How Travel Insurance Can Help You Embrace Adventure | كيف يمكن أن يساعدك التأمين على السفر على احتضان المغامرة

[00:00:00] Aziz, a 34-year-old Indonesian, has been living in Dubai with his wife and two children

[00:00:09] for the past five years. Now the family's been saving for a grand trip to the US. They've

[00:00:14] all been wanting to go, they've been talking about it for years. They're planning to visit

[00:00:18] plenty of cities, tourist attractions, all of that. They've got to hold least ready, they've

[00:00:23] made the bookings now. After months of planning and figuring out all the bookings, they could

[00:00:28] finally afford to make the trip. So excitedly they booked the tickets, hotels, multiple destinations,

[00:00:35] attractions in the US. So obviously the whole trip was expensive. But they were excited for that

[00:00:41] one big getaway that they were doing as a family. Unfortunately things took a turn for the

[00:00:46] worse just a couple of days before the trip. Aziz fell seriously ill to the point where he had to

[00:00:52] be admitted to the hospital. So look he recovered after about a week but by then it was too late to get

[00:00:58] on to those flights. So all their trip plans were delayed, the flights and hotels could not

[00:01:04] be cancelled. The family was completely disheartened to miss out on their one big vacation. It'll

[00:01:12] now take them years to plan a similar one again. Now you can imagine how this must have affected

[00:01:17] the family's morale besides the whole that it created in their finances.

[00:01:22] Welcome to the Policy Project Podcast by PolicyBasad.ai where we discuss important topics related

[00:01:31] to the world of finance and insurance. On today's show as we have had before is Niraj Gupta, the CEO

[00:01:37] of PolicyBasad.ai to throw some light on the importance of travel insurance and why you should

[00:01:44] have it and why you should get to begin with. Hi Niraj thank you for coming back on the show

[00:01:49] with us always a pleasure. Hi Jagu pleasure to be here on the Policy Project thanks for having me.

[00:01:55] So Niraj we're going to be discussing Aziz's story as you've just heard. Now given that policy

[00:02:01] bazaar.ai also does travel insurance invariably I'm sure you've come across many other stories

[00:02:07] like that. Yes so my thing is you plan vacations you can plan vacations months in advance but then

[00:02:14] people don't end up taking travel insurance very much like what Aziz has done. What could

[00:02:20] his family have done to avoid this situation? So Jagu this is a very pertinent question when it comes

[00:02:26] to travel insurance right we get a lot of inquiries and especially being in UA you know majority

[00:02:32] of the people would travel on long extended weekends or some vacations and people take flights

[00:02:38] and go to far off places. And typically when they're planning they're in a happy mood and everything

[00:02:44] and I believe that is where they don't want to think about travel insurance. They believe Narendra

[00:02:48] wants to go wrong but having said that things go wrong and especially post the COVID era

[00:02:53] that's become a lot more reality right where things which is got cancelled at the last minute

[00:02:59] and having a travel insurance helps you with that so for example in the Aziz's case if they had

[00:03:05] a travel insurance it could cover all the cancellation costs because he was hospitalized so he had

[00:03:12] enough medical grounds on which the travel insurance would have kept in. So that's the thing what do

[00:03:18] you look for when you're buying travel insurance? So pretty much say there are two aspects to it right

[00:03:23] one you are buying a travel insurance to do two things for yourself one to probably ensure the

[00:03:30] cost you've spent on the trip so that if you have to cancel or get sick it takes care of all the

[00:03:38] changes and all right or if your flight gets delayed and you have connecting flights how does that

[00:03:42] work right? So one piece is to that second is if you're traveling there and something happens

[00:03:48] to you you have COVID or you have an injury and where you have to get hospitalized right. So

[00:03:54] travel insurance takes care of that aspect also which is under the medical part of it.

[00:03:59] So the first is related to your travel expenses and the second is related to your medical expenses

[00:04:05] those are the typical two aspects okay so there's travel there's medical expenses but aren't there

[00:04:11] also levels in travel insurance I mean different types of so travel insurance has multiple types so

[00:04:17] it would be one would be a sum in short base so you want a coverage for a $50,000 $30,000 $100,000

[00:04:23] that will be one and then what type of coverage is you want for example you would have a trip

[00:04:28] cancellation do you also want to cover trip delay? Do you want to cover baggage loss? Do you want to

[00:04:33] cover baggage delays? Do you want to cover your medical expenses from a personal accident perspective?

[00:04:41] What type of coverage you want? You want $300,000? Do you want your belongings to be covered?

