Family Travel Insurance

What is Family Travel Insurance?

As the name suggests, family travel insurance refers to a travel insurance policy that covers the entire family. This generally includes two adults below 60 years of age and two children below 21 years. It is also known as a family floater plan.

This policy covers all four persons on an individual basis and is usually cheaper than buying separate policies for each member. However, if the parents are beyond 60 years or the children are above 21 years of age, most insurers don’t provide coverage. Contingencies such as flight cancellations, cruise cancellations, bad weather, etc. may put a spanner in your travel plans.

Many insurance companies provide some relief and may have riders that will allow the person who has not met the age criteria to be covered under the same policy. This will mean some additional premium, of course, but may still prove to be cheaper than four individual policies. The same reasoning may apply if the family has three children.

Why Choose Family Travel Insurance?

Travelling with the family is certainly more fun but is also fraught with more risks. For instance, a small change in the weather or sampling the local cuisine may not affect grown-ups at all but may affect the child. You may have to seek out a local doctor and get some medicines in the middle of your holiday. Unlike India, where most of the medicine is affordable, doctor and medicine bills in most foreign countries can total up to quite a tidy sum. Any hospitalisation on top of that will increase the expenses drastically.

Having a family floater plan helps in such cases. All medical expenses are reimbursed up to the agreed limit. Some insurers also provide cashless hospitalisation. This means that you do not pay anything. The insurance company settles all expenses on your behalf.

Among different types of travel insurance, family travel insurance provides benefits to the insured’s immediate family as well. To get a better idea of this specific form of travel insurance plan and its benefits, consider these examples:

In fact, the importance of travel insurance can be gauged from the simple fact that the applications for the Schengen visa that covers most of the West European countries must be accompanied by a valid travel insurance policy.

Features of Family Travel Insurance

Be it a trip to the US or a wildlife safari in Africa, family travel insurance will provide the coverage you and your family need. Here are some features of a family travel insurance policy:

• Flight Delay: In case of flight delays forcing you to find accommodation at a hotel, your insurance will cover these expenses for you and your family members
• Accident and Medical Benefit: Not just you, but your whole family will be covered if they need medical assistance abroad because of an accident or sickness. In case of sickness towards the end of the trip, several insurers offer extended coverage too.
• Passport Cover: A passport is perhaps the most important travel document, losing which would be problematic. In case you or your family members lose their passports, your family travel insurance will cover the costs of getting a new passport as per the policy terms.
• Accidental Death and Repatriation: As undesirable as this may be, in case of some fatality, your policy will ensure that your nominee gets the due sum insured. The policy will also handle the repatriation of the insured's remains back to their home.
• Affordable Premiums: Buying separate international travel insurance plans for all your family members travelling with you will cost you significantly. Getting a family floater plan is a quicker and cheaper way to secure their journey. You can easily select the coverage you want at affordable premiums.
• Hijack Help: Though unlikely, hijacking is a harrowing experience and can disturb your whole trip. Many insurers offer a hijack distress allowance to help the insured person cope with this trauma.
• Worldwide 24X7 Assistance: Be it Australia or somewhere in the Schengen region, in case of a problem you can easily contact your insurer during an emergency. This can be done online or by calling their toll-free number.

Family Travel Insurance: Fast Fact 

Things to Consider Before Buying Family Travel Insurance

You need to understand what is covered under the policies. For instance, if you are staying with family, relatives or friends in the places to which you are travelling, reimbursement for hotel cancellations will not be that important as compared to having comprehensive cover against all medical expenses.

If you and your family take more than 2-3 foreign holidays a year, it may make sense to buy a family floater travel plan that may cover multiple trips instead of a policy that only provides insurance for a single trip. These family travel insurance plans let you avail of 2-3 trips within a year as long as the total number of days does not exceed the time for which the coverage has been taken.

Most family travel insurance plans do not cover adventure sports or pre-existing ailments. Therefore, in case you need insurance for these activities or pre-existing health conditions, you should talk to the insurance company and make sure that your family is covered. You may have to pay some additional premium but the tension-free holiday will be worth it.

Buying one of these plans is cheaper than buying a family travel insurance plan each time you and your family travel in the year. However, policies with the least premium may not cover certain risks or may have certain limitations while covering those contingencies.

Read More: Benefits of Availing Family Travel Insurance

Coverage Under Family Travel Insurance?

