December 06 2016

Photo by: photoo.uk/ via freeforcommercialuse.org #FFCU

If you’ve recently purchased a travel insurance for your next trip, great! Congratulations for realising how important it is especially when that little voice in your head says “Nah. You don’t really need it. You’ll be fine.” Shutting that little voice out is a good first step.

When you finally made that purchase, you scanned the product summary sheet and you made sure you have all the coverage you need. One coverage that you may have noticed is the Travel Emergency Assistance cover. But do you truly understand why it’s there and how it’s covered? Let us give you a lowdown on it.

A travel emergency assistance cover is a pretty standard service coverage in all travel insurance policies. If it’s not there, we suggest you look for one that includes it. While there are still some policies that do not have this cover, the majority of travel insurance policies sold worldwide has it and typically with high limits. Bearing in mind, however, every insurance company imposes different limits and typically helps you with medical emergencies, roadside assistance, emergency evacuation, language translation and much more.   

Every insurance company will either outsource assistance providers or use their own in-house assistance providers. Either way, they ensure that providers have a worldwide presence and world-class experience handling sophisticated emergencies. In other words, good for you, because you’ll be glad that they did a good job at making you feel comfortable and safe when you’re at your lowest.

Here’s why travel emergency assistance is a must in travel insurance.

1: They are available 24/7. Don’t lose their number!

Typically when you receive your certificate of insurance (this is where coverage description, terms and conditions are spelt out) you should also receive a 24/7 hotline number. Often times travel plans will include a toll-free number and a collect number where you can call from anywhere in the world.

As we explain this, it may not sound as important, but many policyholders still take this for granted even after they purchased a travel insurance. They either forget the number or lose it. Keep the number in 1 or 2 locations. Perhaps keep one on your phone and one in your google drive if you have to.

In case if your phone goes missing (lets hope that doesn’t happen - ever!) all you need to do is find a computer or a laptop and access your google drive for the number. But this is just one way. You’d still have to keep in mind that disaster strikes in many different ways and no matter what happens, find a phone first and foremost to contact for help.

2: They bring you home

Have you watched the movie “The Impossible”? That movie starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. It is a movie based on a true story of a tourist family who went to Thailand for a vacation and how they lost and found each other in the midst of destruction and the chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Imagine being swept away and swirling in salty ocean water, hitting huge tree trunks, getting caught in barb wire along with other debris, surfacing and being pulled in and out of the water for hours, barely holding on to your life. When it finally stop you can’t think and your whole body feels like its breaking in pieces, but thankfully it’s still intact.

At this point, Naomi Watt’s character was badly injured. Eventually, she got to the hospital and was surviving with oxygen tank. Her husband and three kids survived and reunited with her at the hospital. A few days later they were evacuated from the affected area.

Here are some facts on their evacuation.

What was covered:

• Coordination and arrangement, on formalities, air ambulance to evacuate them from the Tsunami affected area and bring them back home.

• The air ambulance was just for their family.

• Evacuated back to home country.

• Included Maria’s (Naomi Watts character) oxygen tank in the plane.

Basically, everything was taken care. If Maria and family opted to not purchase a travel insurance, arrangements and payments will be such a big task for them, especially after going through such a rough ordeal. Not to mention, the high cost of the evacuation will surely take a toll on them physically, mentally and financially.

3: They are your emergency guardian

Shocked, panic, shaking, angry and lost. These are probably feelings that you get when you’ve been pickpocketed by well-organised scammers, robbed by street thieves, accidently hit someone with your motorbike, when you need to be bailed and when you need a lawyer. So what do you do? Who do you call? No, not ghostbusters! You call the travel emergency assistance number.

Typically the representative will guide you on the next steps you need to take post incident. In cases where your cash and credit card has been stolen, the travel assistance will provide with the emergency cash advance to get you rolling again.

This service, however, varies with the type of travel plan you bought. Some will reimburse the amount from you once you’ve settled down and some will reimburse the amount from your insurance company. Despite this, there are also other ways a travel assistance provider can help you. They’ll arrange for a friend or a family member to transfer some emergency money to you. The bottom line is that the travel assistance provider’s goal is to help get money to you so you can resume your trip as soon as possible.

4: They are your tour guide too!

Perhaps this time around you booked a flight ticket on a whim and took that flight before you even had the chance to research the places you can visit. You basically didn’t plan your itinerary. You have no itinerary.

Many travel assistance providers, provide concierge services. Kind of like your go-to man when you don’t have a clue on where to eat, what to do, which spots to visit and how to book a cave tour in Borneo and where to rent a car. Some even assist business travellers to arrange company meetings in your destination.

5: Alerts you with latest worldwide issues

Knowledge will be your shield when you travel. Knowing current issues of the places you plan to visit will help you heaps in your decision making, and in some circumstances save you tonnes of time and money. Alerts are usually notified through text, email as well as travel assistance apps.

Typically once you purchase a travel insurance you are automatically signed up to receive alerts about terrorist attacks, strikes, weather reports, and outbreaks. You can even store your emergency numbers in the app and set the app to track where you are when you travel. That way when you’re in trouble the assistance provider could easily locate you.

Did you find this article useful? If so, share this article with your friends and family and if you have a travel emergency assistance experience before, share with us in the comment box below. We’d love to hear about it!