Job Loss Protection and Cancel for Work Reasons

Job Loss Protection is included in each of the four types of Worldwide Trip Protector plans, including Worldwide Trip Protector, Worldwide Trip Protector Gold, Trip Protector Lite, and Trip Protector Lite Expanded. The coverage says that if either you or your traveling companion is terminated or laid off from employment after working continuously for at least one year at the place of employment where the job is terminated, you have a covered reason for Trip Cancellation or Trip Interruption. You may either cancel your trip to receive up to the full, prepaid, non-refundable trip cost, or interrupt your trip during which the job termination occurs and receive reimbursement of the unused, non-refundable portion of the trip plus any extra return air expenses not covered by a credit from your existing return airline ticket.

A second Travel Insured safety net addressing the employed vacationer’s concerns about job security is the Cancel for Work Reasons Option, available as a $24 Upgrade in each of the four types of Worldwide Trip Protector plans. This option provides multiple covered reasons for the insured traveler to cancel and obtain coverage if an unforeseen mandatory job assignment conflicts with a prepaid, scheduled vacation.

Cancel for Work Reasons Coverage can apply if:

• You or your traveling companion is transferred by the same employer one of you had on the effective date of your policy, requiring a relocation of your or their primary home
• You or your traveling companion has an unforeseen requirement, documented by your employer, to work during the scheduled vacation
• You or your traveling companion’s company is involved in a merger or acquisition in which one of you is directly involved and an active employee or
• You or your traveling companion’s company operations are interrupted by fire, flood, bankruptcy or default, burglary, vandalism, or even a product recall

Travel Insured customers have between 14 and 30 days from their initial trip deposit to obtain the upgraded coverage, depending upon the type of insurance plan they select. They must purchase the Cancel for Work Reasons Option at the same time they purchase one of the four plans that offer the upgrade. Whether or not they add the option, however, the Job Loss Protection is still included in each of the plans starting from the plan’s effective date.

Source:  Travel Insured Offers Vacationers Two Safety Nets for the Uncertain 2010 Economy: Job Loss Protection and Cancel for Work Reasons

Students abroad seem to be particularly susceptible to contracting mononucleosis.  Over the past two months, HTH Worldwide has had two study abroad participants experience severe symptoms of mono.  One student developed significant abdominal tenderness with an enlarged spleen and hepatitis (liver inflammation), along with anemia (a low red blood cell count), and difficulty swallowing.  Her condition prompted transfer from a rural area with marginal medical facilities to an urban hospital, where she did not start improving until given very high doses of steroids.

The second patient developed dehydration from an inability to swallow, along with “ataxia” (loss of coordination) due to inflammation of the cerebellum (the part of the brain responsible for balance).  Indeed, patients with mononucleosis have been diagnosed with a number of other neurological complications, including Guillain-Barre syndrome (loss of motor strength similar to polio), meningitis, encephalitis, and seizures.

Other rare conditions seen with mononucleosis include pericarditis (an inflammation of the lining of the heart), thrombocytopenia (a drop in platelets – the small cells responsible for blood clotting), and airway obstruction due to extraordinary tonsil enlargement.  Although some enlargement of the spleen is quite common in mononucleosis – almost fifty percent of all patients who are diagnosed with mono have some splenomegaly – life threatening splenic rupture may also occur either spontaneously or as a result of minor trauma, in a small number of cases.

If a traveler contracts mononucleosis or other sickness, it is important to contact the 24 hour assistance number as soon as reasonably able.  They will help arrange necessary transportation and treatment.

HTH Worldwide offers travel insurance designed for vacations and international medical plans targeted at long term travelers, such as students.

Source: Mono and the Study Abroad Student

A Tropical Storm was identified at 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 22, 2010 in the Atlantic Ocean, 200 miles southeast of Nassau, Bahamas, and was given the name Tropical Storm Bonnie by the U.S. National Weather Service Hurricane Center. The storm was named after reaching maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour as it moved to the west-northwest toward the Florida Keys and the Gulf of Mexico.

