Travel Advice

Saturday, January 08, 2011

You’ve saved, you’ve waited, and now you’re all set to go on the vacation of your life – a Insight Vacations trip. Preparing for your tour includes protecting yourself from unfortunate occurrences that threaten to interfere with even your best-laid plans. By purchasing the Insight Vacations Travel Protection Plan, you can help protect yourself against cancellation penalties, medical costs, baggage loss and delays, as well as gain access to a wide range of traveler’s assistance services.

Did you know that the Insight Vacations Travel Protection Plan could protect you if:

• You become ill and can’t travel

• Someone in your immediate family (as defined in the plan) has an illness or injury, even if they aren’t scheduled to travel with you

• Your child comes down with an illness and is unable to travel

• Your house becomes flooded due to a hurricane

• A family member back home passes away and you must return from your Insight Vacations vacation early

• Your luggage is lost by the airlines

• You twist your ankle and must visit a doctor while traveling

• Many other unforeseeable events as listed in the Description of Coverage

What does it cover?
The Insight Vacations Travel Protection Plan includes pre-trip cancellation protection and post-departure coverage for the following:

Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption
If you must cancel or interrupt your travel programs for a covered reason, the Insight Vacations Travel Protection Plan provides coverage up to your TOTAL TOUR COST.

Covered reasons include illness, injury or death to you, a traveling companion or a covered family member. Additional covered reasons for cancellation include jury duty, subpoena, having a home made uninhabitable by a natural disaster, hijacking and being involved in a documented traffic accident en route to departure. Please refer to the Description of Coverage for full details.

Trip Delay
If you should miss the departure of your vacation due to carrier-caused delays or other covered reasons, the plan reimburses you for additional accommodations, meals and "catch up" transportation expenses. The plan provides reimbursement up to $150 CAD per day, up to the maximum $1,000 CAD limit.

Medical Protection
If you become ill or are injured while on your trip,  the Insight Vacations Travel Protection Plan will cover up to $1,000,000  CAD in medical expenses. The medical plan also covers emergency evacuation (up to $50,000 CAD) and repatriation of remains expenses (up to $50,000 CAD).

* Note:  The Medical Expense benefits of this plan are subject to a maximum benefit limit of $30,000 CAD for those persons who at the time of a covered injury or sickness do not have valid hospital and medical insurance under a Government Health Insurance Plan of a province or territory of Canada.

Emergency Evacuation and Repatriation of Remains
If an injury or illness requires emergency medical transportation to the nearest appropriate medical facility, the plan will pre-pay up to $50,000 CAD for covered transportation expenses.  In addition, in the event of your death, the plan pays up to $50,000 CAD toward the expenses associated with transporting your remains.

Baggage Protection
Reimburses expenses up to $2,500 CAD for the covered loss, damage, or theft of baggage and/or personal effects during or while in transit to or from your vacation. This benefit also includes baggage delay protection, covering you for the purchase of necessary items up to $500 CAD in the event your luggage is delayed by a common carrier for more then 24 hours en route to your tour.

24 Hour Worldwide Emergency Assistance
24-hour emergency telephone assistance hotline for medical and travel-related problems, emergencies ranging from cash transfer, legal, dental, or medical referral, lost travel documents assistance as well as medical consultation and monitoring.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

As you get ready to travel?

Here are some tips to give you peace of mind while you are away and make sure you do not make your house as a target of opportunity. These are some simple precautions from the experts.

• Be mindful of who is around when you are discussing your trip - there is no need to let too many people know or draw attention to the fact your house might be empty for a period.
• The best deterrent is to have someone housesit. If that is not possible, ask a trusted neighbor or friend to take in the newspaper, mail, and any other deliveries and keep an eye on the house. Give them your trip plans and an emergency phone number so they can reach you in case of an emergency. You can also arrange with the post office and newspaper to suspend delivery for the time you are away.
• Lock doors, windows and secure sliding doors (a metal rod or a broomstick in the sliding door track is an inexpensive lock), as well as the garage, the basement, and the attic. Some people even disconnect the power to motorized garage door openers.
• Move any valuables from plain sight.
• Check on your appliances, unplug anything that doesn't need to be on while you're away. Lower air conditioning/heating units to energy-saving levels.
• Set timers to turn on lights if you do not have someone staying at the house.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Please share some of your unique ideas!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

We just received this question from a client, and thought it was worth posting, as many travelers have similar concerns.

Q.  I'm confused about luggage, specifically carry on. Is my purse considered a carry on item? How about my husband's camera case? My husband wants to bring his computer, it is slightly over the 12x11x6 Is this a problem?

A.  #1.  A purse or camera case is not considered a carry on. You can still have a separate carry-on bag.

#2.  As far as your husband's computer, carry-on bags must be small enough to store in overhead bins or under the seat in front of you on motorcoaches and other transportation. If it is a very minimal difference, (1 inch,) then it should still fit in the overhead without a problem, but these measurements are given to ensure you will not have any issue while touring.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

An unexpected emergency or mishap can turn a dream of a lifetime vacation into a travel nightmare. Travel insurance is purchased to give you piece of mind. The purpose is to save you money, protect your vacation and make your trip memorable for you and your family.

Services offered include services of 24/7 agent for any last minutes changes, pre-trip travel advice such as what vaccines are required, embassy contacts, weather and currency information.  They also offer assistance for last minute changes, such as cancelled or delayed flights, making hotel reservations or ground transportation reservations. Benefits include coverage in the event of cruise line, airline or tour operator default (financial default non applicable to all suppliers) Coverage for sickness, injury or death of immediate family member. Terrorist incident that results in loss of life or major damage to property, by any person

With a good policy, you receive 24 hours assistance replacing lost or stolen documents such as visas, passports or tickets. Cash advance for travel or medical emergencies. They can also help you locate English speaking medical specialists, facilities and assistance with medical evacuations anywhere in the world.

They will provide you with baggage and personal effects loss coverage, baggage delay coverage and luggage tracing services. They have a bilingual staff for telephone interpretation for medical or legal emergencies.

If you purchase your travel insurance within 15 days of making your initial deposit your coverage will include pre-existing conditions which applies to the first $25,000 of trip cost.

Whether a child gets the flu, or a close family member has a medical emergency, travel protection has a plan that will protect you before or during your vacation. The right kind of insurance is essential. It will provide you with peace of mind, medical evacuation in case of an emergency, baggage coverage, flight delay and flight cancellation coverage.

In addition to these services some insurance policies also provide a concierge service which is available to assist you with restaurant reservations, event tickets, tee time reservations and floral services.

This is only a brief description of some of the benefits and travel services provided. All policies and coverage may vary, and may not be available in all states. There are also expanded coverage plans that offer business related covered reasons for trip cancellation and interruption, and other that let you cancel for any reason.

At times it is best to purchase the insurance with the tour operator or cruise line as part of your package, where on other occasions you can save money and get better coverage medical and evacuation coverage. An experience agent can explain your options to that you can purchase the best policy for your individual needs.

Good travel insurance isn't always expensive. We have negotiated excellent policies exclusive to Atlas, where rather than paying by age, which can add up for seniors, everyone is charged a flat amount base on the cost of the trip.