[00:04:48] for example passport laws, cash laws, wallet laws so depending on the cover you want

[00:04:54] the plans are there. On a basic level we always suggest for people to cover their travel

[00:04:59] costs and medical expenses those should be taken care of okay now but if we're allowed these

[00:05:05] different levels do we have choices or can we mix and match for example I want this I don't

[00:05:11] want this I want this I don't want this is that possible on a policy like say I'm on the policy

[00:05:15] bizarre website am I allowed to do that mix and match? Yes so you have different plans so you'll

[00:05:19] have a basic level of a plan and then you will have plan which will depict what all features

[00:05:23] are included or not included so you can choose the features that you want okay okay now I must ask

[00:05:30] you this because I'm booking a ticket I'm booking hotels I'm booking other travel arrangements

[00:05:37] now you're asking me to take on one more cost I realize only in hindsight what taking on that cost

[00:05:44] means in terms of advantages that I know only later but right now while I'm traveling and

[00:05:49] making all my happy plans you're saying oh but you need to protect yourself now what kind of

[00:05:54] costing should I be factoring in for this so for example let's take the example of these families

[00:05:59] right okay two adults two children traveling to US I'm expecting they were traveling for at least

[00:06:06] 10 days if not more or less I'm going to say more right because you're traveling 16 hours 18 hours

[00:06:13] flights are you obviously exactly now I'm talking about a bare minimum expense they would have

[00:06:18] incurred on the trip is about 20,000 dirhams bare minimum expense okay now the travel cost of 20,000

[00:06:24] dirhams roughly the travel insurance for these four people would cost you less than about 300 dirhams

[00:06:32] for 10 days oh so like one one and a half percent of the cost of my entire trip is travel insurance

[00:06:41] so now at that cost it just starts to become insignificant right pretty much at about roughly

[00:06:48] about 100 dirhams per person you're almost talking about one two meals or probably one amusement

[00:06:55] park ticket but it takes care of the headache that what happens yes even if you had to cancel

[00:07:01] hotel for one day you'll recover your cost absolutely yeah even change of plans will cost

[00:07:07] see what you have to take into account for travel insurances it is for unknown now tomorrow my

[00:07:14] plan change I don't want to travel that is not about to travel insurance so I wanted to tell our

[00:07:19] listeners specifically travel insurance is for any an eventuality that you wouldn't plan for

[00:07:25] so you fail sake you had to get hospitalized that is a good enough reason to be covered on the

[00:07:30] travel insurance but tomorrow my plan changes because of okay I have an important meeting I need to

[00:07:36] cancel or suddenly we decided to go somewhere else then it is not part of travel insurance okay

[00:07:42] now when you say 300 dirhams I'm like okay that's a cost I'm happy to take but I have kids with me

[00:07:50] or I have elder parents with me I want a higher coverage nothing stops me from doing that yes definitely

[00:07:57] not so you can go up to a million dollar coverage or a probably more also purpose okay

[00:08:02] okay typically what we suggest is traveling to the US at least you should have about

[00:08:07] a hundred fifty two hundred thousand dollars cover if you're traveling to the

[00:08:11] Europe side about a hundred and fifty and Asia side fifty two hundred thousand dollars

[00:08:16] okay and this kind of stuff even covers the baggage loss or delay in flights like the small

[00:08:22] stuff not necessarily I need to cancel my tickets or it does cover it does cover those baggage laws

[00:08:27] baggage delay see everything also has a deductible associated with it for example on a baggage delay

[00:08:33] if you have a baggage delay of at least four to six hours then only the cover kicks and if it is

[00:08:39] less than four six hours depending on the policy you have sure sure similarly on the trip delay

[00:08:45] but yes you have different plans which we'll take into account of these things for example one of

[00:08:51] other things on the higher side of plan covers is for example emergency cash now what happens is

[00:08:57] you use your wallet now you have certain expenses to make so what can the travel insurance do is

[00:09:02] arrange for an immediate certain cash amount to be passed on to you once you have the police

[00:09:07] report and everything done it'll ensure that you have some cash to take care of your immediate

[00:09:12] expenses okay so you know the broad question in my head is that given all the advantages that

[00:09:19] you've just voiced and just the peace of mind that a small amount of money can give you

[00:09:25] the question is why do people even skip travel insurance and unfortunately I have my own example

[00:09:31] here's the thing I'm staying in Dubai but I'm traveling to India now in my head psychologically

