Why Offer Travel Insurance for Shorter Trips

Airfare makes up a huge part of the prepaid travel expense for many trips. Think of a week in Cancun versus three days in Cancun. The only difference between those trips is three or four days’ lodging, which will likely be a small amount of the trip costs, especially with a resort package. The cost of airfare, however, doesn’t change with the shorter trip.

The same holds for a cruise. Often the cost per day is significantly more on a shorter cruise. What’s accounting for the higher price on the shorter cruise? The unchanging cost of airfare.

No matter the trip – a destination wedding on the Outer Banks or an Icelandic getaway ¬– a significant portion of the prepaid expense is going to be airfare. It makes sense to buy travel insurance if for no other reason than to help protect the flight costs.

Life is unpredictable and traveling even more so, no matter how long a traveler is gone.

The odds that your clients will need to cancel their trip before they leave has nothing to do with the trip length – it’s just as easy to get sick before a three-day trip as it is before a two-week trip. Trip Cancellation coverage can help either way.

A weekend trip could turn into a lot longer if your client gets sick and can’t fly. Even if they don’t leave the U.S., if they get sick with COVID-19, they won’t be able to board their flight and will need to isolate for a while. Our travel protection plans can help with that.

If your client, their family member or their traveling companion is diagnosed with COVID-19 before or during the trip, and meets the requirements for coverage due to sickness, they can be covered for Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, Travel Delay, Medical & Dental, and Emergency Assistance & Transportation, in addition to our 24-Hour assistance services. Your client can also be covered for additional lodging expenses and extension of their travel insurance plan if they are required to isolate at their destination and their return is delayed.

The list of travel problems and travel emergencies that can ruin a vacation is long and many of which don’t depend on how long the trip is.

Consider a busy couple traveling for a destination wedding in Rome, getting there last-minute and cutting it close to get home for a can’t-miss Monday-morning meeting. This could be a really expensive long weekend, with airfares, super-luxe hotels and perhaps some prepaid activities. 

There is no linear relationship between trip length and trip expense. A short trip can be intense and expensive, and a long trip can be free-flowing and cheap.

Because of that, it makes much more sense to base the decision to buy travel insurance on how much is being spent, not how long the trip is.

A lost passport, a roadside breakdown, medication replacement – travel troubles are still travel troubles, irrespective of trip length. And travelers need someone who can help them navigate these troubles so the rest of the trip can go smoothly.

The 24/7 Travel Assistance that comes with all Generali travel protection plans is designed to provide live help with almost any issue while traveling — from changing travel plans and pre-trip services, to the urgent coordination of emergency medical transportation and medical care.