What Consumer Reports and CBS MarketWatch Are NOT Telling You About Travel Insurance!
by Cynthia Perry, CTC
Vice President of Sales, Travel Insured International

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Adding to the concern is that the Online business news service CBS MarketWatch, quoting Consumer Reports, echoed the same opinion in its recent report that said, “travel insurance duplicates other coverage” such as health policies and credit card benefits.

Travel agents and travel insurance companies have a common interest in letting consumers know sides of this issue that Consumer Reports and MarketWatch – either through lack of awareness or interest in directing discretionary dollars elsewhere – are not telling their public. We know that clients who follow these anti-travel insurance opinions are potentially heading into unprotected vacation territory.

We believe, among other reasons, that it only takes one overseas travel medical emergency to convince people why travel insurance from a qualified specialist provider is a necessity.

• Most foreign doctors and hospitals do not accept American health insurance. Most require full, advance payment for treatment or to accept a hospital admission. A reputable travel insurance company will guarantee in advance emergency treatment or admission.
  
  
• Neither Consumer Reports nor CBS MarketWatch tells its audience that most reputable travel insurance companies, unlike other types of insurance carriers, will provide Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption insurance when insured travelers qualify for coverage of a Pre-Existing Medical condition. This can protect the traveler against disruption of their travel plans due to a Pre-Existing medical condition of an immediate family member, a traveling companion on the trip, or even a family member of the traveling companion! You may know that your own health allows you to travel, but do you know whether a parent, sibling or adult child might have recently been diagnosed with a Pre-Existing Medical Condition that could flare up and cause you to cancel or shorten your trip?
  
  
• Consumer Reports suggests that readers check their credit cards for travel coverage. It fails to mention, however, that most credit card protection is limited to common carrier accident and lost baggage coverage. Consumer Reports does not mention credit cards’ “excess coverage provision,” meaning their insurance is secondary to any other coverage. A reputable travel insurance company offers primary insurance that pays first, not last, with Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption protection that most cards do not offer. Consumer Reports suggests the benefits of a major branded Platinum Card are best. How many of your clients qualify for that?
  
  
• Finally, Consumer Reports says that airlines MUST reimburse you for lost bags. It doesn’t say, however, what former ASTA consumer advocate Ed Perkins, now writing for the Chicago Tribune Media, reported on April 1st after his own research. “Only Continental specifies how long – three months – to decide when a bag is permanently ‘lost,’” Perkins noted. “Rules on damaged or lost baggage serve to protect the airlines, not customers.” We agree. A reputable travel insurance company will reimburse an insured for a valid lost baggage claim without waiting months to do so!

With 2007 hurricane season approaching, travel agents may dread the annual weather service storm predictions but cannot deny the travel uncertainty the season brings, especially to warm weather destinations. Two forecasting services, Colorado State University and AccuWeather.com, have already issued predictions of either an unusual number of hurricanes this season, or for higher-intensity storms than last season, which was a quiet season after the record storms of 2005. The U.S. National Weather Service will issue its forecast on May 22. The bottom weather line is: nothing is certain.

Rather than have your clients book away from the tremendous seasonal values offered by suppliers on Caribbean cruises, and vacations to the Caribbean and Mexico, you can encourage them to fully protect their prepaid bookings with a good travel insurance plan.

Most reputable travel protection plans will offer Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption protection due to weather causing cessation of services by the common carrier for a minimum number of hours, which can vary by the plan. There is also coverage available for unused portions of a vacation due to trip delay, or reimbursement of emergency travel expenses when weather prevents a timely departure or arrival on a scheduled vacation.

Good travel insurance also protects up to the total cost of your client’s trip when your home or destination accommodations are rendered uninhabitable by a natural disaster such as a hurricane. Their homeowner’s or health policy, or their credit card plan are not going to cover this!

If you have clients who are declining travel insurance because they don’t think they need it, we hope you will do the right thing by urging them to protect their prepaid vacation purchase. If not, we hope you will protect your travel business by asking them to sign a waiver declining coverage despite your asking them to purchase it!

Photo credits: BusinessWire; NewsWire.