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Even though there’s a high demand for travel, many U.S. travelers are still focusing on domestic travel. If you’ve planned a domestic vacation and think travel insurance isn’t needed, we advise you to think again. Airline technical issues, flight delays, and strikes have become quite common for domestic flight routes. Even if you’re not venturing too far from home on your own or with other travelers, we think having peace of mind by getting travel insurance for domestic travel is worth it.
Why Get Domestic Travel Insurance?
Even if your trip is just getting away for the weekend, there is always risk involved. Delayed luggage and flights, medical emergencies, and even rental car damage are just a few things that could go wrong. These events might force you to pay extra out-of-pocket money you didn’t budget for. Domestic travel insurance can protect you in emergencies and cover unexpected expenses, allowing you to enjoy your weekend trip.
With travel prices rising, you’ve probably invested more into this domestic trip than other vacations in the past. Trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage is usually included with many travel insurance plans too. These benefits can help you recoup lost expenses if you suddenly have to cancel or cut your trip short. Check out other commonly asked insurance questions on our Travel Insurance FAQ page.
Pro-tip: Many travel insurance policies require that you’re traveling at least 100 miles away from home in order for coverage to apply.
What Does Domestic Travel Insurance Cover?
For international travel, purchasing travel insurance is more important than ever in protecting against unexpected interruptions, injuries, and even cancellations. This changes the game for protecting your nonrefundable trip costs, regardless of your expedition’s length.
Still a bit skeptical? Here are real scenarios you could experience and how travel insurance can provide much-needed insurance benefits for your short trip:
Travel Delays Make a Difference
When you have a relatively quick jaunt planned, every hour of travel counts. If your flight is running late, even by just a few hours, you could end up missing a connecting flight or part of your tour. This can be extremely annoying and costly.
Delays likely mean you’ll need to pay for meals and accommodations while you wait for your transport to leave, which means spending even more money (not ideal when you’re already on a budget!). Instead of just losing all of that money, pick a comprehensive plan that has travel delay coverage! You’ll be able to recoup those extra costs such as a hotel room, meals, or local transportation.
You Might Experience Baggage Issues
When you’re taking domestic travel, you’ve probably selected the items you plan to bring with you pretty carefully. If your bag gets lost or delayed en route to your destination (domestic or not!), you may not have a lot of time to wait for it to show up before you need it. You may need to buy toiletries and clothing while waiting for your bags to arrive.
With most travel insurance plans, though, you can be reimbursed for these out-of-pocket expenses. While it won’t speed up your bag’s arrival, it will reduce the stress and financial loss from baggage delays. Many travelers have experienced delayed or lost luggage, but check out these important steps to do right away when an airline loses your bags to ensure your travel insurance claim gets processed fairly and more quickly. Most comprehensive travel medical insurance policies cover baggage loss for damaged bags or stolen personal items.
Emergencies Happen Anywhere
No matter where you are or for how long, you never know when an emergency situation will arise. We often convince ourselves that nothing will go wrong on a short trek and that coverage isn’t necessary. That logic can lead to a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, medical emergencies, injuries, and elemental issues –to name just a few– can always arise. It’s important to prepare for them by getting travel insurance since your health insurance might not cover the bill.
Most standard comprehensive travel insurance policies will cover you if one of these types of emergencies comes up. For example, standard trip cancellation coverage will kick in if you have to cancel your trip for a covered reason such as if you get sick prior to departure, a family member passes away, or your work requires you stay home. If bad weather throws a wrench in your travel plans, such as a snowstorm or a hurricane, you could recoup your unused trip costs if you can’t depart for your trip.
Pro Tip: Most travel insurance options include access to round-the-clock emergency services to help navigate medical or travel hiccups.
Contracting COVID-19
It’s no secret that traveling brings the risk of contracting the coronavirus and potentially infecting your travel buddies –not to mention the risk of spreading it to your destination. So…is COVID-19 covered by travel insurance?
It’s important to note that most travel insurance providers will still treat COVID-19 as a standard illness if you’re treated by a physician. This applies to benefits such as trip cancellation, trip interruption, emergency medical expense, and emergency medical evacuation. Make sure to review our list of the top travel insurance provider’s coronavirus position statements while comparing your policy options.
At the very least, your insurance will give you peace of mind that should anything go awry. That way, you won’t end up with a major bill on top of it and you’ll get the medical coverage you need while traveling a short or long way from home. You’ll even have access to 24/7 medical and travel emergency assistance with your plan, so if a crisis happens during your trip, you can get the help you need from emergency experts.
Even with major medical insurance on your domestic trip, travel insurance can cover any remaining medical bills your health provider doesn’t pay. For those with high medical deductibles, this could save you from a large doctor’s bill if you get sick or injured while traveling.
Protect a Fancy Rental
If you’re planning to rent a car on your domestic trip, you’ll need to make sure you have rental collision insurance added to your travel insurance plan. Even if you consider yourself the best driver in the world, accidents occur –and when you’re in a car that’s not your own, those calamities can be expensive.
With rental collision insurance, you’ll have coverage whether or not you are responsible for the accident in your rental car –this includes in America too! As mentioned, most travel insurance policies cover medical expenses from a fender bender.
Pro-tip: If you know which car rental company you’ll be using, do some research or call ahead to make sure that they’ll accept third-party insurance before selecting your travel insurance plan.
Vacation rentals like Airbnb are quite popular, but did you know that travel insurance can cover those too? From trip cancellations to stolen items to medical events, travel insurance is a great way to protect your home-sharing experience. Find out more about what’s covered and what’s not when it comes to renting an Airbnb.
No matter how long your travels are or if you’re traveling across the country for a weekend getaway, travel insurance is always a good idea. While we certainly hope that none of the emergencies, setbacks, or mishaps we’ve described happen to you, having travel insurance in the event that they do is important.
We created a free quote tool to help you get started in finding the right travel insurance coverage for the type of travel you enjoy and we’re here to help if you have any questions or concerns.
Kate's authoritative voice in travel writing is backed by years of extensive travel experience, allowing her to infuse her writing with the tips and tricks she has gathered over time. This wealth of experience enhances her ability to write authoritatively on travel-related topics.
Tags: airbnb, travel insurance faqs