[00:09:39] I'm not taking a holiday I'm not taking a trip I'm going back home I'm someone who does take

[00:09:45] travel insurance literally when I buy the ticket I buy travel insurance next to it but that's

[00:09:50] if I'm going your Europe US paris kind of thing coming back to India it's not a holiday so I don't

[00:09:56] have to buy travel insurance of course there was the only time I needed travel insurance not only

[00:10:00] was the flight cancelled the airline shutdown you remember this from a few years ago yes yes the

[00:10:07] airline shutdown so obviously there was chaos in terms of flight cancellations flight delays

[00:10:12] shifting to other airlines the point is I lost money on the tickets now if the airline shutdown many

[00:10:18] years later I'm still to get my refund I mean I forgot in about it but travel insurance would

[00:10:24] have surely helped me then yes see see what we are trying to educate and that's the idea of

[00:10:30] through the policy project also what we're trying to achieve is educate the consumers that the first

[00:10:34] the cost is not significant it's almost an insignificant cost and make it as a part of one of

[00:10:40] more checklist like if you're traveling you might be traveling home but you carry a passport

[00:10:46] right that's where just carry traveling insurance and for people who travel frequently the best way

[00:10:51] is to buy an annual trip policy that's about it so you don't have to buy a travel insurance.

[00:10:56] You can get those yes so annual trip policies can cover up to 180 days of travel in a year which

[00:11:03] is more than enough for majority of the population so in a 12 month period I can be traveling for

[00:11:10] six of those months and I'm covered for all those trips irrespective of how many trips they are yes

[00:11:18] fantastic fantastic okay any parting words of advice Nira before we let you go because some of

[00:11:26] this is a revelation even to me like now right now my heart is hurting because of that refund I

[00:11:30] just remembered so there's a lot of objective is that to tell our listeners to tell our viewers and

[00:11:39] to tell our people who are traveling who travel to take travel insurance because the head

[00:11:44] of it resolves the headache it solves is a lot more beneficial than the initial cost that you have

[00:11:50] for traveling insurance make it a part of your itinerary make it a part of your required checklist

[00:11:56] documents whatever you call it that this expense has to be done as simple as that and given that

[00:12:02] it's such a minimal percentage of the total travel cost or budget I mean it's almost a no-brainer

[00:12:08] obviously yes obviously fair enough you just almost like the right point right the cost is

[00:12:14] just insignificant but the benefits out way the cost at any point of time so if you have one trip

[00:12:20] cancellation I believe it will take care of your lifetime travel insurance cost

[00:12:28] Nira once again thanks so much for being on the policy project with us for enlightening us once

[00:12:34] again and we're hoping to have you on again soon thanks so much for doing this thanks Jagu thanks

[00:12:39] for having me here on the policy project our pleasure take care

[00:12:44] thank you for tuning in to this episode of the policy project where we've highlighted

[00:12:48] the importance of travel insurance and we're hoping that our discussion with Nira

[00:12:53] the CEO of policy bazaar.a as helped you understand how important travel insurance actually is

[00:13:00] getting it could save you from a bunch of headaches now if you want more information about travel

[00:13:05] insurance be sure to check out the website policy bazaar.a.e now from our conversation with Nira

[00:13:10] there have been some key takeaways let's go over them one by one for one travel insurance covers

[00:13:16] a lot of ground from trip cancellations to flight delays and even any medical emergencies while

[00:13:21] traveling even if you end up just losing your wallet travel insurance can provide you with

[00:13:26] emergency cash that's going to be needed getting the right travel insurance should make your trip

[00:13:32] much smoother also there's multiple types of travel insurance plans out there you can mix and

[00:13:38] match different plans and create the perfect plan for you you should go for a plan that at least

[00:13:43] covers trip cancellations and medical emergencies now look i get this most people don't want to bear

[00:13:50] another expense while planning an already costly trip so they avoid travel insurance but travel

[00:13:56] insurance can help you travel without any worries basically for just the cost of one meal on your trip

[00:14:02] now if you're a frequent flyer and you don't want to go through these formalities every time of

[00:14:07] travel insurance what you can do is get yourself an annual travel insurance plan so in those 365 days

[00:14:15] they will cover you for 180 days of travel that's 6 out of 12 months those are our key takeaways from

[00:14:22] this episode of the policy project i'm jagu and we'll be back with a lot more on finance and insurance

[00:14:27] in our forthcoming episodes so remember to follow us and get notified about upcoming episodes on your

[00:14:33] favorite podcast platform