Why Should you Insure Your Pilgrimage or any Travel Investment?

Even the best-planned travel can be impacted by the unexpected. Illness...medical emergencies...severe weather...delayed flights…lost passports or luggage. Troubles can occur when you least anticipate them forcing you to cancel or interrupt your trip, lose your travel investment, and incur unplanned expenses. And when you're away from home, things like medical emergencies and illness are even more difficult to manage.

Dollar for dollar, comprehensive trip insurance is a bargain.

What can happen?

1. You're hiking the Inka Trail and you stumble on one of the ancient steps and break your ankle.  You have to be taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital and on the way down, you start showing signs of altitude sickness.  Maybe Kaiser will cover you for some of this, but likely they won't.  CSA Luxe trip insurance covers all medical transportation and evacuation up to $1 million.
2. Your 3-year old daughter develops a severe ear infection two days before your departure. Can you cancel your trip and get reimbursed for your prepaid travel arrangements?  You can with CSA.
3. You're in an unfamiliar foreign city. Your wallet is stolen. You're concerned that identity thieves will make your life a nightmare. How do you take precautions against being a victim of identity theft? How do you get a passport so you can get on the flight back home? How can you get an emergency cash transfer?  CSA's 24 hour travel assistance office can help you with all of this.
4. Your luggage never showed up at your destination baggage claim and you just discovered you may not get it for another 24-48 hours. Now you must buy necessary personal items and clothing you'll need until it's returned to you. Shouldn't you get reimbursed for this?  Guess what.  You can.
5. Just before your trip, your home suffered massive damage from a flood. You had planned so long for your pilgrimage, but you've got more urgent matters to take care of. Will you lose your entire investment? Nope.
6. You spent over a year planning and paying for your pilgrimage. Two days into the trip you're forced to evacuate due to an approaching hurricane. Who's going to pay for the unplanned expenses to get back home? Will you get your money back for the unused travel arrangements for which you’ve already paid?
7. You rent a car.  The hubcaps get stolen. $400 later, they let you leave the country.  Your car insurance deductible is $500.  Don't worry, you're covered.
8. You're traveling with a large group of pilgrims.  The Lima airport is packed and their computers are down, so they are doing everything by hand, including charging you to tote your luggage on board.  It's taking forever.  Everyone makes it aboard the plane on time except you.  The next flight isn't until tomorrow.  CSA Trip Delay has your expenses covered. (True story by the way, from the 2008 Pilgrimage to Peru.)

Trip Cancellation and Interruption Examples:

• You, or your family member or travel companion, get sick and are unable to make your trip.
• Airline or travel supplier bankruptcy or default (must purchase insurance by final trip payment for coverage)
• Being involved in a traffic accident while en route to departure.
• The resort where you're booked is flooded due to a hurricane.
• You get snowed in and are prevented from departing on your trip for five or more hours.
• A terrorist incident occurs in a city on your tour itinerary just days before your trip and you're forced to cancel travel.
• A quarantine on your cruise prevents you from leaving to use your non-refundable excursion.
• Mechanical breakdown of your plane.
• Your flight is delayed for more than 3 hours and you miss your cruise.
• Due to a natural disaster, you or your traveling companion's leave is revoked.
• Your company is involved in a merger and you're required to work.
• Your or your traveling companion is required to serve on a jury at the last minute.

Why should I buy this insurance?

• You have no way or knowing what might happen between now and when you leave on your trip. CSA's travel insurance helps protect you from the loss of your prepaid, non-refundable trip costs. Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption are the most common causes of loss due to unexpected circumstances, like sickness, injury or death of you, your traveling companion or even a non-traveling family member, hurricane evacuations, terrorism and more.

Exactly what does the insurance reimburse?

• All prepaid, non-refundable trip costs (such as airfare, cruises, tours), emergency medical or dental expenses, medical evacuations, personal effect expenses caused by baggage delay, additional transportation costs from a missed connection to catch up on your trip or return home, plus more.

Won't the credit card that I use to pay for the trip reimburse me if something goes wrong, or the travel supplier?

• Credit cards don't cover trip cancellation or trip interruption. And travel supplier's coverage isn't as comprehensive for trip cancellation, or commonly available for Collision Damage Waivers, or coverage if a supplier falls into bankruptcy.

Doesn't my medical insurance cover me?

• Travel insurance covers the gaps often associated with normal medical coverage, like pre-existing medical conditions. It can also help with some out-of-pocket expenses. For example, if you develop an acute illness while on your covered trip, a one-time medical expense will be paid for treatment under $1000 when using CSA's designated provider network of 30,000 physicians and 850,000 service providers worldwide.