I wanted to share with you two examples of why you should always choose to buy travel insurance for your travel plans.
Recently, I had a client who was a guest at a destination wedding in Mexico. She made the first reservation for herself and her son and did not want to pay the additional money to purchase the “cancel for any reason” insurance. She was positive she would not want to cancel or have any unknown problems. A couple of months after the deposit was made her son got a new job and could not go to the wedding. She also decided to change her departure date. Unfortunately, for her, the change fee from the airline was $150 and the change fee for the resort was $50 for cancelling her son’s reservation. She lost $200 on that change alone. To change her departure date cost her another $200. In the beginning, she made a $400 deposit which was gone now and she had to put up another deposit just to hold the reservation. The travel insurance would have cost her a total of $179 and none of the fees would have been charged.
The other incident happened with the same wedding. One of the guests applied for his passport months in advance of the trip. He called me on the Sunday before his Wednesday departure saying that he had not received his passport and that there was a problem in getting it approved. To make a long story short, we held his flight reservation until the night before the flight in hopes that everything would be finalized and he could pick his passport up at the local office. We had to cancel his flight but left his room reservation in place. Through a few well placed phone calls and emails, we were able to get his passport printed in the local office the very morning everyone was to leave. As soon as he called and said he had it in hand, I got him booked on the next available flight. He arrived only a couple of hours after everyone else. The best news of all was that with the additional insurance he purchased, the cancellation of the first flight had no fees and the new flight was purchased at the same time the credit for the first was being issued.
The moral of the story is: Always, always purchase the travel insurance. Any plans can change at a moment’s notice through no fault of your own.
Happy travels,
Edwina Parker
Yapa Now Travel 
Recently returning form the UK, all went well, but we did buy the insurance and I have no regrets about it….especially after reading your blog!
Congrats on your successful trip Lorrie. The insurance is so important, especially when travelling outside the US.
Next time that I travel, I am going to get travel insurance! Thanks for the advice!!
Travel insurance is a definite must – especially for the elderly. My parents just had to cancel a cruise for health issues and thank goodness they had that insurance!
Thank you for a great post. I learned the hard way, why buying travel insurance is so important 😉
Thank you, Susan. I’m sorry you had to learn the hard way.
I had no idea, I never buy the insurance, but will now.
Yes!! What a vivid story and also why it pays to work with a professional.
Did not know this – thanks for sharing… (-_-)
Norma Doiron @ The LEARNED Preneur ╰☆╮
Edwina,
What good advice. My sons traveled to Bolivia a few years ago and fortunately we purchased travel insurance. The airlines that flew them down to Bolivia went out of business while they were there so we had to book them on a different flight coming home. The insurance saved us thousands of dollars and cost us about $120. per child. What a bargain!
Wow! Once you start quoting prices, I am convinced!
Great advise, traveling with insurance is more fun for sure!