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Travel Insurance! Your Health And Peace-Of-Mind Is Worth Protecting, And We Mean It

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As a past travel professional, I heard many, and I stress manyhorror stories about travellers that didn't take travelinsurance to protect their well-being and vacation investment! Nothing was worse than getting that phone call from our traveltour operator telling me that our clients had an unfortunateaccident, or suddenly became ill, and they did not have travelmedical, and not enough money to cover their medical bills atdestination, or enough credit on their card to purchase aone-way flight home. All these incidences were avoidable if they just took the timeto understand how extremely important having an emergencymedical policy, or trip cancellation coverage while on theirvacation. I know many individuals comment that they never get ill, orinjured on past vacations, and my feedback to them is that theyhave been very fortunate. I myself have never been severelyinjured, or ill during my vacations, but I don't take anychances. Just like home insurance, or car insurance, you never expectyour house to burn to the ground, and you certainly do notanticipate ever getting into a car collision. However, we allbuy protection for the un-known for these two incidences,correct? The problem with vacation travel is that many people feel thattheir holiday is short-term, and the odds of something serioushappening are less likely to occur. But if something were tohappen where you end up in a foreign hospital, I don't think youwant to find out later that your medical bills have exceeded thevalue of your house, or your savings account! Unknown Emergency And Accident Means Just That! You NeverKnow If And When Something Will Happen It's hard to put something in perspective if you have never hadan emergency situation with your health, or have had a seriousaccident. So to help you I will tell you two stories that I havecome across with my experience of being a travel agent. One occurrence was a mother and child was booking a flight totravel home to Jamaica to attend a family wedding. Her travelagent booked their flight, and recommended to her insurancemedical and travel cancellation coverage. The women declined,and the agent didn't express the serious nature of not takingthe policy, so in the end the woman had left her office withoutany medical coverage. Months later, I had our local travel insurance representativecome visit my office, and he told me this story, and theunfortunate result was her young boy had come down with an earinfection prior to their flight to Jamaica, and even though shewas consulted by the boys doctor not to take the flight untilhis condition healed, she ignored the requests! The mother didn't have the money to purchase two more flighttickets for another date, and proceeded to take her originalflight. The end result was her child ended up losing his hearingdue to his eardrum becoming damaged during the flight, a sadstory, but an avoidable one if she would have taken cancellationcoverage, and re-booked her flight for another day when her sonwas better. My next story really touches my heart, because it was a clientof mine for many years. My past client god rest his soul, was atypical stubborn man that grew up in a farm community, and had atrue understanding of comprehensive coverage for accidents,because he operated many heavy machinery. When he first came into my office, he was travelling with agroup of people including his wife, and when he booked his firstvacation package with me, he haggled me to the point where Igave in, and offered him and his guests a substantial discountedprice. His group was saving at least $150.00 per person fortheir vacation package. But when it came to offering him and histravel guest's insurance policies, he was not budging. Forpeople that know me, I don't take no for an answer when it comesto your overall wellbeing. In the end, I won the battle, and he and his wife purchased thetravel insurance, and they talked all their guests in getting itas well. This small group travelled to a hot destination everyyear after, and it seemed that their group started to growlarger every time they came to see me, and all the time theywould joke about wasting money on this insurance I alwaysprovided to them. My client after dealing with me for several years now came inonce again with the largest group ever, and they all agreed totake a vacation in Cancun. Most have never been to the MayanRiviera, and they were extremely excited to go there! Theproblem this time is that with a really large group with manydifferent personalities and characters, my client was lessjokingly, and said that he was talking to one of his guestsgoing on this trip with them, and he expressed his opinion thatinsurance


travel,,Flights,,vacation package

is nothing but a scam, and us travel agents only sellit for the commissions. As these comments really insulted me, my client's guest wasright! We do make commission off selling travel insurance, butby no means do we offer or sell it for the main purpose ofmaking money. My client was truly influenced by what this otherperson had commented, and we ended up having a lengthy debate,to the point it was getting a little heated. With over 15 pluscouples traveling together this time, was I willing to lose aclient and such a large group because of insurance? Oh yeah!Believe it or not, I would drop that business in a heartbeat ifI knew they were traveling un-protected, and I told him thatdirectly as he and his wife sat across from me. In the end, I had won the battle again, my client made manyphone calls and also convinced the others to take the coverage,and even though his trip was fully booked with me, he did leavemy office feeling a little battered and slightly upset. The Phone Call A Travel Agent Never Wants To Ever Receive! When we send our clients off to their next vacation destination,all we want to hear when they get back is how much they ate,drank, and how their trip was another experience that will givethem many incredible memories. You want them to talk about itfor months, and have the big post picture party where they allexchange vacation photos and talk about how Henry fell into thepool with a handful of Margaritas! In this situation, it wasn't like that, and several days aftermy client had left for his holiday, I received a phone call fromone of our tour operators that I had booked their package with,and they had expressed to me with the deepest sorrow and apologythat my favourite client had passed away. His wife out ofrespect had asked the tour company to notify me of what happened. With extreme disbelief and shock, I was told that he went intothe water when there was an extremely powerful undertow, and hedrowned. The fact that you have over 30 people at destinationfor only one reason, and that's to relax and have fun, it justdidn't register that all these people on this trip had suddenlyhad a serious un-expected tragedy on their hands, and now theyall were cutting the vacation short to come home. This story always brings tears to my eyes, and a feeling ofemptiness to this day! Whether this story tugs on your heartstrings or not, I just wantto express a few things to everybody taking the time to readthis. As a travel professional offering travel insurance, aswell as many of the online travel companies that sell travelprotection to their clients, want you to know that our sincereand true intentions are to make sure that each and everyone ofyou are covered and have the peace-of-mind! We don't want to seeyou being left stranded anywhere without help, or becomefinancially burdened by any un-expected medical incident oraccident while away from your home. I lost one of my favourite clients, and even though I call him aclient, he and his wife were more like friends to me. One thingthat really stuck with me when this tragedy came to a finalconclusion, is that not only did the tour company that calledthank me for offering medical/cancellation insurance, but myentertaining and grumpy friend's wife, from that small farmtown, expressed her deepest gratitude to me for being extremelystubborn with them, and not taking no for an answer when it cameto protecting their best interests. The next time you decide to travel, I highly recommend that youconsider looking at your insurance options, and make sure youhave sufficient travel protection. Be sure to check the policiesoffered and make sure it's adequate for your travel situation. I will be writing another article that will express the commonpitfalls, and some of the incorrect information that you may begetting from your current work plans, or the credit card offers. Also I will explain some of the detailed terminology that isvery important to understand, because what's in the fine printmay determine the outcome of your future claims while onvacation. Please remember to be nice to your travel agent whenthey offer you a travel insurance plan, and ask them tons ofquestions to get the best options. If you're purchasing a policyonline, don't hesitate to contact the customer servicedepartment, they are there to help you and explain anything thatmay be unclear to you. About the author: About the author: William Lezubski (Accredited Cruise Counsellor(ACC), and Certified Travel Counsellor(CTC) - William is aprofessional in the Travel Industry and is the owner and authorof "Discount Caribbean Vacations Web Site" available at www.discount-caribbean-vacations.com .

Written by: William Lezubski

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