THE last few months have brought a sea change in disaster coverage for travelers who buy trip insurance. Old assumptions are being blown away -- but in a good way.
Some policies used to pay for trip cancellation only in the most dire straits, such as when a hurricane or its effects blocked air traffic or road access to your hotel. Now, more of those policies will let you cancel because a hurricane warning is in effect or a storm causes problems such as flooding or power outages in the hotel or even the town you're planning to visit.
And now change fees for nonrefundable plane tickets may also be covered if weather forces your cruise or tour operator to switch dates.
Insurers said they revised their policies because of customer requests.
"A lot of this comes out of events such as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita and the [South Asia] tsunami," said Mark Cipolletti, spokesman for Access America, based in Richmond, Va. "It's a topic a lot of our clients want to know about."
Recent additions mean you need to read your policy more carefully. You may be pleasantly surprised -- although, as always, policies are open to interpretation. You and your insurer might not see eye to eye.
A look at some new coverage:
Hurricane warnings: Several insurers in August began covering hurricane warnings under trip cancellation.
These new provisions typically pay for costs such as nonrefundable deposits for plane tickets and hotels if you cancel your trip because your destination is under a hurricane warning within 24 hours of your scheduled departure. The warning must be issued by the NOAA National Hurricane Center.
Typically, you must have bought your policy at least 15 days before such an event.
The storm doesn't need to hit your destination for you to collect. But if your airline or hotel gives you a refund or lets you rebook without penalty -- as many may -- don't expect to get paid under your insurance policy too. In such a situation, insurers figure that the supplier has, as they term it, "made you whole."
Among insurers with hurricane-warning coverage in one or more policies are TravelSafe Insurance (www.travelsafe.com), which is sold through Chester Perfetto Agency in Wyomissing, Pa.; M.H. Ross Travel Insurance Services (www.tripinsurance.com) in Northridge; and Travel Insurance Services (www.travelinsure.com) in Walnut Creek, Calif.
