Firms going to great lengths to demystify travel insurance

Many insurers are offering products that cover travel risks in general. Please comment on travel insurance.

— JMA, Nairobi

There are always attendant risks to travelling in an aircraft or other means of conveyance, whether locally or abroad.

Some of the risks are covered through third party insurance arranged by the carrier. For airlines, this cover must conform to international conventions.

Besides these risks, there could be many other losses connected with travel. These have to be covered privately through travel insurance.

Consider, for instance, losses from such incidents as stolen luggage, illness, or accidents necessitating hospitalisation or evacuation, personal liabilities, cancellation or curtailment of a trip, delayed departure or subsequent delays, lost money, and hijacking.

These are the kind of risks covered under travel insurance policies, depending on the package a traveller chooses.

Travel insurance can be arranged for a single or several trips over a certain period, normally a year.

Ideally, one would require an insurer who can respond to your distress call immediately wherever you may be.

Therefore, an insurer with extensive worldwide connections would be the right one. Mostly out of ignorance, many people travel abroad without any thought about what could happen in the event of, say, one becoming ill in a foreign country or if baggage, money, and/or personal effects are lost, or if one gets involved in an accident.

Travel insurance is designed to put your mind at ease concerning such incidents.

REAL-LIFE INCIDENTS

In case some readers might still consider these losses as being remote possibilities, let us mention a few real-life incidents where travel insurance came in handy: Two women lost baggage worth $800 and $1,200 (Sh68,000 and Sh102,000), respectively while travelling from Johannesburg to Nairobi.

While taking coffee in Melbourne, Australia, another insured person had her baggage worth $7,000 (Sh600,000) stolen. Yet another claim involved a woman whose handbag was stolen while she was dancing in a Sydney nightclub. The claim was $315 (Sh27,000).

For medical claims, there are many incidents. For example, an insured person was rescued in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, by helicopter, admitted to a Johannesburg hospital, then repatriated to London via Kenya Airways on a stretcher and accompanied by a doctor and medical equipment. The total claim paid was $576,000 (Sh48 million).

A traveller got a heart attack while holidaying in Hawaii and filed a claim of $140,000 (Sh12 million).

There are many other incidents such as heart attacks, appendectomy, and mugging.

Travel insurance is offered in various packages, depending on the benefits one chooses.

The ultimate premium is determined by the cover taken, whether single or multi-trip, for an individual or group as well as by the benefits chosen.

The proposal forms for this insurance are normally short, with simple, direct questions that can be answered with ease by the proposer.

Anyone who travels should buy this cover as you never know when you need it. Remember to get a package with worldwide cover.

Bon Voyage!

For questions on any aspect of insurance, write to: [email protected]