What is not included in your Travel Insurance Policy?

Most of the people have a travel plan already set out before they embark on their trip. A travel plan usually includes information on travel destination, flight tickets, accommodation & other bookings, tourist places to visit, places to eat, list of important documents to carry along (passport, visa, ID proof) and some small but important items that might be needed during the journey.

Now many of you might think that this list is complete but the most important item missing in this list is travel insurance. But is it important to buy travel insurance? Yes, travel insurance is one of the most essential things that you might need when travelling abroad.

An appropriate travel insurance policy can help you deal with any financial setbacks that you might face while travelling. A travel insurance plan provides coverage to you and your loved ones in the following scenarios:

• Loss of baggage (If your baggage is lost by the airlines the over-all reimbursement can be received by the travel insurance provider and the airline)
• Loss of passport (Passport is an important document, without which travelling cannot happen, if that is lost, according to your travel benefit you can file your claim for it)
• Flight delays (Flight delays can also be claimed )
• Flight cancellations (If the airline cancels the flight and you have a connecting flight that may be missed due to it)
• Hospitalization expenses (Falling ill while travelling is unexpected and undesired but if it happens, your travel insurance covers you under all-unforeseen medical emergencies)
• Medical evacuation (Medical evacuation is an option to be used in an emergency, if the situation may arise, your travel insurance covers those heavy-on-the-pocket expenses)
• Delayed baggage (your travel policy provides coverage with the delay in receiving the baggage while travelling)

Some of the insurance companies also offer features such as quick disbursement of claims, automatic claim settlement service, on-call support and many innovative travel insurance packages suiting the needs of different individuals, what one needs to make sure is that if you are travelling and you extend your travelling dates you can extend your policy by emailing/calling the provider to generate the policy extension request, you just need to produce health certificate/ fill the required form of extension of policy, your desired policy will be extended by paying the additional amount within 3 to 4 working days.
Now that you have noted the inclusions in the policy, you should also mull over the exclusions in your travel insurance policy.

What is not covered in your travel insurance policy?
Some of the general exclusions in a travel insurance policy are:

• Medical expenses incurred beyond the expiry of the policy period
• Pre-existing illnesses
• Any routine examination where there is no objective indication of impairment of normal health
• Attempted suicide or willfully self-inflicted injury or illness
• Claims made in case of injury/loss due to alcoholism, drunkenness or the abuse of drugs
• Claims made by you, if you are travelling against the advice of your doctor
• Any injury, loss, expense attributed to HIV or HIV related illnesses
• Losses due to an accident as a driver without a valid international driver’s license
• Pregnancy and related conditions like miscarriage, childbirth and abortion
• Any injury or loss due to involvement in adventurous/dangerous activities
• Experimental treatments
• Your self-carried baggage
• Partial destruction of your baggage
• Loss or damage to your passport as a result of the confiscation or detention by customs, police or any other authority

While these are some of the basic exclusions in your travel insurance policy, we recommend that you read your policy document in detail to understand your coverage’s and exclusions to avoid any inconvenience at a later stage like filing a claim, renewing or extending the policy.

Khurram Zahid