Travel Insurance and Your Luggage: How it Can Help When Flying

Do the scenes of fields of bags spread out across an airport put a knot in the pit of your stomach, thinking that your bag could be in there? If so, read on.

There’s no question the number of mishandled bags is rising. According to the Department of Transportation’s Air Traffic Consumer Reports, the number of mishandled bags increased 59% from 2021 to 2022.

The percentage of bags mishandled is low – less than 1% – but a 59% increase is especially significant when you consider that the number of mishandled bags usually only changes a small bit from measurement period to measurement period.

While people have had some good results slipping a tracking tag into their luggage, that shouldn’t be all you do to ensure the safety of your luggage and its contents. Travel insurance that covers your luggage and personal belongings is an important piece of the baggage protection puzzle.

Depending on the plan you purchase, Generali travel insurance can include coverage for lost, damaged, stolen, and delayed baggage – which can be helpful when you’re flying.

Our Guest Protect, Ski & Mountain, and Seaside Coastal Travel Insurance plans provide coverage for lost, damaged, or stolen baggage up to the policy limit. If you think about what you spent on your bags and what might be inside them, having Baggage coverage can be a big help.

Some things our plans won’t cover:

• Musical instruments
• Phones and computers
• Money
• Medicine and cosmetics

See plan documents for a full list of exclusions

The good news is that many of the things you’d pack in a suitcase are covered. You probably wouldn’t pack your phone, money, or a tablet in a checked bag.

But clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other common traveling items may be covered under the Baggage benefit.

Yes, our travel protection plans provide coverage for baggage delay. If you purchase a Guest Protect, Ski & Mountain, or Seaside Coastal Travel Insurance Plan, this coverage is included in addition to providing coverage for lost, damaged, or stolen baggage.

Baggage Delay coverage may reimburse you for replacement clothing and personal articles that are needed while the baggage is delayed, so save those receipts.

Sporting Equipment Delay coverage is also included with the Ski & Mountain and Seaside Coastal Travel Insurance plans. This coverage may reimburse you for the cost of renting replacement equipment and/or locating your dleayed Sporting Equipment and having it returned to you.

Important Notes: To qualify for coverage, Baggage or Sporting Equipment must be delayed for the number of hours specified in your plan documents, or longer.

Pro tip: An additional benefit you might not have expected is that Generali may reimburse you for the cost of having your clothes cleaned while waiting for your luggage to arrive.

When baggage mishandling occurs that is the fault of the airline, the airline will often pay for lost items or costs to reunite you with your bag. In these cases, it is the responsibility of the airline to provide agreed upon arrangements first and travel insurance may cover the remainder. See our handy list of links to airline customer service agreements to learn how the most popular airlines handle baggage problems.

Generali Baggage coverage is secondary, which means if you have coverage through your homeowner’s policy for baggage or items in your baggage, it will pay first, and then travel insurance will pay for any items that haven’t already been replaced or reimbursed.

In addition to letting your insurance company know about your lost luggage, you also need to notify authorities at the site where you believe it was lost – such as an airline’s baggage office. You also need to file a police report if it was stolen.

There’s a lot more to travel insurance for luggage than just paying for replacement bags. Contact your vacation rental company to get a quick quote.

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