7 Questions to Ask to Find the Best Family Travel Insurance

1. Does each family member have to buy their own plan?

A single Generali travel insurance plan can cover up to 10 people on the same trip.

If someone goes on the trip who doesn’t fit the definition of a traveling companion, a person who will accompany you in the same accommodations during your trip, they’ll need their own plan. Also, keep in mind that everyone on the same plan must reside in the same state.

2. What family travel insurance coverage should you buy?

Look for a plan like Generali’s Premium plan, with high benefit limits for emergency medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation, in addition to Trip Cancellation and Interruption coverage.

Coverage for pre-existing medical conditions might be especially important for multigenerational family trips. That is included with the Premium plan, as long as the plan is purchased prior to or within 24 hours of the final trip payment, travelers must be medically able to travel at the time the coverage is purchased and they must insure 100% of their pre-paid trip costs that would be subject to cancellation penalties or restrictions. 

Also read: When to Buy Travel Insurance, Timing is Everything

3. Who is considered a family member?

This isn’t a crazy question. Travel insurance allows for a wide range of relatives to be classified as a family member when considering covered reasons for filing a claim and getting reimbursed.

For instance, here are the relatives Generali Global Assistance defines as family members:

• Insured’s or Traveling Companion’s Spouse 
• Insured’s, Traveling Companion’s or Spouse’s: 
  • child; 
  • parent; 
  • sibling; 
  • grandparent, great-grandparent or grandchild or great-grandchild;
  • son-in-law or daughter-in-law; 
  • brother-in-law or sister-in-law; 
  • parent-in-law;
  • step-parent, step-child or step-sibling; 
  • aunt or uncle; 
  • niece or nephew; 
  • legal guardian; 
  • foster child or legal ward;
  • step-grandparent or step-grandchild;
  • step-aunt or step-uncle.

Also read: The Most Popular Vacation Rental Destinations in the U.S.

4. What are their ages?

When you buy travel insurance for your family vacation, you’ll notice that as you go through the purchase path you’ll be asked the ages of everyone who’ll be covered under the plan.

We do this so we can give you the best and most accurate price for your plan, a price that reflects the risk involved in covering each traveler.

Having accurate ages for all travelers ultimately benefits everyone, so have them on hand.

Also read: How Travel Insurance Works if a Family Member is Hospitalized

5. Are you traveling together throughout the entire trip?

One of the things that makes big multigenerational trips so complex is that family members may be arriving from multiple locations, and heading back to those locations at different times.

Think of a cruise to celebrate Grandpa’s 80th. The kids arrive from Waco and Washington, D.C., the grandkids check in from Puyallup and Poughkeepsie and Portsmouth, and while the Puyallup bunch needs to leave early, the Waco contingent wants to stay an extra week.

A single travel insurance plan might not be the best way to accommodate all those travel plans at once. If you need help figuring out the best way to insure a complex trip, consider calling a Customer Service Representative at 800-874-2442 for assistance.

More tips for family travel:
• Family Vacation Ideas for Summer and Beyond
• Best U.S. Historical Places to Visit with Kids or Grandkids
• 5 Tips for Planning a Smooth Family Trip
• Grand Canyon with Kids: Top 6 Things to Do and See on Your Trip

6. What if something happens to one family member, but the rest of the family keeps traveling?

To return to our previous scenario, suppose Pete from Portsmouth is recalled by his National Guard unit because the Potomac is flooding. His Trip Interruption coverage will kick in if he has to leave the cruise midway, but everyone else’s coverage stays in place.

Again, a great thing about travel insurance for families is its ability to handle situations that affect one family member but not the entire family.

7. Why should I insure a road trip?

Look at what travel insurance covers: Trip cancellation. Trip interruption. Emergency medical expenses. Emergency Medical evacuation. Most of these are just as likely to happen on a trip where the primary mode of transportation is the family car.

Given that, and the fact that many family road trips involve a lot of prepaid admissions (theme parks!), travel insurance for the kids and everyone else on a family road trip is actually super-smart.

Learn more about: Road Trip Travel Insurance and Insurance for Rental Car Damage

Have more questions about family travel insurance? Check out our Top 5 Reasons to Get Travel Insurance and then hit the road with the family!