Non-medical travel insurance

If you think travel insurance is there simply to help you if you get sick or are injured while on holiday, think again. A large component of your travel cover will cover you for non-medical misadventures.

Non-medical travel insurance can be roughly divided into the following areas:

• Trip cancellation/trip interruption
• Baggage and personal effects insurance
• Accidental death and dismemberment insurance

Trip cancellation

Sometimes for reasons beyond your control – or even the control of the airline – planes get grounded, flights are changed and delays occur. It could be bad weather, a late connecting flight, an illness amongst the crew or pilot, or any number of other causes. If you are “bumped off” or miss a connecting flight as a result this can be a major issue and a costly one. Unexpected hotel, food and transportation bills, as well as phone calls to your end destination, and, in the case of a business meeting, sometimes lost opportunities. Non-medical travel insurance may not make up for the entire effects of the cancelled or delayed trip but it can help cover some of the obvious costs.

Personal effects and lost baggage

Most people don’t realize how much their personal effects are worth – when taking out contents insurance at home people tend to understate their value. Similarly when people travel, they rarely consider the value of the items they take with them, with the exception of their computer. Clothes, jewellery, toiletries, even the luggage itself, can all add up. Getting to your destination without baggage can be inconvenient and costly. If your personal effects are insured however you will usually be given an allowance by your insurer so you can replace the goods immediately.

Accidental death

Hard to imagine but people do die while they are away from home – either for business or when holidaying. In a strange environment people may be more vulnerable or take different kinds of risks. In Asia, for example, it is common to travel by motorcycle – even small children can be seen crammed onto the back of bikes. At home, however, a traveller may never even consider sitting on the back of a bike. Accidents do happen, however. In the case of accidental death, or the loss of a limb (dismemberment), your costs can suddenly go sky high.

Accidental death involves a number of unavoidable costs such as transport and storage of the body and a load of paperwork. (There are two countries managing the appropriate care and release of the body so you can expect at least twice the paperwork). Without insurance the loved ones of the deceased may not be able to afford the return of the body, or will experience significant financial hardship as a result of taking custody of their relative. Even if you are fit and healthy and undertaking no risky activities at the very least, insurance to cover accidental death is essential.