Travel insurance policies? Be sure to read fine print

By Jane Engle
02:57 PM PST, November 08, 2007

Here's a topic that inspires fear, loathing -- and boredom.

Yes, we're talking travel insurance. We fear illness and accidents, loathe thinking about them when we plan a trip and are too bored to plow through 20 pages of fine print on an insurance certificate.

"Nine times out of 10, they don't read it," Angela Norton, spokeswoman for CSA Travel Protection in San Diego, said of travelers who buy packaged policies for trip cancellation and interruption, medical costs and evacuation, luggage loss and other mishaps.

Now, some heavy-hitting critics are asking, "Why bother?"

First, Consumer Reports magazinein May ran an article titled, "Travel Insurance: Why You Rarely Need It."

One of the experts quoted, Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C., told me that the typical traveler can afford to forfeit trip deposits and is covered by medical insurance homeowners' policies or credit cards for other losses.

In emergencies, he added, airlines and other suppliers may offer refunds or waive penalties.

"I never buy travel insurance," said Hunter, a former federal insurance administrator under presidents Ford and Carter.

Then, in September, Jeffrey Miller, a travel attorney and consultant in Columbia, Md., wrote a piece in the trade magazine Travel Weekly titled "Losing Faith in Travel Insurance."

After 15 years of encouraging travel agents to sell such policies, which can pay commissions of 25% or more, he wrote, "I no longer believe travel insurance to be a vacation staple."

Miller said that in the last year, many friends and clients had complained about insurers denying apparently legitimate claims and that confusion reigned over what policies cover.

After his article ran, he said he "got a lot of grief from the industry."

In separate letters, Brad Finkle, president of the U.S. Travel Insurance Assn. in Richmond, Va., criticized the Consumer Reports and Miller's articles.

Finkle wrote that the "vast majority" of travel-insurance claims were paid and that consumers needed to take responsibility for reading their policies. Only travel insurance, he added, covers most losses from trip interruptions and cancellations, the most common claims.

Neither the insurance organization nor several insurers I contacted would say how much companies paid in claims. (Organization officials said they didn't know, and insurers cited competitive reasons for not disclosing figures.) But it is, without a doubt, a big industry.

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