As you probably read the volcanic ash coming from Iceland is causing all sorts of cancellations and delays all over Europe. From a travel insurance point of view the main coverage that would apply would be travel delay. This often overlooked coverage kicks in if you are delayed for usually 6-12 hours due to natural disasters or common carrier delays. This coverage will reimburse you for reasonable additional living expenses such as hotel stay and meals due to your delay.

Its also too late to purchase travel insurance to cover this, since its happening now and its foreseeable that it could affect travel in the immediate future.

Well, not exactly for everybody except for those fortunate enough to live in Indiana. According to the policy wording for Travel Guard plans offered in Indiana (Basic, Silver, Gold and Platinum) – if we are reading it correctly – is that pre-existing conditions do not apply to trip cancellation or trip interruption.

The policy defines it below in the Definitions:

“Pre-existing medical condition” means an Injury, Sickness or other physical condition of an Insured, for which medical advice or treatment was received during the 365 days immediately preceding the effective date of the plan. It may not apply to a loss incurred beginning after the end of a continuous period of 365 days beginning on or after the effective date of coverage under the plan, during which time the Insured did not receive medical advice or treatment in connection with the Injury, Sickness or other physical condition.

Not your standard pre-existing exclusion. 365 days is the longest I know of for Package plans, but the important point here is that in the Exclusions section the only place you find a reference to this pre-existing definition is under the Travel Medical exclusions:

The following exclusions apply to the Medical Expense Benefit:
Benefits will not be provided for any loss resulting (in whole or in part) from:

…

(h) Pre-existing medical conditions. Once the pre-existing condition is no longer considered pre-existing, this exclusion no longer applies, subject to all the other terms and conditions of the policy.

After years of dealing with travel insurance policies you get the feel on how this plans are structured, and my interpretation of the above is that pre-existing conditions are not specifically excluded for trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage, but are specific to the Medical Expense coverage the plan offers.

Why does this matter? It matters if you are worried about cancelling or interrupting a trip due to you, a relative(whether or not they are traveling with you) or a travel companion’s past health issues. Looks like Indiana residents don’t have much to worry about in this regard.

CSA Travel Protection just recently “updated” their plans – the Custom and the Custom Luxe. Its more that they reverted back to the old version of the plans that are underwritten by Stonebridge Casualty, and this is a good thing.
The plans now do not exclude non-traveling family member’s pre-existing conditions by default and both have great trip cancellation/interruption coverage for delay of a common carrier due to weather, strike or mechanical breakdown. While most plans have in the past several years made this type of coverage more restrictive with long time constraints – as in the delay must last for 12-24 consecutive hours – which makes this less appealing for people with tighter traveling schedules. If either of these above issues concern you about an upcoming trip check out either the Custom or the Custom Luxe.

Thanks to James G. Batterson, founder of The Travelers Insurance Company, for being the first to offer travel insurance in the USA on April 1, 1864. What started with 2 cents has grown to well over 1 billion dollars. Thank you for your foresight and for the sound insurance principles that you established.

Thailand is offering travel insurance to visiting tourists due to medical expenses or travel delay due to the ongoing political tensions that are going on there. It definitely not a comprehensive plan by any means, see the article for more details on the coverage. If you are traveling to Thailand anytime soon you should definitely keep this in mind.