Travel Insurance: Fill & Download for Free

I was downgraded from a first-class ticket ($1400+) to coach on US Airways (now the "new" American). The agent said a "law enforcement officer" needed my first class seat. When I gave her an argument she tried to convince me that I have never actually purchased a first class seat, rather I had purchased a coach seat. She was lying of course, which is what really pissed me off. So I had a choice, I could accept coach or not fly. I decided to fly coach. Later I filed a complaint with my credit card company. On the return flight I did speak to a ticket agent who was very helpful and went out of her way to compensate me, which pleasantly surprised me. Eventually, I got a partial refund by on my credit card (the difference between the coach seat price and the FC seat price for that day and trip). The interesting note was this was the one time I purchased travel insurance from the airline web site when I bought the ticket. I suspect that they picked me to downgrade because they saw I had travel insurance. Moral of the story: never buy travel insurance from the airline.

Nothing.I travel extensively worldwide, I’ve spoken to many non-Americans about the US healthcare system, and it is universally the laughingstock of the world.Non-Americans who don’t travel to America shake their heads and sigh at the miserable shambles of the American healthcare system. Non-Americans who do travel to America talk about how much they fear needing to use a US emergency room while they’re there. I mean, there are developing countries with a better healthcare system.Many of the non-Americans I know buy travel insurance before setting foot in the US just in case, God forbid, they should find themselves in need of American medical attention, and the travel insurance companies do good business on that fear. The entire world can’t agree on anything—not God, not basic civil rights, not form of governance—save for this one thing: nobody wants a miserable health care system like the Americans have.

It happened twice to me.December 2012I went to Silicon Valley from Singapore on a 2 week Overseas Study Mission trip as my part of my Technopreneurship course.The supervisor got the insurance for all the students for 14 days beforehand.When I told her that I had planned to stay an additional day to tour around the city after the event, she told to buy an insurance for the 15th day.I was initially reluctant telling her ‘I think it should be fine. I would anyway be flying back on that day’But she kept convincing me to buy. So I paid some $15 and got the insurance for that extra day.August 2018Four of us went to Beijing.One friend suggested all of us to buy travel insurance.I checked one agency. It had an promo offer. I bought it immediately.It cost $30.AftermathAfter returning back to Singapore from San Francisco, my check-in baggage was missing. On inquiring, it was found that the baggage got misplaced at the Beijing Airport, the transit location.The Airlines responded immediately and they shipped my baggage in the next connecting flight.It was very inconvenient as I had another flight to India. I had to stay in friends house in Chennai till I got my luggage.I filed insurance claim after I came back to Singapore.And I got $600.After landing at Guangzhou, the transit airport, we were told that the flight to Beijing had been rescheduled.There was around eight hour delay. We lost almost a day of tour.I filed insurance claim again. I got $200The bottom-line isNever take travel insurance for granted when you travel overseas.Compared to the flight ticket, the price you spend for the insurance is negligible. But it has a lot of benefits in the event of mishap, baggage loss, baggage delay, travel delay etc.You will get some compensation for the inconvenience endured.For countries like US, where the hospitals are extremely expensive, having a good travel insurance will help you in cases where you need urgent medical treatment will save you lot of money.