These coverage gaps may surprise you
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Travelers who were briefly stranded abroad after the U.S. operation to extract Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro got a hard lesson in the limitations of travel insurance.
Travel insurance policies offer a financial backstop to buyers for various unforeseen snafus, like having to pay for medical care abroad or for a hotel room after a flight delay or cancellation.
But insurers set rules that indicate when they do and don’t have to pay those benefits.
Many limitations — or “exclusions,” in insurance lingo — may surprise consumers, say travel and insurance experts.
“Consumers assume travel insurance is blanket and covers everything that could possibly happen,” said Chrissy Valdez, senior director of operations at Squaremouth, an insurance comparison site.
That’s not accurate.
Venezuela poses ‘gray area’ for travel insurance
On Jan. 3, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace over parts of the Caribbean to support the U.S. military operation in Venezuela.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, disrupting plans for thousands of travelers during a busy holiday weekend and in a region that experts say is among the most popular for travelers this time of year. The disruptions forced many to absorb costs for extra days of travel.
Airlines generally aren’t obligated to reimburse passengers for disruptions outside their control, though they may do so voluntarily.
Travel insurance policyholders — including those with standalone policies or who get benefits via a credit card — may be out of luck, too.
Many standard policies carve out exceptions for disruptions due to war, undeclared war, civil disorder, rebellion, military activity or government intervention, experts said.
Policyholders stranded because of the military action in Venezuela “might be out money,” said Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet.
The fine print varies from insurer to insurer.
Insurers are generally the ones who make the final determination as to whether something like an undeclared act of war or civil unrest has occurred, French said.
“The Venezuela situation is very unique,” French said. “In another situation, you might see the government say we are declaring war on a country. But Venezuela is challenging because we don’t really know what is happening.”
“There is a lot of gray area,” she said.
Insurers may not cover ‘risky’ activities
Intoxication is another potentially surprising or “quirky” exclusion, said Suzanne Morrow, CEO of InsureMyTrip, an insurance comparison site.
“If you are drunk and injure yourself, your travel insurance can deny your medical [benefits], and not pay for it because you were intoxicated,” she said.
Insurers may also deem certain activities to be risky.
Riding a moped is generally one such exclusion, due to the risk of injury, Morrow said.
Standard policies also generally exclude going on a safari, hiking, horseback riding, skiing, snowboarding, scuba diving, riding in…
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