Baggage Travel Insurance – What is It? Should You Buy It?

Insurance plans are complex, comprising several small and big parts. From travel medical insurance to travel inconvenience, there are several parts and sub-parts that you need to examine when buying a travel insurance plan. Travel inconvenience insurance is one of the three big parts of travel insurance plans and baggage travel insurance is one of the sub-parts of travel inconvenience insurance. Baggage insurance may seem like a very small part of the complete travel insurance plan but it is indeed very important. Baggage insurance ensures that your belongings are protected in almost every unforeseen scenario or at least compensates you if something happens to them. It is not uncommon to carry valuables when you are traveling. It can be quite daunting if you lose any of such belongings. Baggage travel insurance can help you handle that.

What is Baggage Delay Cover?

Baggage travel insurance can further have different parts. One of these parts is the baggage delay cover. It applies to the baggage you check in with the airline when boarding the flight. The baggage delay cover compensates you if you have to wait for your baggage to arrive for longer than usual at the airport. The allowed compensation can be used as a reimbursement amount for the necessary thing you have to buy while you wait for your baggage to arrive. The baggage delay benefit or cover comes with a pre-specified deductible. This deductible is measured in units of hours. The benefit starts to pay off after you have completed the deductible hour wait. For example, if there the deductible for baggage delay benefit is 6 hours, the compensation will begin to pay off after you have waited for 6 hours minimum for your luggage to arrive.

What is Baggage Loss Cover?

As the name suggests, this is the compensation you get when you happen to lose your luggage during the flight or the trip. This can include the complete baggage or some specific items. There is generally no time-based limit applied on this cover. However, monetary sub-limits and deductibles apply to baggage loss cover. You can get the items you lose or get stolen reimbursed by the insurance company by submitting a proper claim request along with an itemized list of the belongings and documented proof of the ownership.

What Limitations Apply to Baggage Travel Insurance?

Both baggage loss and baggage delay cover come with a few sub-limits, just like any other kind of insurance benefit. Baggage delay cover may have a per-person limit and a per-day limit. Per-person limit means that there is a specific amount of compensation every policyholder can receive. A per-day limit means that there is a limited amount of compensation you can receive in a day as well as the amount you receive every hour.

Baggage loss cover can have three types of limits – a total sub-limit of the benefit, per-person limit and a per-person limit. The total sub-limit is the maximum amount of compensation you can get for baggage loss. The per-person limit is the limit applied to every claimant and the per-item limit is applied on every piece of item that you claim. This is generally applied to extremely valuable items.

Reasons You Should Buy Baggage Travel Insurance for Your Trip

There is no doubt that travel insurance is as important as your passport for a trip now. However, given below are a few reasons why you should specifically buy travel baggage insurance for your next out of the UAE:

Cover for Loss of Baggage

One of the worst things to happen when you are on a trip is losing your baggage. You try and fit your life in a small trolley bag and losing that in a foreign country can be very daunting. Baggage loss cover can serve as a very important thing at a time like this. A foreign country that you are travelling to may turn out to be more expensive than you anticipated. Buying new things for survival in a new country can jack up your trip expenses quite a lot. Baggage loss will reimburse you for the cost of these items and save you quite a bit of money.

Cover for Damaged Baggage Items

Baggage travel insurance not only covers the delayed or lost items. It often also offers protection or compensation for your damaged items. This can include your electronics and other valuable items. So, if you happen to get any of your items damaged during the trip, your travel baggage insurance will cover it.

Ensures Hassle-Free Trips

Travel baggage insurance ensures that your trip is spent in complete peace and securely. Not having baggage insurance and losing your luggage completely or a part of it can cause a lot of hassle. eliminating the troubles of getting everything back and saving you from spoiling the trip, travel baggage insurance saves you a great deal of trouble.

Free of Airline Directed Procedures

If you lose your baggage during a flight and do not have travel baggage insurance, you will end up going through a long series of airline-mandated procedures to find and claim the baggage. While airlines do often reimburse lost baggage, it can take them up to several months to even classify something as lost. Having a baggage travel insurance plan would mean that you will not have to wait for months to get your compensation.

Easy Reimbursements and Claims

Claims and reimbursements are easy to file when it comes to travel baggage insurance. You can directly contact the insurance company and initiate a claim. Claiming your lost baggage from an airline is very complicated when compared to travel baggage insurance.

Better Compensation for Lost Items

Airlines do offer compensation for lost baggage but they have their sub-limits for the part. The sub-limits that airlines have assigned to are way lower than what your travel insurance in Dubai would grant in case of baggage loss. Moreover, there is no assigned compensation for baggage delay by airlines.

Conclusion

Travel baggage insurance is one of the most important parts of your travel insurance plan. Buying travel baggage insurance for your trips out of the UAE can be very helpful to ensure that you do not face any inconvenience during your travels. Just make sure that your chosen travel insurance in Dubai has all the other elements in ideal proportion as well. Buy a well-designed plan that is both suitable to your needs and affordable too.