Most insurance companies offer different types of insurance plans. These may vary in terms of the coverage they provide or the time period or both. The basic family travel insurance plans cover only a few contingencies like

• Medical expenses and evacuation or repatriation expenses (i.e., when you are stuck in another country with no money and have to be repatriated back to India)
• Personal accident in case of an accident or bodily harm resulting in disability or death
• Loss of passports and travel papers
• Loss or delay of baggage
• Missed or delayed flights
• Extension of hotel stay due to unavoidable reasons

In addition to these, you may like to opt for adding other covers for bad weather, hijacking, personal liability, fire, home cover, etc. Some insurance companies may cover all of these in one policy though most have two-three types of tiered policies that will let you access the cover against additional risks on payment of higher premiums.

What's not Covered in Family Travel Insurance?

While there are immense benefits of a travel insurance plan, you should pay attention to the exclusions of any policy. When it comes to things that are not covered by family travel insurance, the list may vary from insurer to insurer. You may not be able to file a claim in case of the following:

Medical Exclusions

• If you are travelling against your doctor's advice
• If you already have a pre-existing disease
• In case you are suffering from self-inflicted injuries
• Pregnancy-related issues are not covered

Journey Exclusions

• Participation in risky sports such as scuba diving, mountain diving and other adventure sports are not covered
• Loss due to participation in illegal or anti-social acts is not included

Baggage Exclusions

• If the baggage has been shipped separately then the baggage will not be covered
• Loss of baggage beyond the geographical scope of your trip won't be covered
• If the loss of baggage and other important documents are not reported on time to the authorities, then claims won't be applicable

Family Travel Insurance Claim Process

While insurance is bought for one's safety, most of us wish we don't need to make any claims. In case you need to file a claim, make sure to follow these steps:

• Before anything else, you should inform your insurer through the mentioned helpline number or email ID
• In case of legal matters such as cases of theft, mugging or accident, it is important to file an FIR and inform the designated authorities of the loss
• In case of a cashless claim, keep the required documents handy before contacting the advisor
• Once these claims are verified and accepted by the insurer, and will take care of the payment directly with the healthcare provider

In case of claims through reimbursements,

• All the medical documents must be submitted to the insurer
• Once processed and checked by their administration team, you may be asked for some supplementary documents
• If everything is in order, the insurer will inform you of the acceptance and fast-track the process of your claim settlement

In case your claim is denied, you will need to pay for the bills accordingly.

How to Choose/Buy Family Travel Insurance?

Let's take this in the form of a list so it’s easier to remember as a checklist:

• Ensure Relevant Risks Are Covered: Insurance companies may not cover pre-existing ailments or certain costs such as for replacing prescription glasses, for adventure sports, etc. Make sure you are covered for these.
• Read the Exclusions: Go through the exclusions list in detail. You may be assuming the policy will cover a specific contingency while it may not or only cover the risk only up to a minimal amount. Ensure that there are no relevant risks that are left uncovered. For instance, if you are travelling to a remote country or region, it is essential that you have a cover for missed or delayed flights.
• Compare Different Plans: Take some time to compare the policies in detail. Most family travel insurance plans are steeped in technical jargon that makes it difficult to understand. A comparison site will help you understand and relate things better. You will also be able to differentiate between relevant details like cashless hospitalisation and hospitalisation expenses reimbursement.

Family travel insurance only reimburses for the expenses, except where cashless services such as hospitalisation are specifically mentioned. This means that you will have to pay for the expenses when you are aboard and you will be reimbursed when you apply for it after you are home. Keeping some extra cash with yourself will ensure you do not face any problems in an emergency.

These should be enough to get you started on family insurance plans and look for the right type of plan for yourself and your family. Keep the main points in mind and select a plan that makes sense both coverage-wise and budget-wise.

Reasons You Need Family Travel Insurance

To list down, some reasons why you need family travel insurance include:

• Flight or train cancellations
• Missed flights or delayed flights
• Hotel booking cancellations
• Package tour cancellations
• Medical expenses
• Hospitalisation expenses
• Political risks including strikes, civil commotion, etc.
• Bad weather

These are just some of the many reasons why you need travel insurance, especially if you are travelling with the family.

Why Buy from Policybazaar?

If considering buying family travel insurance online, take a look at some reasons to buy from Policybazaar.com:

• Cost Effective: Buying a policy online is often cheaper than buying it directly from the provider as it eliminated the intermediaries and commissions paid to the distributors
• Time-Saving: Buying online through Policybazaar.com is fast, easy and very convenient. You will save time commuting or waiting in long queues while comparing all the plans available in the market.
• Automated Assistance: You can avail of our automated services such as automated reminders for renewal, live-chat facility to solve your problems and toll-free assistance
• Environmental Friendly: Since all this can be done online, the entire process will be paperless and save a ton of waste as well as money spent in the documentation.

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