Travel Insurance

We ask everyone who registers for one of our trips to purchase a travel insurance policy at the time of registering. As we’ve all learned in recent years especially, travel realities can change quickly with one headline, phone call, accident, or unexpected life interruption. As we continue to recover from the financial impact to our business during the pandemic and the war, we are unable to provide exceptions to our stated refund policy.

There are many suitable policies and travel insurance companies, and depdning on your age and travel situation, the algorithms come out differently for everyone. So what’s best for you may vary. We’ve found Squaremouth to provide a good range of option for initial consideration of policy options:  

Travel Insurance Search:

There are many search options available to help find the best policy for you. Seven Corners‍ ‍and Travel Insured Internationalare some of our current leading recommendations, especially as they provide explicit “Political Evacuation & Natural Disaster Evacuation” details.

For general search options, Insure My Trip, and Travelinsurance are two good starting search options, and we have also used Squaremouth. Then there are many review sites, such as Forbes.

Frequent traveler? Annual policies are provided for worldwide travel and can be a good solution for those with multiple international trips planned in a year.

Group Policies

If several of you in the group are interested in purchasing a general policy together, you may find better rates with providers that offer discounted tier pricing for group rosters and comprehensive travel interuption/delay coverage. While Travel the Text doesn’t organize these for groups, you can ask your travel companions or your group leader if they may be interested in organizing this possibility with you. This can sometimes provide a 10-15% savings on pricing, but often requires 10+. In this case, you would also need to determine if a genral policy, or a CFAR (see below) upgrade is what your particular group or subgroup would want, or not. Others may prefer the flexibility and autonomy of managing their trip policies independently.

CANCEL FOR ANY REASON (CFAR) POLICIES:

“CFAR - Cancel for any reason” or “Cancel Anytime” add-on is available for many policies. IF you purchase it soon after paying your initial deposit (often needs to be purchased *within 3 weeks of your first trip deposit (varies by company). This level of policy can be more expensive, but for those whose risk of travel interruption is known to be higher, including those traveling to Israel, or who have health concerns, or who are caring for dependents such as seniors or minors with known health issues, or may have a wedding or new baby arriving into the family, etc. this kind of policy offers the most flexible security for your trip investment. “Cancel for Any Reason” or “CFAR” policies often protect 75%-80% of your trip payments even for cancellations for uncovered reasons, such as, “I don’t want to travel anymore” and of course 100% for covered reasons, such as medical emergencies, accidents, etc. (confirm exact policy coverage for the policy you select).

*If you prefer a CFAR policy but are outside of the timeframe required from when you paid your deposit, contact jamie@travelthetext.com for options.

Coverage Amount?

Program Land Fee (tips not included). We recommend you purchase a policy for the amount of your pre-trip payments due. No need to include the final cash payment toward group tips since these are only collected on arrival, so not at risk of loss if you have to cancel. You may also want to include your estimated flight cost in this policy, though many prefer to do this separately through the airline while booking.

Policy Dates

If you plan to arrive early, depart late, or add additional travel, please adjust your insurance coverage to the dates of your total travel. Most policies will allow you to adjust this to include additional travel at later dates if you are unsure.

**Israel Policies

Trip Insurance policies are currently available for travel to Israel, but not necessarily online. Some providers are requiring you to call for details, while others remain available online. For Israel, many put in place a “call” to ensure you understand any “exclusions,” including that “war” is not a covered option. This process is still in place from the October 7, 2023 events. We will communicate trip specific details for your situation regarding steps we are taking to secure your payments as long as possible, with the most flexible refund policies we can provide for travel to Israel. However, these flexible options apply to “group” cancel/reschedules in particular, such as if geopolitical reasons affect the entire group from traveling - which is usually only triggered if flights are cancelled. In this case, our group contracts are much more flexible due to “force majeure” allowing us to reschedule the trip, or receive refunds from our providers. However, this flexibility is group specific and does not apply to an individual deciding not to travel for fear of travel, etc. so if you are more concerned about potential geopolitical situations in particular, we highly recommend the CFAR option above. War remains an exclusion even for CFAR - but “deciding not to travel” for a separate personal reason is protected.

Note: War/terrorism is almost always an “uncovered” reasons to any destination, so this exclusion for Israel is not new or unique. However, it is being more emphasized for travel to Israel even as travel increases dramatically back to the region, to ensure people understand this exclusion. This is why we recommend “CFAR” policies to any destination for the greatest amount of personal flexibility.

Please review all options for your situation with trip insurance companies and purchase a policy immediately after making your initial trip deposit at the level that is best for your situation.

*****In the event of needing to file a claim with your travel insurance provider, TTT will provide payment receipts and documents on request that are suitable for your situation and filing needs. Email jamie@travelthetext.com for assistance.*****