Travel Insurance: What It Actually Covers (and What It Never Will)

Cancellation reimburses prepaid, non-refundable costs when you cancel before departure for a covered reason. Interruption does the same mid-trip and also pays for the additional transport home.

Covered reasons are a specific list, not a general standard: illness or injury to you, a travelling companion, or a close family member; death in the family; jury duty; a home made uninhabitable by fire or storm; a carrier bankruptcy; certain job losses; and in most policies a natural disaster at the destination.

Not covered: changing your mind, a work project running late, a visa refusal in most policies, fear of travel, or a destination becoming unappealing. For those, you need Cancel For Any Reason, an upgrade costing roughly 40–50% more that reimburses 50–75% of costs and must usually be bought within 14–21 days of the first trip payment.

Most domestic health plans provide little or no coverage abroad, and Medicare provides essentially none outside the United States. Travel medical coverage pays for treatment for illness or injury that begins during the trip.

Look for a minimum of $100,000 for international trips; $250,000 or more for remote destinations, cruises, or anywhere with expensive private care. Check whether the benefit is primary or secondary — primary pays first without you having to file with your home health insurer, which is markedly faster.

Dental emergencies are usually included at a small sub-limit ($500–$1,000). Routine care, elective procedures, and continuing treatment for a condition you already had are not.

This is the benefit that turns a catastrophe into an inconvenience. Air ambulance evacuation from a Caribbean island to a US hospital runs $25,000–$50,000. From Southeast Asia or a remote trekking region, $80,000–$250,000 is realistic. From a cruise ship at sea, higher still.

Carry at least $250,000 of evacuation cover for international travel, and $500,000 to $1,000,000 for expedition, high-altitude, or long-haul remote travel.

Note that evacuation coverage transports you to the nearest facility capable of adequate care — not automatically home. Repatriation of remains, a grim but real benefit, is usually a separate line item of $25,000 or so.

Baggage loss benefits are small — often $1,000–$2,500 with per-item sub-limits around $250–$500 — and pay only after the airline's own liability is exhausted. Airlines are liable for roughly $1,700 on domestic US flights and about 1,288 SDR (approximately $1,750) internationally under the Montreal Convention.

Baggage delay pays a daily allowance for essentials after a waiting period, typically 6–24 hours. Keep receipts; reimbursement is documentary, not automatic.

Travel delay pays meals and accommodation after a defined delay, and missed connection covers catching up to a cruise or tour. These are the most frequently claimed benefits on any policy and the reason mid-tier plans often outperform bare-bones ones.

Insurers apply a look-back period, usually 60 to 180 days before purchase. Any condition that was diagnosed, treated, medicated, or had symptoms during that window is pre-existing — including a medication dose change.

Most comprehensive policies offer a pre-existing condition waiver at no extra premium provided you buy within 10 to 21 days of your first trip deposit and insure the full non-refundable trip cost. Missing that window is the single most common reason a large medical claim gets denied.

If you have any managed condition, buy early. The waiver is worth more than any price difference between carriers.

Alcohol and drug involvement voids most medical and accident benefits. So does participation in excluded activities: scuba beyond a certification depth, motorcycling without a licence valid in that country, skiing off-piste, skydiving, and mountaineering above a stated altitude. Adventure-sports riders exist and are cheap relative to the exposure.

Travel against government advisories, travel undertaken for medical treatment, and losses arising from war or civil unrest are excluded almost universally.

Finally, credit-card travel benefits are real but thin: they usually cover trip cancellation to a modest cap and rental car collision damage, and rarely include meaningful medical or evacuation cover. Check the benefit guide before relying on it.