We’ve heard them all before – reasons not to buy travel insurance. Here are five true stories of travelers who tried to convince themselves that insurance wasn’t necessary. We at Covington know differently. What do you think?

1) Honeymooners don’t need travel insurance – we’re in love and nothing is going to stop us from getting married.

Except maybe an emergency appendectomy for the groom the day before the wedding. True story. The happy couple did wind up getting married a couple of weeks later, but the original honeymoon plans had to be canceled at significant cost and completely rescheduled for a later date.

Travel cancellation insurance will cover non-refundable airline tickets, hotel, and tour arrangements and many prepaid trip elements if your cancellation is due to a covered reason such as a medical emergency.

2) We chose Hawaii because it’s always warm and sunny, so we don’t have to worry about the weather affecting our trip.

Mother Nature is full of surprises. Last week Hawaii was in the path of not one, but two consecutive hurricanes – the first ones in over two decades to threaten the island paradise. Fortunately, one lost its punch and the other veered away, so there was minimal damage, but power losses and floodwaters made some accommodations uninhabitable.

The trip interruption clauses of travel insurance will reimburse you for expenses incurred if a weather emergency causes your trip to be interrupted.

3) We booked frequent flier tickets to New Zealand and will be staying with friends, so we don’t have any trip expenses to worry about losing.

That is until middle-aged Mr. Adventure took a heart-stopping bungee jump – quite literally – and the doctor said you need a bypass right now. To get home to his regular doctor would require a very expensive evacuation flight but his own health insurance wouldn’t cover the surgery in New Zealand.

Evacuation and repatriation coverage of up to $500,000 is included as a medical benefit to travel protection. Private evacuations can easily cost in the tens of thousands, depending on the distance from home.

4) We’re going to spend a couple of days in Barcelona before our cruise departs, so even if the luggage is delayed, we have time for it to reach us.

Unless three days later the luggage still hasn’t been found by the airline and you have to speed shop for enough clothes, shoes and personal items to get you through your 10-day Mediterranean cruise. So much for carefully coordinating all that cute cruisewear you packed.

Baggage insurance will reimburse you for what you spend to replace the necessities, subject to insurance limits.

5) I fly regularly for business and don’t want to spend my department’s tight budget to buy travel insurance for every flight.

This salesman might think twice when he is removed from bidding on a lucrative contract because a pilot’s or flight attendant’s strike grounded all service to his customer’s city.

Business Traveler insurance offers very reasonably priced, customizable plans with multi-trip options.

The good news is that in each of these scenarios, our travel advisors counseled the client on the benefits of travel insurance, and each of the travelers saw the value of the advice. In all examples, reliable trip protection saved the day when the unthinkable happened. Those same clients have never doubted the value of travel insurance since then.

To find out more about travel insurance policies, contact our helpful agents or compare policies by clicking below.