By Elizabeth Schaaf
As a travel advisor, I’ve spent years telling people that I highly recommend travel protection. It’s a very authentic recommendation as I’ve known people who were seriously injured abroad, they’ve had to return home early due to an emergency, or just simply getting devastating news right before their trip.
I hesitate whenever a client tells me oh, I don’t need travel protection, we’re definitely taking this trip.
Travel protection is way more than protecting your investment.
And guess what? Life happens. And it happened to me this year. Twice.
A day before our family’s Alaska cruise, my teenage son started complaining about his knee. He had fallen the day before at a water park, but we didn’t think much of it. He insisted something wasn’t right, so I relented and took him in just so he could have peace that everything was fine.
Spoiler alert – everything was not fine.
We left the orthopedist with a hinged knee brace and the need for a wheelchair to take with us. Everything was in the air. Can he go? Does he need surgery now? Can further assessment wait? Even if we go, can we have the same experience? What about our excursions?
There I was, a travel professional, sorting through the last minute ins and outs of navigating a vacation with a mobility device and an injured person. Tears were shed as we realized our trip was going to look differently.
But we had purchased travel protection. We knew if we couldn’t figure it out and we had to cancel, we had protection. Our trip investment was protected if we weren’t able to travel due to this last minute event. We knew if he – or any of us – were injured during our trip, we had additional medical and emergency evacuation coverage. It gave us a lot of peace as we figured out all the pieces and parts.
In the end, we were able to travel. We had a fabulous trip. We discovered how hilly Seattle really is during our pre and post cruise days in the city. Excursion operators were very flexible and accommodating. We only had to change our hiking excursion, so we still had the vacation we envisioned, but with extra memories!
But even I don’t follow my own advice all the time.
Most recently, I was set to attend an industry conference in Mexico. Fully paid for months. I had zero plans on canceling as this was something very important to me, and I had carved out the time on our family schedule. A week prior to the conference, I had a surprise diagnosis with a few complications. I absolutely did not see this coming whatsoever. On top of having to deal with the issue, my doctor explicitly told me not to travel to Mexico.
While I purchase a medical only travel plan for work trips, I did not buy a full coverage policy. I would have been covered had I ended up needing to be seen, but I did not protect my trip investment. While I now have a healthy flight credit to use, I’m totally out the funds I put in to the conference.
And why? Because I said the same thing I’ve heard from clients so many times. I’m definitely taking this trip.
Life has a funny way of working like this.
No one likes to buy travel protection. It’s an additional expense. If you don’t use it, you don’t feel like it was a benefit. But we buy medical insurance and car insurance and homeowner’s insurance, and most days, we aren’t using that, either. I think we all know that none of that is a waste! In the same way, neither is travel protection.
Your Straight Away Travel advisor will let you know about your options, and be sure to consider them! It’s a way to protect yourself and your money from this thing called Life!
