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| Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash |
As we are coming out of winter we begin to think about our summer travel plans. Many people don’t know, I am a Certified Travel Counselor and I owned a travel agency for 20 years. I always stressed purchasing travel insurance because you just never know. However, there are consequences of VUI? Vacationing Under the Influence!
Travel Insurance
So you purchased travel insurance for your trip. Did you purchase it at the time of deposit? Travel insurance is best purchased at the time of your deposit. Depending on the policy they waive any pre-existing conditions when purchased at that time. I had customers that would tell me they are healthy as a horse, they didn’t need travel insurance. Then I asked them if they were on blood pressure or cholesterol medicine and when they answered yes, they have a pre-existing condition.
It is very important to pick a policy that fits your travels. Many usual travel insurance policies don’t cover extreme sports. By extreme sports I refer to skydiving, scuba diving and such. There are policies out there that cover those sports and can be purchased additionally.
VUI - Vacationing Under the Influence
Now we get to your vacation and may things can happen. You are flying to Nevis a small Caribbean Island and have to change planes in Puerto Rico. You have a 6 hour lay-over and decide to see the island. You find this cute out of the way bar and go in for a few drinks. Time flies and you realize you have to leave or you will miss your connecting flight. You end up tripping on an uneven floorboard on your way out and break your ankle. On your way to the hospital you call the airline to change your flight, but there isn’t another flight until the next day. Now you have hospital bills and an unexpected overnight in San Juan. Unfortunately, you have voided your travel insurance by being intoxicated.
Another example, you are at an all-inclusive resort and the drinks are coming all day at the beach. You are feeling confident and decide to play beach volleyball and sprain your wrist. You just voided your travel insurance policy.
I’ll share an experience I had 15 years ago. My cousin got married and we were leaving the next day on a cruise. Our table was the last served dinner so of course we did quite a bit of drinking. I actually took my shoes off to dance because I didn’t want to break anything but that didn’t seem to matter. Dancing barefoot, my foot twisted and I twisted my ankle. If I was to cancel my trip (which I did not) it wouldn’t have been covered because I had clearly been drinking. I did get my ankle looked at 7 days later when I returned and it was only sprained. But case and point.
Standard in most travel insurance policies is a drug and alcohol exclusion stating that they won’t payout if you are intoxicated. Here is a clip from Travel Guards Travel Insurance Policy where you can see it states the plan doesn’t cover any loss resulting from being under the influence of drugs or intoxicants unless prescribed by a Physician.
I personally am a big proponent of Travel Insurance. It not only protects you, but say you are away and your mother gets deathly ill and you need to return home. You are covered. I have had customers that have had to use it. But most importantly know what you are purchasing and make sure the insurance policy matches up with your trip.
Most of all, drink responsibly!
For more information on travel insurance and what is right for you visit https://www.consumersadvocate.org/travel-insurance
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