Airline Add-On Insurance: Is It Worth It?

Travel insurance is an important consideration for any upcoming trip. Whenever you travel for work or for pleasure, the last thing you want to worry about is losing your luggage or a cancelled flight. Airlines typically have an add-on insurance option when purchasing your ticket—but is it worth it? Let’s dig a little deeper to find out.

Key Differences Between Airline Add-On Insurance and iTravelInsured Plans

In most situations, a travel insurance provider, such as IMG, will provide higher maximum coverage amounts and more covered reasons than a plan offered by an airline. An iTravelInsured plan can also cover your entire trip cost, including all prepaid non-refundable costs such as hotel fees, cruise fares, tours, etc., rather than just the cost of your flight.

For example, you purchase insurance from the airline for your flight to Miami for your cruise. Maybe your flight gets delayed due to severe weather or canceled due to a mechanical issue. If you have insurance with the airline, your policy may not cover the additional costs to catch up with your cruise or provide you with a refund if you’re unable to make your cruise.

If your only out-of-pocket expense is an airline ticket, the insurance being offered by your airline may be the plan for you—just be sure to review the covered reasons. Keep in mind that many airlines may assist you as much as possible with flight cancellations regardless of your insurance plan. Think of a bad airline experience you’ve had in the past—the airline may have offered to rebook you on a later flight. For many airline travel insurance plans, if the airline offers a rebooking option, it will void the flight refund benefit in your insurance plan. If you are delayed and file a complaint form, the airline will likely respond with a credit towards a future flight rather than a cash payout.

What to Look for When Purchasing Travel Insurance

Travelers who purchase trip insurance are usually most interested in trip cancellation, trip interruption, baggage loss or damage, travel delay, and emergency medical coverage. Below is a comparison of what some of these airlines offer, as well as how they fall short of IMG’s iTravelInsured travel protection plans.

Delta and American Airlines

Delta and American Airlines both offer a mix of benefits that you may expect in a trip protection plan, but you’ll notice they have lower maximum limits than iTravelInsured plans. While $50,000 may seem like plenty of coverage for emergency medical transportation/evacuation, medical evacuations including nurse assistants from various parts of the world can well exceed $50,000 (IMG). Premiums between the two plans may also cost you about the same amount, so it’s best to do your research and get several quotes before simply checking the “add-on” box while paying for your cruise.

United

United offers add-on travel insurance that features higher maximum limits than both Delta and American Airlines. These benefits more closely compare to IMG’s iTravelInsured Travel LX plan. See below for how the two stack up to each other.

Above are some of the most common travel benefits among all plans. To view additional benefits for iTravelInsured plans, please see the full schedule of benefits for Lite or LX. In addition, feel free to call IMG support for more information about what may or may not be covered for your trip at +1 (317) 655-4500.

View our plans or get a quote for IMG’s iTravelInsured travel insurance.