Last Minute Travel Insurance: What Does It Cover? (2024)

One of the most important trip-planning tasks can be buying travel insurance, especially if you’re taking an expensive or overseas trip.

Locking in travel protection is especially important given the uptick in flight delays and cancellations—even if you’re making last-minute plans.

To get the most value from a travel insurance policy, purchase travel insurance at the time you book a trip.

Travel Insurance Benefits You’ll Miss Out On

One of the advantages you’ll miss with a last-minute travel insurance purchase is a stretch of coverage for trip cancellation insurance before your departure. This pays out 100% of what you lose in pre-paid and nonrefundable deposits—if you cancel for a reason listed in the policy. If you forgot to buy travel insurance and have to cancel, you won’t have the safety net of insurance for lost deposits.

And travel insurance won’t cover problems that are already on the horizon. For example, “if you don’t already have travel insurance policy, and a hurricane is brewing, you’re sensing symptoms of a sickness, or suspect that your travel supplier may go bankrupt, you won’t be able to purchase a plan to be covered for any of those events,” says Christina Tunnah, a spokesperson for World Nomads.

Another consideration: If you wait too long to buy travel insurance, you’ll lose the chance to add a pre-existing medical condition exclusion waiver. This waiver gives you coverage if a pre-existing condition flares up during your trip. But you usually have to buy it within two to three weeks after making your first trip deposit.

You’ll also miss out on the chance to add on cancel for any reason coverage if you book a trip but then wait to purchase travel insurance. This coverage lets you cancel for any reason, even if it’s not listed in the base policy. You can get back 50% to 75% of your lost deposits, depending on the policy. But you usually have to buy it within a couple of weeks of your first trip deposit.

Last-Minute Trips Can Be Insured

Whether you’re buying travel insurance at the last minute because the trip is spontaneous or because you forgot, you can lock in quality insurance.

“Travel insurance can certainly be purchased at any point leading up to your departure, even when booking last-minute travel,” says Carol Mueller, a spokesperson with Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. “The most important point is to remember to purchase travel insurance, especially if you are traveling outside the United States.”

A last-minute travel insurance purchase can offer important post-departure benefits that cover you during the trip.

This includes:

• Trip interruption and trip delay coverage to reimburse you for unexpected hiccups like a delayed flight
• Coverage for travel medical expenses if you get sick or injured while on the trip (especially important for overseas trips where U.S. health plans usually don’t work)
• Emergency medical evacuation coverage if you need to be transported to a medical facility
• Access to the insurer’s 24/7 travel assistance line for help during your trip
• Coverage for smaller headaches such as baggage delay.

If you want travel medical insurance that covers Covid, make sure you buy a pandemic travel insurance plan. These plans will cover trip cancellation if you have to cancel because you contract Covid, and even expenses if you have to quarantine if you become ill while traveling.

The Annoying Fine Print

It’s always important to check the details of your travel insurance plan.

Your travel insurance policy will have an effective date, which is the exact date and time that your coverage goes into effect, says Tunnah at World Nomads. “This could be different for different providers, so be sure to check your policy documents for a precise definition of the term,” she says.

For trip cancellations, you can make a claim only if the problem is covered by the policy and only if it occurs after the policy effective date.

And there may be additional rules for making a claim. For example, Tunnah says, if bad weather is hitting, your travel supplier must have ceased operations for at least 24 hours (or other length of time specified by the plan) and prevented you from getting to your destination.