Six reasons why you must have travel insurance this summer vacation

• Seventy per cent of Indian fliers have suffered flight cancellations or rescheduling in the last 12 months (as per an early 2024 LocalCircle report).
  
• Globally, around 25 million pieces of luggage are lost or damaged by airlines (a BBC-Sita report).
  
• Recently, a Singapore flight that left for London on May 21st dropped 178 feet in less than five seconds due to severe turbulence, causing dozens of passenger casualties.

The idea is not to dampen your vacation spirits. It's just to bring to light the need for travel insurance. In times of trouble, it can shield you against exorbitant medical costs, trip cancellations, flight delays, lost baggage and other events that could derail your long-awaited getaway.

So, let's deep-dive and see how travel insurance can be handy during a vacation:

1. Medical emergencies: From lengthy hospital stays and emergency surgeries to medication, diagnostic tests, dental work and even air ambulance evacuation, travel insurance ensures you receive all necessary medical treatment without going broke. Just be mindful that some insurers may also enforce sub-limits, especially if you are a senior citizen.

2. Personal accident and third-party liability: The policy provides financial benefits to your beneficiaries in the unfortunate event of your death or to you in case of permanent disablement. You will be compensated based on the extent of the accident.

Additionally, the travel insurance will cover for any damages or injuries to others or their property caused by you in your travels.

3. Loss or delay in receiving checked-in baggage: Travel insurance will have you covered. All you need to do is file a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) and file a formal complaint within 24 hours. For the uninitiated, PIR serves as an acknowledgement of your lost luggage and comes with a unique code for tracing it.

For delayed bags, the insurance will cover all essentials after deducting any amount paid by the airline, ensuring you are never stranded without any necessities.

4. Trip cancellation and interruption: Whether it's an illness, a family emergency, political unrest or other hazards, travel insurance covers non-refundable costs like flights, hotels and activities. If you need to cut your trip short, some insurance companies cover the cost of rescheduling your economy flight back to India (if you are flying abroad).

5. Flight delays, cancellations or missed flight connections: If your flight is delayed beyond the specified hours, meals and hotel expenses are covered after deducting compensation paid by the airline (which varies depending on insurers).

If the airline cancels your flight or an unfortunate event impacts you or an immediate family member (like an illness or death) during the trip, the insurance policy covers the non-refundable booking charges.

Moreover, the travel insurance will also have your back if you miss a connecting flight due to an inward flight delay or cancellation, as long as you arrive on time for departure. Keep all invoices, boarding passes and an airline delay certification to initiate the claim process.

6. Luggage theft: In this case, travel insurance will reimburse you, depending on the age of the contents in your luggage. However, remember to report the theft within 24 hours and provide receipts for the stolen items to start the claim process.

However, providing receipts for stolen items seems impractical for most. So, if you're worried about your belongings being stolen, it's better to get a different policy, specifically covering the high-value items in your luggage.

What travel insurance won't cover

While this is not an exhaustive list, here are some of the common ones:

• Accidents from extreme sports like jet skiing, paragliding or bungee jumping are usually excluded unless you buy additional coverage for adventure sports.
  
• Incidents related to alcohol or illegal drug use.
  
• If some of your belongings go missing, your bag is damaged or you lose your cabin bags.
  
• Exclusions also apply if you're late for departure.
  
• While travel insurance provides coverage for lost or stolen checked baggage, certain high-value items are typically excluded, such as cash, credit cards, tickets, electronics like laptops and cameras, passports and valuable jewellery.
  
• Trip cancellations due to visa rejection are also excluded.
  
• Pre-existing conditions or general check-ups are outside the insurance ambit unless you have purchased additional coverage or rider to include it in your policy. This is not valid for domestic trips.

Do you need travel insurance for domestic trips?

Not really. Your regular health policy can be activated if there's a medical emergency within the country.

As for flight delays, travel insurance can only come in handy when you have waited for your flight for a certain number of hours. This varies from insurer to insurer.

Get travel insurance for your foreign trip

It's a small cost for a big peace of mind, especially when you are travelling abroad.

While some countries have made travel insurance mandatory, such as those in Europe and a few in the Middle East, you'd have to take one out yourself.

While this is not a curated recommendation list, here's a list of insurers and their policy costs:

Things to remember

• Travel insurance comes in two variants: single-trip coverage for one vacation up to 180 days and multi-trip annual coverage for frequent travellers.
  
• Don't penny-pinch when getting travel insurance. Go for a comprehensive policy based on your needs and travel destination.
  
• Do check out for cashless or reimbursement clauses in your policy documents.
  
• Last but the most obvious, read the terms and conditions to know what is covered by the policy.

Also read: Missed your insurance premium? Here's what you need to know