Travel insurance is just as valuable for business trips as it is for leisure travel.
To make a travel insurance plan work for your next business trip, it’s important to consider factors such as terms for emergency medical coverage, travel timelines, and protection for business equipment.
You should also pay attention to term limits if your trip blends both business and personal travel — bleisure.
Here is what you should know about choosing travel insurance for your next business trip.
Travel insurance can help protect your health, business and personal items during your trip.
No. You should know that your provincial or territorial health insurance plan may not fully protect you if you are travelling outside of your home province or territory. Travel insurance may help you fill coverage gaps if you experience a medical emergency during your trip.
If you are travelling internationally for business, purchasing travel insurance may be even more important. Health care facilities abroad often ask for upfront payment for treatment. Travel insurers reimburse eligible payments for healthcare, potentially saving you thousands, depending on the emergency.
Trip cancellation coverage can be valuable. In this time of growing uncertainty, you never know when your travel plans will be cancelled, delayed or interrupted midway. Roughly a quarter of flights are delayed every year.
Travel insurance with trip cancellation and interruption coverage can be especially beneficial for bleisure travellers. Let’s say you are sent to New York, New York for an international business trip, so you extend your trip to see the sights, or book a flight to another major city.
If your flight to your new destination, or your return trip home, is cancelled or delayed, travel insurance may reimburse certain non-refundable expenses. Travel insurance can help protect the financial investment you have made in your trip.
If you are planning to extend your trip for fun after the work is done and you purchase comprehensive travel insurance, be sure to book insurance that covers the full length of your trip, even if your employer is picking up part of the tab.
It is valuable to have emergency medical protection for the duration of your travels. Also, loss, theft and damage to your luggage may not be covered under your employer-provided plan.
Business travellers frequently travel with both personal items and high-value business equipment, and travel insurance may help protect both personal luggage and professional tools.
Travel insurance with baggage protection reimburses certain non-refundable expenses if your baggage is lost, stolen or delayed in transit.
If you’re a freelancer, travel insurance with baggage protection may be even more beneficial, as you are financially liable for both your personal luggage and the tools to do your job.
Perhaps. If you travel for business, pleasure or bleisure more than once a year, annual travel insurance may save you money. It all depends on the cost of insurance, and the frequency of your trips.
For one annual fee, an annual Allianz Global Assistance Travel Insurance Plan protects an unlimited number of trips for a year. Check out our policy for more details about what is covered and guidelines on trip length.
If you have a pre-existing medical condition, it’s important to closely look at your insurer’s terms and conditions regarding how long your condition must be stable before travelling.
Insurers consider a condition stable if your health hasn’t negatively changed, the condition is in remission, and you have no new diagnoses.
Lab work and other medical documentation may be required to prove condition stability. Most insurers require that your condition be stable for a certain amount of time before your policy is active. See your policy for full details.
Stand alone travel insurance, or policies not tied to sales offerings from your credit card company, may offer more extensive coverage.
Credit cards often come with good travel perks, including accruing points for airline miles or access to airport lounges. Some credit cards also offer travel insurance benefits, the most common being trip cancellation and lost baggage benefits, and travel accident coverage.
However, a stand-alone travel insurance plan often offers more comprehensive protection, including emergency health care and transportation benefits, than credit card travel insurance.
In short, credit card travel insurance benefits can be helpful during many common travel inconveniences, but may not provide enough protection for most trips.
Protect your investment with travel insurance. Allianz Global Assistance Travel Insurance benefits reimburse certain non-refundable expenses if you experience a covered medical emergency.
We also reimburse certain non-refundable expenses due to trip cancellation and delay, and baggage theft, loss, or damage, due to covered reasons.
As a world leader in travel protection, Allianz Global Assistance helps more than 8 million Canadians and visitors to Canada annually answer the call of adventure with confidence every year. Let us be there for you too.
