Travel Insurance Benefits for Pets and Service Animals

Key Takeaways

• Our travel protection plans may help reimburse pet kennel fees and pet boarding fees during covered travel delays of 6 to 10 hours depending on the plan.
• Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverages may apply to service animals the same as family members, helping reimburse insured trip costs if a service animal becomes sick, injured, or dies.
• 24/7 Travel Assistance Services may help arrange for your pet's return home if you experience a medical emergency while traveling together.
• Concierge Services may help travelers locate veterinarians and pet sitters before or during trips.

Your pet is like a member of the family, so it only makes sense to have them join you on your travels. When they do, it’s especially important to plan well, since not everywhere is pet friendly. If you’re researching pet travel insurance, travel insurance for dogs, or tips for traveling with dogs and cats, consider how a travel protection plan may help with the pets you bring on a trip.

With our plans, your pets or service animals may benefit from certain coverages and services. If you are comparing plans for a trip with a pet or service animal, get a travel protection quote and compare plans.

You can also review other surprising travel benefits if you’re comparing trip features beyond pet-related services.

How Our Travel Protection Helps Pets While You Travel

Traveling with pets has become more and more common over the years. Taking a pet on a trip can be stressful, too. Having a travel protection plan and an assistance team behind provides peace of mind.

Getting a travel protection plan from us gives you access to certain coverages and services that could help when traveling with pets. Especially if you're planning a trip around destinations that cater to your dog or cat, consider how a travel protection plan might help on your trip, and explore dog-friendly vacations around the world as you plan.

Travel Delay Coverage

Travel Delay coverage may provide reimbursement for certain reasonable out-of-pocket expenses if you are delayed on your trip, including extra pet kennel fees and pet boarding fees. Other things that may be covered include hotel accommodations, meals, local transportation, and more.

Depending on your travel protection plan, there are requirements that must be met to qualify. For our plans, the delay must be 10 hours or more (Standard), 8 hours or more (Preferred) or 6 hours or more (Premium). The delay must also result from one of the listed covered reasons mentioned in the Plan Documents.

Concierge and Assistance Services

Need help finding pet-related services? Our Concierge Services may help you find veterinarians, pet sitters, and pet-friendly places to stay during or even before your trip.

Has the concierge at a hotel ever helped you find your way around a city you’re visiting, giving great suggestions and helping you make reservations? Wouldn’t it be great to have that kind of service in your back pocket, ready to use, wherever you are during your trip, or even before it begins? All of our travel protection plans include Travel Concierge Services that can do that very thing.

How can our Concierge Services help you?

Our 24/7 Travel Assistance Services may help arrange your pet’s return home if your pet is traveling with you and you are unable to take care of your pet due to a medical emergency. This is a service included with our plans, not a coverage, so you won’t be reimbursed for the costs, but we’ll help make the arrangements.

Watch: 14 Tips for Traveling with Dogs and Cats

When you and your pet or service animal are taking a trip together, travel protection may be worth considering. If you’re comparing pet travel insurance, dog travel insurance, or trip-specific travel protection, our plans may apply in a variety of ways:

• Travel Delay coverage: If you experience a travel delay resulting from a covered event while traveling with your dog or other pet, you may be reimbursed for pet kennel fees or pet boarding fees. To qualify you must be delayed at least 6 hours with our Premium Plan, 8 hours for Preferred Plan, and 10 hours for our Standard Plan.
• Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverages may reimburse your insured trip costs if your service animal becomes sick, injured or dies and prevents you from traveling or interrupts your trip.
• Pet return: We may help arrange the return of your pet to your home if your pet is traveling with you and you are unable to take care of your pet due to a medical emergency.
• Need help finding pet-related services? Our Concierge Services may help you find veterinarians and pet sitters while you are away from home.

If you want broader flexibility for a voluntary cancellation, review whether a Cancel For Any Reason* option is available with your plan and in your state. It is separate from the covered service-animal reasons described here.

It’s not necessary, but it’s beneficial. Traveling nowadays can be challenging, so travel protection that benefits you and your pets may put you in a better position to prepare for the unexpected. It may also offer added peace of mind by giving you trip-specific protection for certain covered travel disruptions on domestic trips and on trips where you’re researching international pet insurance, documentation requirements, service availability abroad, and flying with your pet.

Before an international trip, review your state specific Plan Documents for exclusions and for items such as quarantine costs, which are not described here as covered benefits.

Pet health insurance and travel protection serve different purposes. Pet health insurance typically addresses ongoing medical care and emergency veterinary expenses, while travel protection addresses trip-specific issues such as covered delays, extra kennel fees, or covered cancellation scenarios involving a service animal.

That is where travel protection may help with trip-related issues your pet's health insurance was not designed to address.

How Travel Protection Applies to Service Animals

Your service animal may be eligible for the same travel protection and assistance services available to non-service animal pets. In addition, for many of the coverages travelers value most, your service animal is treated like a family member or traveling companion. This means you may be reimbursed for covered trip costs if you need to cancel or interrupt your trip due to a covered reason involving your service animal. First, let’s define what counts as a “service animal” according to our Plan Documents:

Service animal means any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including, but not limited to, guiding persons with impaired vision, alerting persons with impaired hearing to intruders or sounds, providing animal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, or fetching dropped items.

