The Best Travel Insurance Coverages for 2024
It’s time to start planning for your 2024 travels! If the recent travel landscape, such as the trip-wrecking chaos at many airports over the summer, has proven anything, it’s that we should all expect the unexpected. As you consider what adventures the bright new year might have up its sleeve (assuming years have sleeves), these travel insurance benefits are shaping up as the important ones to have:
- Trip Cancellation coverage
- Travel Delay and Trip Interruption coverage
- Medical & Dental coverage
- Emergency Assistance & Transportation coverage
- Baggage Delay or Baggage coverage
- Cancel for Any Reason coverage
Want more details about all types of coverages? Check out this guide.
Trip Cancellation
We now know better than ever that worldwide travel can shut down suddenly, without a lot of advance warning.
And it’s not just disease epidemics that are to blame. Natural disasters continue to take on near-pandemic proportions, and if some scientists’ views of the future are correct, there may be a harbinger of things to come.
Because travelers ought to be much more aware of the fragility of travel moving forward, Trip Cancellation coverage is shaping up as a must-have for travel in 2024 and beyond. Trip Cancellation coverage may reimburse you for your unused, non-refundable prepaid trip cost if you have to cancel your trip for a covered reason.
Its kindred coverage, Trip Interruption coverage may reimburse you for certain unused prepaid costs or out of pocket costs, if you have to interrupt a trip you’re already on for a covered reason.
Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverage have always been two of the major reasons for buying travel insurance. Now they’re more important than ever.
Travel Delay and Trip Interruption
Weather and natural disasters are more likely than ever to cause problems with travel plans. An irregular return to full travel capacity could make rebooking more of a challenge.
Travel Delay and Trip Interruption coverages work well together and will be a vital part of travel insurance moving forward. Between the two benefits, if your travel is delayed or interrupted due to a covered event, you may be reimbursed for certain necessary expenses during your delay and catch back up with your travel plans when the delay is over. That could mean reimbursement for an unplanned hotel stay and food, arranging a flight to a port of call to meet your cruise, or rebooking flights to cover a missed connection and more.
Both coverages are included with Generali Travel Insurance plans.
Medical & Dental
This benefit is easy to understand. Would you want to take an international trip in 2024 without coverage for medical emergencies?
Generali’s Premium plan offers $250,000 in Medical and Dental Coverage, plus the ability to qualify for Pre-Existing Medical Condition coverage.
Given what we’ve learned about health and travel recently, it seems like the only wise thing to do. And, you can rest easy knowing our plans provide coverage if you, a family member, or a traveling companion become ill with COVID-19 and plan requirements are met.
Emergency Assistance & Transportation
Similarly, the prudent travel decision for 2024 and beyond includes choosing a plan with a significant amount of coverage for Emergency Assistance and Transportation coverage.
All Generali travel protection plans have a minimum of $250,000 for Emergency Assistance and Transportation coverage. The Preferred plan doubles that amount to $500,000, and the Premium Plan has up to $1 million for Emergency Assistance and Transportation coverage.
A recent New York Times story discussed the expense of medical evacuation in the midst of a pandemic and noted a $200,000 bill for a relatively simple air evacuation.
Medical evacuation is getting more complex and expensive – and it’s not something to take lightly. Travel insurance is your best added protection against the expense and inherent difficulties of an emergency evacuation.
Baggage and Baggage Delay
The New York Times story also cited a cost of more than $11,000 of associated expenses with the evacuation mentioned above, with a good chunk of that money going to recover and return luggage.
It’s natural to overlook baggage issues when people’s lives are on the line, but it’s a fact that luggage damage and loss will continue to be an issue, especially as people travel with more stuff than ever.
While it’s usually best to take out riders on your homeowner’s or renter’s policy to cover expensive individual items while you travel, Baggage and Baggage Delay coverage as part of your travel protection plan can help pay for lost, damaged, or stolen baggage and its contents.
Pro tip: Baggage and Baggage Delay coverage is one of the most misunderstood parts of a travel insurance policy, so be sure you understand what it covers – and what it doesn’t – before buying.
Cancel for Any Reason
Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) travel insurance coverage will enable you to cancel a trip, as the name implies, for any reason whatsoever. The privilege comes with an extra cost – adding it to a plan can cost as much as 50% more and comes with some requirements. This optional add on coverage is only available on Generali’s Premium Plan and not available to residents of New York.
CFAR only covers up to 60% of your penalty amounts, so you don’t get back all of what you put in, and it won’t cover trips that cost more than $10,000 per person, so there are boundaries. But if you’re really uncertain about what the travel environment might look like when you’re abroad, and you want the greatest amount of no-questions-asked additional protection against literally any reason you could cancel a trip, CFAR is the way to go.
Who knows what 2024 has in store? If you’re traveling in the year ahead, travel insurance and assistance services from Generali can help protect you against the unexpected.
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