Travel
Insurance! Your Health And Peace-Of-Mind
by William Lezubski
As
a past travel professional, I heard many, and I stress many
horror stories about travellers that didn't take travel insurance
to protect their well-being and vacation investment!
Nothing
was worse than getting that phone call from our travel tour
operator telling me that our clients had an unfortunate accident,
or suddenly became ill, and they did not have travel medical,
and not enough money to cover their medical bills at destination,
or enough credit on their card to purchase a one-way flight
home.
All
these incidences were avoidable if they just took the time to
understand how extremely important having an emergency medical
policy, or trip cancellation coverage while on their vacation.
I
know many individuals comment that they never get ill, or injured
on past vacations, and my feedback to them is that they have
been very fortunate. I myself have never been severely injured,
or ill during my vacations, but I don't take any chances.
Just
like home insurance, or car insurance, you never expect your
house to burn to the ground, and you certainly do not anticipate
ever getting into a car collision. However, we all buy protection
for the un-known for these two incidences, correct?
The
problem with vacation travel is that many people feel that their
holiday is short-term, and the odds of something serious happening
are less likely to occur. But if something were to happen where
you end up in a foreign hospital, I don't think you want to
find out later that your medical bills have exceeded the value
of your house, or your savings account!
Unknown
Emergency And Accident Means Just That! You Never Know If And
When Something Will Happen
It's
hard to put something in perspective if you have never had an
emergency situation with your health, or have had a serious
accident. So to help you I will tell you two stories that I
have come across with my experience of being a travel agent.
One
occurrence was a mother and child was booking a flight to travel
home to Jamaica to attend a family wedding. Her travel agent
booked their flight, and recommended to her insurance medical
and travel cancellation coverage. The women declined, and the
agent didn't express the serious nature of not taking the policy,
so in the end the woman had left her office without any medical
coverage.
Months
later, I had our local travel insurance representative come
visit my office, and he told me this story, and the unfortunate
result was her young boy had come down with an ear infection
prior to their flight to Jamaica, and even though she was consulted
by the boys doctor not to take the flight until his condition
healed, she ignored the requests!
The
mother didn't have the money to purchase two more flight tickets
for another date, and proceeded to take her original flight.
The end result was her child ended up losing his hearing due
to his eardrum becoming damaged during the flight, a sad story,
but an avoidable one if she would have taken cancellation coverage,
and re-booked her flight for another day when her son was better.
My
next story really touches my heart, because it was a client
of mine for many years. My past client god rest his soul, was
a typical stubborn man that grew up in a farm community, and
had a true understanding of comprehensive coverage for accidents,
because he operated many heavy machinery.
When
he first came into my office, he was travelling with a group
of people including his wife, and when he booked his first vacation
package with me, he haggled me to the point where I gave in,
and offered him and his guests a substantial discounted price.
His group was saving at least $150.00 per person for their vacation
package. But when it came to offering him and his travel guest's
insurance policies, he was not budging. For people that know
me, I don't take no for an answer when it comes to your overall
wellbeing.
In
the end, I won the battle, and he and his wife purchased the
travel insurance, and they talked all their guests in getting
it as well. This small group travelled to a hot destination
every year after, and it seemed that their group started to
grow larger every time they came to see me, and all the time
they would joke about wasting money on this insurance I always
provided to them.
My
client after dealing with me for several years now came in once
again with the largest group ever, and they all agreed to take
a vacation in Cancun. Most have never been to the Mayan Riviera,
and they were extremely excited to go there! The problem this
time is that with a really large group with many different personalities
and characters, my client was less jokingly, and said that he
was talking to one of his guests going on this trip with them,
and he expressed his opinion that insurance is nothing but a
scam, and us travel agents only sell it for the commissions.
As
these comments really insulted me, my client's guest was right!
We do make commission off selling travel insurance, but by no
means do we offer or sell it for the main purpose of making
money. My client was truly influenced by what this other person
had commented, and we ended up having a lengthy debate, to the
point it was getting a little heated. With over 15 plus couples
traveling together this time, was I willing to lose a client
and such a large group because of insurance? Oh yeah! Believe
it or not, I would drop that business in a heartbeat if I knew
they were traveling un-protected, and I told him that directly
as he and his wife sat across from me.
In
the end, I had won the battle again, my client made many phone
calls and also convinced the others to take the coverage, and
even though his trip was fully booked with me, he did leave
my office feeling a little battered and slightly upset.
The
Phone Call A Travel Agent Never Wants To Ever Receive!
When
we send our clients off to their next vacation destination,
all we want to hear when they get back is how much they ate,
drank, and how their trip was another experience that will give
them many incredible memories. You want them to talk about it
for months, and have the big post picture party where they all
exchange vacation photos and talk about how Henry fell into
the pool with a handful of Margaritas!
In
this situation, it wasn't like that, and several days after
my client had left for his holiday, I received a phone call
from one of our tour operators that I had booked their package
with, and they had expressed to me with the deepest sorrow and
apology that my favourite client had passed away. His wife out
of respect had asked the tour company to notify me of what happened.
With
extreme disbelief and shock, I was told that he went into the
water when there was an extremely powerful undertow, and he
drowned. The fact that you have over 30 people at destination
for only one reason, and that's to relax and have fun, it just
didn't register that all these people on this trip had suddenly
had a serious un-expected tragedy on their hands, and now they
all were cutting the vacation short to come home.
This
story always brings tears to my eyes, and a feeling of emptiness
to this day!
Whether
this story tugs on your heartstrings or not, I just want to
express a few things to everybody taking the time to read this.
As a travel professional offering travel insurance, as well
as many of the online travel companies that sell travel protection
to their clients, want you to know that our sincere and true
intentions are to make sure that each and everyone of you are
covered and have the peace-of-mind! We don't want to see you
being left stranded anywhere without help, or become financially
burdened by any un-expected medical incident or accident while
away from your home.
I
lost one of my favourite clients, and even though I call him
a client, he and his wife were more like friends to me. One
thing that really stuck with me when this tragedy came to a
final conclusion, is that not only did the tour company that
called thank me for offering medical/cancellation insurance,
but my entertaining and grumpy friend's wife, from that small
farm town, expressed her deepest gratitude to me for being extremely
stubborn with them, and not taking no for an answer when it
came to protecting their best interests.
The
next time you decide to travel, I highly recommend that you
consider looking at your insurance options, and make sure you
have sufficient travel protection. Be sure to check the policies
offered and make sure it's adequate for your travel situation.
I
will be writing another article that will express the common
pitfalls, and some of the incorrect information that you may
be getting from your current work plans, or the credit card
offers.
Also
I will explain some of the detailed terminology that is very
important to understand, because what's in the fine print may
determine the outcome of your future claims while on vacation.
Please remember to be nice to your travel agent when they offer
you a travel insurance plan, and ask them tons of questions
to get the best options. If you're purchasing a policy online,
don't hesitate to contact the customer service department, they
are there to help you and explain anything that may be unclear
to you.
About the Author
About
the author: William Lezubski (Accredited Cruise Counsellor (ACC),
and Certified Travel Counsellor(CTC) - William is a professional
in the Travel Industry and is the owner and author of "Discount
Caribbean Vacations Web Site" available at www.discount-caribbean-vacations.com.