Now, let’s get into the coverage details:

Trip Cancellation

Trip Cancellation is included with our plans and is designed to help make you "whole" again by reimbursing you up to 100% of your insured trip cost for unused, non-refundable, pre-paid travel expenses, and certain additional expenses in some cases, if you’re prevented from taking your trip due to a covered event that is not subject to an exclusion.

One of those covered events is the sickness, injury or death of you, a family member, your traveling companion or your service animal. If the animal is sick or injured while coverage is in effect, coverage requires  in-person treatment by a veterinarian and the written opinion of the veterinarian that the condition will prevent your travel, or you need to care for your service animal.

Our plans state that you need to be treated by a physician in order to qualify for travel protection coverage related to illness or injury. If a service animal is the patient, a veterinarian meets the definition of physician.

Definition: PHYSICIAN means a person licensed as a medical doctor by the jurisdiction in which he/she is resident to practice the healing arts. They must be practicing within the scope of their license for the service or treatment given and may not be you, a Traveling Companion, or a Family Member of yours.

Trip Interruption

Trip Interruption coverage is similar to Trip Cancellation in that it’s designed to help you recoup pre-paid, unused, non-refundable travel costs, and certain additional expenses in some cases, if you’re prevented from continuing your trip due to a covered event -- including the sickness, injury or death of your service animal, that is not subject to an exclusion. While Trip Cancellation may help if you must cancel your trip altogether, Trip Interruption may help if you’re still taking your trip but aren’t able to use all your pre-paid, non-refundable arrangements.

Trip Interruption coverage goes into effect as soon as you’re scheduled to depart on your trip. It may reimburse you for unused, non-refundable, pre-paid travel arrangements. Trip Interruption may also reimburse for out-of-pocket transportation expenses to get you caught back up to your trip as planned, or to get you back home if you must end your trip early.

Taking pets on a trip requires extra planning, and travel protection may help when delays or other covered disruptions affect those plans.

Make sure you consider the animals traveling with you when you’re choosing travel protection for your trip. If you’re comparing travel insurance for dogs or other pet-related trip options, all of our plans include these features for pets and service animals, so it’s easy for you to get a quote and choose which plan fits your trip best.

If you travel with a service animal, review your plan options before you book so you can confirm how Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption may apply. Get a travel protection quote and compare plans.

What Pet-Related Situations Are and Aren't Covered

Our plans may help with several pet-related travel situations, but they do not cover every pet issue that may come up on a trip. Review the Plan Documents for the full terms, conditions, exclusions, state-specific availability, and eligibility details.

Covered Situations

• Travel Delay may help reimburse extra pet kennel fees or pet boarding fees after a covered delay, subject to the delay threshold, covered reason, and other plan requirements.

• Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption may apply if a service animal, as defined in the Plan Documents, becomes sick, injured, or dies for a covered reason.

• Pet Return assistance may help arrange your pet’s return home if you have a medical emergency while traveling with your pet. This is a service, not a reimbursement benefit.

• Concierge Services may help locate veterinarians, pet sitters, and related referrals for travelers with pets such as dogs and cats. This is also a service, not a reimbursement benefit.

Situations That Aren't Covered Here

• A non-service-animal pet’s illness, injury, or death is not described on this page as a covered reason to cancel or interrupt a trip.
• Routine vet care, emergency veterinary expenses for non-service animals, and quarantine costs are not described here as reimbursable trip benefits.
• Voluntary trip changes or cancellations are not covered unless they meet a covered reason or an optional Cancel For Any Reason feature, if available on your plan and in your state.
• Any scenario limited or excluded in the Plan Documents, including state-level eligibility restrictions, remains subject to those terms.

Pet Travel FAQ

Does Generali Global Assistance’s travel protection cover my pet's emergency vet bills while traveling?

The benefits described on this page do not provide a standalone benefit for a non-service-animal pet’s emergency veterinary expenses. Review the Plan Documents for service-animal Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption rules, plus any exclusions.

Can I cancel my trip if my dog or cat gets sick before departure?

A non-service-animal dog or cat’s illness is not a covered cancellation reason.

How long does my flight need to be delayed before kennel fees are reimbursed?

For our plans, the delay must be 10 hours or more for Standard, 8 hours or more for Preferred, or 6 hours or more for Premium. The delay must also result from a covered reason listed in the Plan Documents.

What counts as a service animal under Generali Global Assistance's travel protection?

Under our Plan Documents, a service animal means any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. See Plan Documents for full definition. 

Is the pet return service free, or will I be reimbursed for costs?

Pet Return is a Travel Assistance Service. We may help arrange your pet’s return home after your medical emergency, but you won’t be reimbursed for those costs.

Ready to review plan options for your next trip with a pet or service animal? Get a travel protection quote and compare plans.

*Some exclusions apply. See plan documents for details.

*Cancel for Any Reason coverage not available in New York.

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