process quick and smooth …

• Tell your insurer about any health problems that existed before you took out the insurance, otherwise everything might fall on this little detail.

• Bring your policy number and emergency contact number. The first thing they will ask for is your policy number so it’s absolutely necessary, emailing it to yourself is a way of keeping it safe and handy.

• A copy of the receipts for the items you’ve lost (which means that skirt you bought for 5 dollars at a flea-market won’t be covered). A photo of the receipts is most often all that’s necessary, so just take some shots with your camera and save them online.

• If you had to replace essential items like toiletries and emergency clothing (say your bags were stolen or lost at the airport), keep the receipts from these purchases to send as evidence with your claim.

• Receipt and proof of medical expenses – You may need to pay up-front for medical treatment and medicine and claim it back afterwards, as long as you keep all receipts. If possible, contact your insurer to agree to medical treatment before it’s done.

• A Police Report – If your belongings are stolen you need to go to the police to file a report within 24 hours of the items going missing. If that’s not possible you will need a written report from someone else like you hotel rep, manager or transport provider.

• Be in the time-limits of your claim – The sooner you contact them the better, don’t hold it off!

• Check whether your insurance has a “new for old” policy. If it doesn’t, the insurer will take off money for wear and tear, so you won’t get the same amount as you once paid for them.

Finally, if you are unsure about something and can’t find out whether the insurance covers you for it, call them and ask – and remember to take their name so that if something happens and you’re later told that you weren’t covered, you have the name of the person who told you otherwise.

Contributed by Sofia

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