With ISIS grabbing international headlines from their isolated terrorist attacks from time to time, some U.S. travelers begin to wonder about their travel investments if an event strikes at their intended destination. And, if so, would travel insurance protect them.

Well, the not so simple answer is, maybe.

When our travel agency clients are headed on a journey that we’ve booked for them, we always provide them with a travel insurance quote.  There are many reasons to consider the purchase of travel insurance, but for this conversation, let’s limit our discussion to terrorism coverage.

One of the companies that we have in our travel insurance collection is a company called TravelEx and one of their most popular policies is called Travel Select.  So, let’s take a peek at their coverages for terrorism.

The first thing they do in their policy is to define a Terrorist Act as it relates to their policy:

“Terrorist Act means an act of violence, other than civil disorder or riot, (that is not an act of war, declared or undeclared) that results in loss of life or major damage to property, by any person acting alone or on behalf of or in connection with any organization which is generally recognized as having the intent to overthrow or influence the control of any government.”

OK.  Now that we know how this particular travel insurance policy defines a terrorist act, what is covered if one occurs?  The information below is found under their Trip Cancellation and Interruption Covered Reasons:

“a Terrorist Act which occurs in your departure city or in a city which is a scheduled destination for your Covered Trip provided the Terrorist Act occurs within 30 days of the Scheduled Departure Date for your Covered Trip or during your Covered Trip;”

In our conversations with a few travel insurance companies when researching for this article, some also declared that a terrorist act is not a terrorist act unless the U.S. Department of State declares it so.  So, if this is a concern of yours, it’s a good idea to read the policy carefully and ask questions if it is not clear to you.

Now. Let’s take a peek at a real-life situation with the recent car attack in London.  As this was clearly defined as a terrorist attack, if you had purchased this policy and were planning to travel to London within 30-days of this cowardly act, you could file a claim and be covered.  Further, the policy describes coverage if an event happens during your covered trip.

Lastly, it is unlikely that you will break your leg when you travel overseas.  And further, statisticians tell us that it is significantly less likely that you will suffer a terrorist event when you’re traveling.   Nonetheless, travel insurance is here to provide us all coverage when the greatest of unlikely events do occur.

Moral of our story?  Always buy travel insurance and protect yourselves and your investment.  Carol and I always buy travel insurance when we’re traveling overseas.
 
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