Travel insurance for Florida residents

Is the medical coverage primary or secondary?

Primary coverage pays first without sending the bill through your other insurance; secondary (excess) coverage pays what your other insurance does not.

• Travel Insured Deluxe and Platinum: benefits are paid on a primary basis (rental car damage is the exception).
• Travel Insured New York plan: trip cancellation, interruption, delay and baggage are excess of other insurance; medical and evacuation are not listed as excess.
• WorldTrips Atlas Journey: the schedule labels emergency medical as primary. The New York plan wording confirms it; the Explore and Elevate general provisions say coverage is excess of other insurance except baggage.
• Trawick Pathway: the Florida document does not use the words primary or secondary for medical; the New York version is secondary to other insurance.
• Go Ready Choice: the plan document does not use the words primary or secondary for medical; the optional rental car damage upgrade is primary to other insurance.

If this matters for your choice, ask a licensed agent to confirm it for your plan and state before you buy.

More answers: What travel insurance covers

How long a trip can I insure?

It depends on the plan. Trawick Pathway covers trips up to 90 days (Florida version) and WorldTrips Atlas Journey covers trips up to 180 days.

Travel Insured's documents do not state a maximum trip length, but its sickness medical benefit applies to trips of 180 days or less (90 days on the New York plan).

• Go Ready Choice: trips up to 60 days (New York version: the medical, evacuation and accident coverage is for trips up to 45 days).

More answers: What travel insurance covers

What do I lose if I miss the 14 or 21 day window?

You usually lose the pre-existing condition waiver and the option to add Cancel for Any Reason. On some plans you also lose supplier bankruptcy coverage.

The other benefits remain, subject to the pre-existing condition exclusion: a claim caused by a condition that showed symptoms or was treated in the look-back period (30 to 180 days, depending on the plan and state) would not be paid.

• Go Ready Choice: the look-back period is 180 days (Florida version: 30 days; Illinois version: 6 months before the covered loss).

More answers: When to buy travel insurance

When does coverage start and end?

Trip cancellation coverage begins shortly after you pay for the plan: at 12:01 a.m. the day after payment on Travel Insured and WorldTrips, and at 12:01 a.m. on the day payment is received on Trawick's Florida plans.

• Go Ready Choice: coverage begins on the day your plan payment is received (New York version: the day after).
• Cancellation coverage ends when you depart (or when you cancel).
• Medical, evacuation, baggage and other benefits begin when you depart and end when the trip is completed or on your scheduled return date.
• If a covered event delays your return, plans extend coverage for a limited time (7 days on Travel Insured, Trawick and Go Ready Choice, up to 30 days on WorldTrips).

More answers: When to buy travel insurance

Do I have to insure the whole trip?

You can insure less than the full cost, but it limits what you can claim and can cost you important benefits.

• WorldTrips Explore and Elevate: Cancel for Any Reason requires that you insured 100% of the cost of the travel arrangements known to you when you buy the upgrade.
• Trawick Pathway Premier: Cancel for Any Reason requires insuring all prepaid trip costs that are subject to cancellation penalties. On Trawick's Florida plans, trip interruption and supplier bankruptcy benefits also require insuring all prepaid trip costs.
• The New York versions of the Travel Insured and Trawick plans require insuring all prepaid trip costs for the pre-existing condition waiver.
• Go Ready Choice: Cancel for Any Reason requires insuring at least 100% of all prepaid trip costs that are subject to cancellation penalties. In the New York version, the pre-existing condition waiver also requires later arrangements to be insured within 21 days of paying for them.
• A claim pays only up to the trip cost you insured.

More answers: What travel insurance costs and what to insure

Is losing my job or being required to work covered?

Involuntary job loss is a listed cancellation reason on our plans, with conditions. You must have been with the same employer for a minimum time: 1 year on most plans, 3 years on Trawick Pathway Plus (except its New York version).

• Timing matters: WorldTrips requires that you are notified of the layoff 30 days or more after your coverage began; Trawick's Florida wording requires it within 30 days of your trip.
• It generally does not apply to the self-employed, contractors or temporary workers.
• Being required to work is listed on Travel Insured Platinum and the New York plan, Trawick Pathway Premier (Florida version) and WorldTrips Atlas Journey, with written proof from the employer. It is not listed on Travel Insured Deluxe.
• Go Ready Choice: 2 years with the same employer, and the layoff must occur more than 14 days after coverage begins; a parent's job loss also counts. Being required to work is covered only with the optional Cancel for Business Reasons upgrade.

More answers: Trip cancellation insurance

What if there is a hurricane, snowstorm or natural disaster?

Weather is covered when it has specific effects listed in the plan, such as stopping your airline for a set number of hours or making your home or destination uninhabitable.

• Airline stopped by weather: at least 12 hours on most plans (6 on Travel Insured Platinum and Go Ready Choice; 24 on Trawick Pathway Plus Florida and the Travel Insured New York plan; 48 on the Go Ready Choice New York version).
• An official NOAA hurricane warning for your departure or destination city shortly before departure is a listed reason on Travel Insured and WorldTrips plans.
• Not covered on Travel Insured, Trawick and WorldTrips: a storm that was already named when you bought the plan (Trawick: also one already forecast). An ordinary bad-weather forecast is not a covered reason.
• On Trawick's Florida plans, damage from a named hurricane counts as a natural disaster only in limited cases.
• Go Ready Choice: lists a mandatory evacuation at your destination as a reason; the plan document does not mention NOAA warnings or named storms.

More answers: Trip cancellation insurance

Is jury duty or an extended school year covered?

Jury duty and being subpoenaed as a witness are listed cancellation reasons on our plans, with conditions.

• Travel Insured and WorldTrips: the notice must arrive after your coverage begins, and you must not be a party to the case.
• Trawick: the jury duty or subpoena must fall within 10 days of departure.
• Go Ready Choice: you must not be a plaintiff or defendant in the case, or appearing as a law enforcement officer or attorney. An extended school year is also listed.

An extended school year is listed on Travel Insured Platinum and the New York plan, and on WorldTrips Atlas Journey. It is not listed on Travel Insured Deluxe or the Trawick Florida plans.

More answers: Trip cancellation insurance

How soon do I have to cancel with the airline or program?

Cancel with your travel suppliers as soon as the covered reason arises, and no later than 72 hours after it. Travel Insured and WorldTrips will not pay extra penalties that built up because you waited longer than 72 hours.

Then report the claim to the insurance company promptly. Trawick requires written notice of a claim within 7 days in its Florida version; its New York version reduces benefits if the claim is reported after 72 hours.

• Go Ready Choice: written notice of the claim within 90 days of the loss, or as soon as reasonably possible.

More answers: Trip cancellation insurance

What is a pre-existing condition?

A pre-existing condition is an illness, injury or other medical condition that, in a set period before your coverage takes effect (the look-back period), showed symptoms, was tested or treated, had a test or treatment recommended, or was treated with prescription medication.

• The look-back period is 30 to 180 days, depending on the plan and state.
• On most plans, continuing to take an unchanged prescription does not by itself make a condition pre-existing. It is still pre-existing if you had symptoms, a test, an examination or treatment for it in that period.
• Go Ready Choice: the definition covers a condition for which a test, examination or treatment was received or recommended, or a prescription was taken or received, in the 180 days before your plan payment is received (Florida version: 30 days; the Illinois version uses 6 months before the covered loss). It applies to you and to companions or family members booked to travel with you.
• Losses caused by a pre-existing condition are excluded unless you qualify for the plan's waiver.

More answers: Travel insurance and pre-existing conditions