Recently I read an article, “Plan well for terrific honeymoon“, that was published July 25, 2005 in the Detroit Free Press. The article was basically well written and had several very good points on planning your honeymoon however, the advice as to when to buy travel insurance was off point. The article recommends that you finalize your travel plans and make reservations and deposits 3 months prior to your arrival. So far so good however, they make their mistake by recommending that you buy travel insurance 1 month prior to your arrival. Unfortunately, this is not the best advice that you can follow.
The best advice that you can follow is to buy travel insurance at the same time you are paying your first trip deposit. Why? Because most travel insurance companies offer enhanced, time sensitive, benefits that are only available if you buy the insurance within a short time (10 to 21 days – depends on company) of your initial deposit. The “waiver of pre-existing conditions” is the most important of these enhanced benefits. I know that you probably thinking that most newly weds would not have pre-existing conditions and “waiving” the exclusion would not be that important and you would probably be right. However, what is usually overlooked is that most travel insurance policies that provide trip cancellation and interruption coverage also provides protection if you have to cancel or interrupt your trip due to the sickness of a non-traveling family member. Most of these plans will exclude coverage if your cancellation is caused by your non-traveling family member’s pre-existing condition unless you qualify for their “waiver”.
So don’t wait! Buy your coverage at the same time you pay your first deposit and enhance your coverage.