Travel Insured International plans purchased on or after July 22, 2010 will not provide coverage for adverse weather claims due to Tropical Storm Bonnie or its resulting weather pattern. Plan holders may contact our Customer Care Department at 1-800-243-3174 or info@travelinsured.com with questions about this announcement.

Tropical Storm Bonnie

7/22/10

2010′s Tropical Depression Three is now Tropical Storm Bonnie, with sustained winds of 40 mph.  Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center believe landfall will be after noon on Sunday, July 25, somewhere between east Texas and the Alabama Coast.  Certain CSA Travel Protection plans offer coverage for some effects of adverse weather and natural disasters.  Customers are strongly encouraged to read their Certificate of Insurance or Insurance Policy for details regarding their available coverage.  For plans that do offer coverage for adverse weather and natural disasters, please note that there is no coverage for this specific storm under any plans purchased on or after July 22, 2010.  Please contact CSA Travel Protection with questions.

You lose your job and can no longer afford to go on vacation.
Some travel nightmares start before you even leave home. If you unexpectedly lose your job (through no fault of your own) and can not go on your trip, job loss protection, like the kind offered with USI Affinity’s Travel Insurance Select, can cover the cost of your trip, as long as you’ve been employed with same company for at least 2 years.

Your trip was canceled or interrupted
Natural disasters, sudden illness, your passport was stolen and you can’t continue your trip. Unfortunately, sometimes trips are canceled. Travel insurance can cover the cost of your trip if it’s canceled, or reimburse the unused portion if it is interrupted.

You’re far from home and the last connecting flight for the night has been canceled.
Nowhere to go for 12 hours while you’re waiting for your next flight? Some policies will reimburse your additional expenses. The Travel Insurance Select Basic will reimburse your additional expenses up to $150 a day if you have to get a hotel, or rent a car.

You broke your leg skiing the Alps, and the Swiss hospital doesn’t accept your U.S. medical insurance.
An ambulance to the hospital, X-rays and setting your legs can set you back several thousand dollars. But with USI Affinity’s Travel Insurance Select Basic, up to $10,000 of your medical expenses are covered. The policy even covers up to $25,000 if an injury or illness requires Emergency Medical Evacuation.

Source:  Avoid These Top 4 Travel Nightmares with Travel Insurance

Millions of travelers were left stranded in Europe after volcanic ash from the Icelandic volcano covered the skies in early April. With no hesitation, Travel Guard’s World Service Center was proactive in helping those in need with flight re-booking, cancelling flights and finding hotel accommodations. Even with high call volumes, the World Service Center provided “astonishing customer service” to all of those in need.

Our WSC received on average 5,000-6,000 more calls than normal per week during the time of the volcanic eruption. Because of this, many of the employees in the department logged many additional hours of overtime to make sure each call was handled responsibly.

Becky Edwards, manager of the WSC, said that additional hours were offered to anyone in the department, from the front-line representatives to supervisors. Also, employees in other departments that may have started their Travel Guard employment in the WSC, or who have product and assistance knowledge to be able to service customers, generously helped out to ensure that callers received the help they needed and in a timely and professional manner. Many employees from other departments helped take calls before or after their regular shift in their own department.

Another step to make sure calls were answered quickly was to have food catered in for those who were working the extra hours so that they did not have to go off-site and be away from the phones for too long. By doing this, employees could devote their time to helping customers.

Source: the Source

My first rule is never put personal documents in checked luggage. Once you do that, you lose control over the security of those items.

Too many people forget that their hotel room is not a private space. One of the most common ways that thieves grab information is by going through your trash looking for personal information.

Consider using one of those privacy filters for your laptop, which blocks the screen from being visible to anyone sitting nearby on a plane or in other public areas.

