As Hurricane Ivan approaches the southeastern U.S. from the Caribbean, anxious travelers have the phones ringing at Travel Guard International.
“As the hurricane approaches, causing evacuations and cancelled flights, our LiveTravel call center has been flooded with more than three times the normal volume of calls,” reports Dan McGinnity, vice president for Travel Guard. “Right now, travelers are frantically calling to check on the status of their flights, rebook cancelled flights or make alternative hotel reservations. Later next week, we’ll expect a significant number of calls from policyholders filing claims for their trips that have been cancelled or interrupted by Hurricane Ivan, on top of those already in the works for Hurricanes Frances and Charley.”
Travel Guard’s two most popular policies — Cruise, Tour & Travel and ProtectAssist — provide coverage for trips delayed or cancelled by hurricanes or other severe weather. For example, if a traveler is forced to cancel a trip due to a hurricane, travel insurance provides a reimbursement for nonrefundable expenses, up to the limit of coverage purchased.
If severe weather forces the evacuation of the traveler’s hotel or resort, the travel insurance provides reimbursement for nonrefundable expenses, and additional travel expenses covered by the policy. To be eligible for the coverage travelers must purchase travel insurance policies before the hurricane is forecasted or predicted. Once a warning has been issued, losses resulting from the hurricane are excluded.
Travelers can learn more about travel insurance and severe weather by visiting Travel Guard’s StormGuard Information Center at
http://www.travelguard.com/info/stormguard/index.asp. The site also includes answers to frequently asked questions about hurricanes and travel insurance, hurricane preparedness tips and links to hurricane tracking and prediction Web sites.
Travel Guard’s 24-hour World Service Center can be reached at (800) 826-1300. More than 16,000 travel agencies offer Travel Guard (www.travelguard.com) products which cover more than 6 million travelers each year.
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