Quelle surprise, insurance providers recommend you have their insurance! But just do the math and consider the odds of this happening to you before you dive in .......
(WSJ) Travel insurance companies say they see the biggest surge in calls about policies and sales of policies for future trips since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
InsureMyTrip says queries are up 20% after the combination of the suspected bombing of an airliner leaving Egypt and the Paris attacks. Buying travel insurance can ease anxiety for travelers in turbulent times.
Terrorism coverage, however, is often limited in standard policies to 30 days after an attack. And you’re covered only if the attack is in the country you’re visiting. Many people who buy policies are surprised to learn that the policy doesn’t help if they want to cancel their trip to Rome because of the Paris attacks.
“One of our greatest challenges is awareness of the product,” says Jeff Rutledge, chief executive of AIG Travel Insurance Inc. “It’s very, very important that people look at the policy and understand it.”
One way to get broader coverage is to buy a “cancel for any reason” policy. Those policies are more expensive and cover only about 70% of actual losses, but work well for skittish travelers who may not want to go to London because of trouble in Paris.
InsureMyTrip chief executive Jim Grace also recommends “interruption for any reason” protection—those policies will pay to get you home if there’s another attack anywhere, while standard policies would only be useful if the attack was in a country on your itinerary.