MERCY TOURS
Your Catholic pilgrimage resource
A Spiritual and Cultural experience
Do I need trip insurance? Our answer is we strongly recommend it.
These types of policies help to avoid financial loss if un-expected events occur. You can lose a large part, or even all, of the money you paid towards your pilgrimage if you have to cancel on short notice. In addition, if you require medical treatment overseas, or have to be flown back to the U.S., the cost can run many thousands of dollars. Although we are not experts on insurance, we believe that Travel Guard is one of the best. It can help you in many ways. For example:
1. If you have to cancel your trip on short notice due to covered sickness, injury or death of you, a family member, or a traveling companion.
2. If there is a terrorist incident in your city of departure or city of arrival within 30 days following the incident.
3. Some types of weather delays and airline strikes, job loss, jury duty, etc.
4. Unforeseen bankruptcy or financial default of an airline.
5. Coverage for medical expenses incurred while overseas, including transportation back to the U.S. if necessary.
Not all insurance policies cover all of the above, so if you are checking with another company to be sure that you understand the coverage. In the case of Travel Guard, they cover pre-existing conditions in many cases if you take out their program within 15 days after signing up for the trip. They also cover many other contingencies. And they now offer coverage if you have to cancel due your employment. We feel their coverage is excellent, but you are under no obligation to go through them.
Caution: when taking out insurance take it out for the full cost of the trip---both land and air. Although airline tickets can usually be re-used at some time in the future there are fees involved, plus you may not want to travel during that period. So be sure to protect yourself by taking out insurance for the full cost of the tour.
