Why You Should Purchase Travel Insurance: Case Histories

No one wants to think that something bad is going to happen to them while traveling, so taking out an insurance policy is sometimes pushed aside in the hope that you won’t need one. But like any health Insurance company would say, everyone needs travel insurance, “Because Life is Unexpected.”

Wish I had taken out a policy

“My son had been begging me to take him snowboarding all winter. I had a trip planned for months for me and a few buddies to go hiking in the Tongariro Northern Circuit in New Zealand for eight days, so I figured I would take my son snowboarding and spend some time with him before I left him for over a week.

I was amazed at how good he was, I had never been snowboarding before in my life. In trying to keep up with my son, I fell pretty hard, breaking my left leg. I had to cancel my trip to New Zealand and I lost thousands of dollars.

My friend, who works for a travel insurance company let me know a little too late that I would have been almost entirely reimbursed for my trip if I had taken out a travel insurance policy when I booked my vacation.”

-Mike Ferara, 41, Colorado  

Sick at Sea

“We took my family on a cruise that started in Italy and went to the Greek Isles and Turkey for my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Our travel agent asked if we wanted to purchase travel insurance but I figured, nothing will happen and declined her offer, despite her persistence.

The cruise started off great. But around the third day, we were at sea and my four year old started to feel ill. I hoped it was just a really bad case of sea sickness, but I took her to the on-ship health center just to make sure.

The doctor said he was pretty sure it was pneumonia and she was very dehydrated and needed to get to an on-land hospital as soon as possible. We were about two days from our next stop, and the doctor said it wasn’t a good idea to wait, so he called for emergency medical transportation and an air ambulance came and took me, my husband and our daughter to a nearby hospital.

Thank God she ended up being fine once they hydrated her and she got a lot of rest, but it ended up costing us so much money between the air, the hospital fees, and the time we lost on the cruise. I wish I had purchased that travel insurance. I guess you never do know.”

-Carolyn Beatrice, 31, Massachusetts

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