Why Buy Travel Insurance

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Travel Insurance Is Recommended by Important Entities

Many travelers don’t realize their regular health insurance may not provide adequate health coverage outside of their home country—and standard health insurance is unlikely to provide any travel-related benefits like trip cancellation or trip interruption coverage.

That’s why the U.S. Department of State, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and even U.S. passports recommend travel insurance to those preparing to travel abroad.

"The U.S. government does not provide insurance for U.S. citizens overseas. We do not pay medical bills or unexpected medical costs. We highly recommend that you buy insurance before you travel.” – U.S. Department of State
“Before you travel, consider getting travel insurance to cover yourself in case delays, accidents, or illness occur on your trip. Your current medical insurance may not cover care in another country. Also, some types of travel insurance help you cover costs if your travel is canceled or disrupted.” – CDC
“Medicare/Medicaid does not cover healthcare costs outside the U.S. Does your insurance apply overseas, including medical evacuation, payment to a hospital or doctor overseas, or reimbursement to you later?” – U.S. Passport

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Travel Insurance Helps Travelers Protect Their Financial Investment

Any trip could be canceled, delayed, or interrupted due to factors beyond a traveler’s control. Here are a few benefits of WorldTrips’ Atlas Journey travel insurance plans and how they work:

Trip Cancellation – This benefit can reimburse travelers for prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs if their trip is canceled due to a covered reason. Common covered reasons include sickness or injury that prevents travel, the death of a travel companion or family member, severe weather that causes the airline to shut down for 12+ hours, and more.
Travel Delay – This benefit can reimburse travelers for reasonable and necessary accommodations, meals, telephone calls, and local transportation while they are delayed for 5 hours or more.
Trip Interruption – This benefit can pay for unused, prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs if the insured must start their trip later or end their trip earlier than planned due to a covered reason. It can also cover transportation costs to help the traveler reach their destination if their departure is delayed, or it can help them rejoin their trip after a covered interruption.

Did You Know?

Many travelers understand that they have cancellation coverage if they experience an illness or injury that prevents them from traveling. However, they don’t often realize this coverage could extend to the death, injury, or illness of family members, business partners, service animals, travel companions, and travel companions’ family members as well.

Travel insurance can provide coverage if travelers get sick or hurt and need medical treatment or an emergency evacuation. Both Atlas Journey and Atlas On-The-Go plans from WorldTrips provide the following medical benefits:

Emergency Accident & Sickness Medical Expense – This benefit provides coverage for medical expenses resulting from a covered injury or illness, like a case of food poisoning that requires hospitalization or a broken leg. Covered expenses might include diagnostic testing, emergency surgery, physician charges, and more.
Medical Evacuation & Repatriation of Remains – This benefit can cover the cost of transporting a traveler to a hospital that is equipped to provide medically necessary, life-saving treatment when no suitable local care is available. If a traveler dies during their trip, it can also cover eligible costs associated with the return of their body to their home city.

Some frequent objections to travel insurance you might hear include:

“I don’t need travel insurance. I already have travel insurance through my credit card.”
“I don’t need travel insurance. I’ll just purchase the plan offered by my travel supplier.”

Here’s why your clients may want to consider purchasing an Atlas Journey or Atlas On-The-Go plan from WorldTrips despite having credit card coverage or the option to purchase insurance through their airline, cruise line, or other travel supplier:

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Credit Card Travel Coverage Is Limited

Some credit card travel insurance only includes coverage for domestic travel, which would not be suitable to the needs of international travelers. Atlas Journey and Atlas On-The-Go provide domestic and international coverage to U.S. residents.
Credit cards with travel insurance typically only cover travel expenses that were purchased using the credit card. For example, if your clients were to book their accommodations using a different payment method, they most likely wouldn’t be covered for those expenses if their trip were interrupted or canceled. Atlas Journey and Atlas On-The-Go can cover all eligible trip expenses, regardless of the payment method used.
Coverage for unexpected medical expenses is not a common feature for credit card travel insurance. If a traveler becomes injured or ill unexpectedly, their credit card travel insurance may not cover their treatment costs. Atlas Journey and Atlas On-The-Go include coverage for eligible medical expenses.
Credit card travel insurance does not typically offer cancel for any reason coverage. Even if a traveler’s credit card travel insurance includes trip cancellation coverage, it will most likely only reimburse them if they cancel their trip due to a covered reason. Atlas Journey Premier and Atlas Journey Preferred offer a Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) benefit upgrade.

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Travel Supplier Coverage Is NOT Comprehensive

While many travel suppliers – airlines, cruises, etc. – offer their own travel insurance plans, they tend to be limited in their scope of coverage. Here are some of the downsides of purchasing a travel supplier insurance plan instead of a plan from a provider like WorldTrips:

Coverage Is Exclusive to the Company’s Products and Services – Many travel insurance plans offered by travel suppliers limit their scope of coverage to only include purchases made from their site. For example, if you purchase an airline’s travel insurance plan, it will likely only cover travel mishaps related to your flight and not those related to your vacation rental or an unexpected medical emergency abroad. Meanwhile, plans provided by travel insurers expand their scope of coverage to your entire trip.
Fewer Benefits and Less Coverage – Travel supplier plans often reflect the bare bones of what a travel insurance plan can offer, largely focusing on the trip cancellation benefit. While trip cancellation coverage is important, WorldTrips’ Atlas Journey plans provide a comprehensive array of benefits that can provide coverage starting before you depart home and ending the day you return home. This includes coverage for emergency medical expenses, travel mishaps, trip cancellation, and trip interruption.
Less Flexibility – Flexibility is key when customizing a travel insurance plan to fit with client’s travel plans. Travel supplier insurance plans typically don’t allow for any flexibility in coverage and benefits, while WorldTrips offers three levels of coverage and up to twelve optional benefit upgrades with Atlas Journey.

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WorldTrips is a service company and a member of the Tokio Marine HCC group of companies.

WorldTrips’ Atlas Travel Series and StudentSecure international travel medical insurance products are underwritten by Lloyd's. WorldTrips has authority to enter into contracts of insurance on behalf of the Lloyd's underwriting members of Lloyd's Syndicate 4141, which is managed by HCC Underwriting Agency, Ltd.

WorldTrips' Atlas Journey, Atlas Cruiser, and Atlas On-The-Go trip protection insurance products are underwritten by Tokio Marine HCC's U.S. Specialty Insurance Company (USSIC). USSIC is a Texas-domiciled insurance company operating on an admitted basis throughout the United States. Coverage is available to U.S. residents of the U.S. states and District of Columbia only. This plan provides insurance coverage that only applies during the covered trip. You may have coverage from other sources that provides you with similar benefits but may be subject to different restrictions depending upon your other coverages. You may wish to compare the terms of this policy with your existing life, health, home, and automobile insurance policies. Coverage may not be available in all states.

In the State of California, operating as WorldTrips Insurance Services. California Non-Resident Producer License Number: 0G39705

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