Summer and hurricane season are quickly approaching. And even after hurricane season is over, then there's winter. If next winter is anything like the USA & Canada's winter of 2007-2008, you're going to hope your travel insurance covers you in case of bad weather.
No matter what kind of bad weather you want your travel insurance to cover, you have to purchase your travel insurance plan before the bad weather is forecast. Don't buy travel insuranceif you're going to Cancun and you just saw on the nightly news that a hurricane is approaching. You'll just waste your money. It's too late to buy travel insurance at that time because travel insurance covers unexpected events.
Bad weather can affect your trip in a couple of different ways:
1: it can prevent you from leaving on your trip altogether
2: it can happen en route causing your flight either to be delayed or diverted to a different city
3: it can affect your destination - the place you're going might be rendered uninhabitable by a prior storm
4: it can happen to you while you're on your trip forcing a mandatory evacuation by the authorities
5: or, there are various other ways that bad weather can affect your trip
Here's how many travel insurance plans work when it comes to bad weather:
1: If the common carrier airline you're flying on has a cessation of services for at least 24 hours due to bad weather, that's a covered reason to cancel your trip.
2: if bad weather along the way or from your departure city causes you to be delayed for at least 5 hours (or 6 - 12 hours for other plans), then you'll have a travel delay.
3: you might be safe and fine at home, but maybe a bad storm renders your lodging uninhabitable, this can be covered travel insurance.
4: you are already on your trip and, if due to an approaching storm the authorities call for a mandatory evacuation of where you are, this can also be covered by travel insurance.
Some of the above scenarios will be a trip cancellation, a missed connection / travel delay or even a trip interruption. The circumstances will determine what kind claim you'll have.
Steve Dasseos is the CEO of TripInsuranceStore.com, the world's most informative travel insurance comparison website. You can compare reputable travel insurance plans, get person-to-person service & advice. Contact Steve here.