If you happen to have your flight cancelled, travel insurance is something you should have on standby.
A basic form of travel insurance is often provided by your bank when purchasing an air ticket using your credit card. But, be warned that this cover may not be sufficient as it often places caps on age, costs, services and certain destinations.
Vera Nagtegaal, the executive head of comparison website Hippo.co.za said travellers should go through their policy to see inclusions and exclusions.
“Most travel insurance offerings cover includes emergency medical expenses, hospital cash benefit per day, personal accident cover in the event of death or permanent disability, emergency travel and accommodation, legal assistance and personal liability cover, among others. However, not all policies are the same and add that various types of travel insurance are available depending on your needs,” said Nagtegaal
These are some of the different types of insurance to consider:
Business insurance
If you’re travelling for business you would fall into one of two categories: business administrative insurance for people who are typically travelling to a meeting and business industrial insurance if you are travelling to perform a service or some sort of manual labour. This type of insurance generally provides cover for aspects like delayed or cancelled flights, lost passports and medical cover.
Senior citizen travel insurance
For those over 70, for example, this insurance covers things like medical expenses, a visit from a family member if necessary, missed flights or cancellations and lost or delayed luggage.
Student travel insurance
This type of insurance is for younger people travelling for work or leisure. It includes cover for emergency medical costs, injury or damage to a third person or their property, cancellation of an entire trip and missed flights.
Group travel insurance
If there are more people travelling as a group to the same destination, group travel insurance may be a better bet. This type of insurance generally includes cover for medical costs, cashback for lost or delayed luggage, flight cancellations and missed flights and cover if a third person is injured.
Cover for dangerous areas and or adventure activities
Depending on the country you plan on visiting, you may want to purchase extra cover. This covers you should an act of terrorism interrupt your trip and force you to cancel the trip or harm you in any way.
Travellers should be mindful that certain travel insurance providers might exclude cover when travelling to certain destinations because they are either considered disaster-prone areas or are experiencing unrest, or a health epidemic, such as malaria or cholera outbreak.
Adventure activities such as skiing, kayaking, bungee jumping, scuba diving and mountain biking can be dangerous so make sure that you’re insured for any mishap that might occur and also include cover for your sports equipment.