This might be no-brainer, but most of us are guilty of leaving valuable information on our computers. Remember to clear your computer of automatic logins and saved passwords. If you must keep important information stored in your computer, consider encrypting the data. Never make credit-card transactions when using public Wi-Fi.

When you’re on the road, be on the lookout for electronic skimming devices that may be attached to an ATM. These devices can capture your account number and PIN, and are responsible for  as much as $1 billion in losses worldwide. It can be sophisticated equipment that’s hard to spot, especially when you’re dealing with an unfamiliar ATM.

Be on the lookout for any evidence of tampering like loose parts scratches, marks or adhesive residue. Stick with bank ATMs rather than gas stations, airports and convenience stores.

Source:  A Peter Greenberg Travel Safety Tip

The Airline Fuel Services workers in Sydney will Strike on Wednesday 07/21/10.

Insurance would have to have been purchased by 07/16/10 for coverage for this incident.

Coverage for Strike would be based on the plan purchased and that plan’s Description of Coverage.

“Strike” means a stoppage of work:

(1) announced, organized, and sanctioned by a labor union and

(2) which interferes with the normal departure and arrival of a

Common Carrier. This includes work slowdowns and sickouts.

The Insured’s Trip cancellation coverage must be effective prior to when the Strike is foreseeable. A Strike is foreseeable on the date labor union

members vote to approve a Strike.

Airlines are only obligated to honor promises made in their contract of carriage. The contract usually states the airline is not responsible for additional expenses that passengers incur due to a canceled flight if the cancellation was not the airline’s fault.

So, when is a cancellation the airlines fault? You guessed it – hardly ever.

A few examples of when it’s not their fault are: bad weather, acts of God, terrorist activities, war, strikes, any shortage of labor, fuel or facilities, and “any event not reasonably foreseen, anticipated or predicted” by the airline. Some contracts even say that “mechanical difficulties”  are out of the airline’s control.

Travel industry experts still advise passengers to ask airlines for accommodations if they’re stranded due to a canceled flight, but more often than not, travelers are left to their own devices.

The best plan is to get travel insurance from a reputable company. With the USI Affinity’s Travel Insurance Select Plus or Elite option, travelers can contact the Worldwide Assistance Center and a certified travel agent can help make emergency travel changes, such as re-booking flights.

Source of this article: http://blog.travelinsure.com/2010/07/years-ago-when-passengers-were-stranded-in-an-airport-due-to-a-canceled-flight-the-airline-would-foot-the-bill-for-food-and.html

Hurricane season is upon us.  Given the latest predictions, these next 6 months are going to be rough.  The national weather service is predicting the Atlantic Basin to become home to as many as 23 named storms this year including 14 hurricanes.  7 of these Hurricanes are expected to reach a level 3 category, with potential wind speeds up to 111 mph. To put this into perspective, these numbers are very similar to the total numbers in 2005—the year where Hurricane Katrina along with four other storms had their names retired.

I’ve done a little research regarding the naming of hurricanes, and found out some interesting pieces of information. The practice of giving the storms their own name came about after it was decided that referring to a storm by their latitude/longitude locations left open the possibility of miscommunication.  Name lists are decided at international meetings of the World Meteorological Organization.  These names have origins which root back to four different languages due to the vast range of countries whose public and weather services track these storms.  Storms receive names in alphabetical order along with direct correlation when they form and do not include names which start with the letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z.  Six different lists of names continuously rotate throughout the years and are only altered when a devastating Hurricane’s name is retired from the list.  This year’s list is similar to the list in 2004, except the names Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne were retired and replaced by the names Colin, Fiona, Igor, and Julia.

The naming of a tropical storm or a hurricane impacts the coverage in many travel insurance plans.  Once the storm is named, it is not be eligible for coverage.  Not every policy has this limitation, which is why it is important to always refer to the certificate of insurance for details.

Source of the article :  http://forum.sevencorners.com/post.cfm/hurricane-season