Written By: Amanda M. Hand, Marketing Specialist, TravelSafe Insurance
When travel agents and their clients collaborate on dream vacations involving white sandy beaches or timeless monuments of history, the concept of travel insurance is often the last thing on their minds. However, as agents gain experience and mature in the field of travel, they recognize the value of partnering with a reputable travel insurance provider that offers the diversity of quality services that will enrich their clients’ travel experience.
Fantasy getaways can fast turn into nightmares without the protections of adequate travel insurance. Families have lost their homes to cover evacuation costs, and foreign medical expenses have caused far too many bankruptcy filings. Which provider agencies choose to partner with reflects directly on their company’s level of service and expertise.
Since 1971, TravelSafe Insurance has been on the cutting edge of innovation. The company’s founder and President, Scott Perfetto, combined his passion for travel and knowledge of insurance to bring customer-centric products into an insurance sector that left much to be desired.
As the only privately owned travel insurance company left in the United States, TravelSafe Insurance prides itself on being a family-owned business. Our close-knit operation allows us to take time in understanding the needs of travelers and the professionals who make their dreams a reality, further facilitating positive change, growth, and continued innovation.
As insurance aficionados, the founders of TravelSafe Insurance were able to devise insurance products that stunned industry leaders. Many of the popular insurance benefits you see today like Cancel For Any Reason were brought to you by the company many years ago, making drastic improvements within the travel insurance industry.
Coverage for the Traveler, Their Belongings, and Their Trip
When industrial-era entrepreneur James G. Batterson invented travel insurance in 1863, he probably never suspected it would develop into the product we see today. Once designed to protect only the elite, travel insurance was a safeguard against losing the only source of income a family may have had.
Now, it is so much more. With protection for the traveler, their trip, and their belongings, travel insurance can provide umbrella-like coverage that is affordable and accessible. TravelSafe Insurance believes that by including generous benefits in even our most basic plans, our travelers will not refuse critical coverage for the sake of saving a few dollars. We want our travelers to remember what their travel insurance company did for them. Not what it failed to do.
Simplicity and Transparency Are Key
While some of our competitors flood the market with a wide variety of products, one of our core beliefs is that the simpler the insurance plan, the better the customer experience. Offering a wide variety of insurance plans to travelers may seem like a good idea on paper – the more options they have, the more likely they are to find what they are looking for. However, offering too many plans containing only minute differences risks confusing and overwhelming even the most seasoned of travelers.
We believe in simplicity. By providing product transparency through a user-friendly purchasing process, TravelSafe Insurance is removing unnecessary stress from the equation and diminishing the likelihood of denied claims that result in dissatisfied customers.
Over the years, TravelSafe Insurance has worked hard to develop a quoting tool and agent platform that is both highly functional and simplistic. In the ever-changing world of technology, we thoroughly consider how each systemic change will affect our valued customers. We make decisions about moving forward only after we ensure those changes will have a positive impact on both the agent and traveler.
Travel professionals want more than a platform that is easy to use. They want updates and briefings on our products. They want answers to questions like, how can an agent sell more travel insurance; does an agent need to be an insurance expert (we always say no); and when should an agent refer a traveler to our customer service department?
With our webinars, emails, newsletters, and blogs dedicated to educating travel professionals and travelers, we answer the tough questions.
Why Travel Professionals Favor Our Products
There are travel professionals all across North America that swear by our products for one reason: we deliver results. Combined with our unbeatable commissions, our plans contain benefits unlike any others.
Coverage for the Traveler
Unexpected medical costs can be crippling. However, travel insurance will help manage costs and reduce risk of financial stress on both traveler and family.
TravelSafe Insurance aims to provide coverage that shifts the industry paradigm because we want every customer to worry less and travel more confidently.
Flexible Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions
TravelSafe Insurance has worked hard to construct the Pre-Existing Condition Waiver that makes medical coverage more easily obtainable to those with pre-existing medical conditions.
The 180-day lookback period and 14-day time-sensitive provision requirements are two more industry standards TravelSafe Insurance chose to break away from. Instead of looking back 180, we look back 60 days for a change in diagnosis, treatment, or medication. By allowing 21 days for purchasing our plans after initial deposit, travelers have additional days to lock in time-sensitive benefits such as the Pre-Existing Conditions Waiver.
To take this a step further, we never want an immediate family member’s illness to affect a traveler’s Trip Cancellation or Interruption claim. Immediate family member’s pre-existing conditions are excluded from our plans’ limitations. A traveler’s plan is not affected by non-traveling family members.
Primary Medical
Many travelers have overestimated their health insurance while abroad. Assuming their coverage extends to countries outside of North America, many have sought care only to realize they would be responsible for costs associated with their medical treatment. Even in countries like France where healthcare is universal, citizens of other countries are not eligible for free care.
Primary medical coverage is provided in all of our Vacation Protection plans. A travel agency’s clientele can travel knowing they are covered up to $100,000 should a medical emergency arise.
Mental and Nervous Conditions
Those who suffer from mental and nervous conditions are often faced with many challenges when selecting a travel insurance plan. Insurance companies often exclude these conditions from coverage. Should travelers experience an emergency related to a mental and nervous condition that requires hospitalization, they are eligible for pre-departure and post-departure benefits. A rare find within the industry.
Emergency Evacuation – Not Just Medical
Emergency evacuation is often something travelers do not consider until it is too late. Each year, emergency evacuations occur from cruise ships to hospitals, country to country, and even state to state. Evacuations can cost anywhere from $11,000 to $1,000,000.
Including Emergency Medical Evacuation in all of our plans went without a second thought. During product development, TravelSafe Insurance examined the the financial damage that emergency medical evacuations could impose on travelers. Coverage is included for no less than $35,000 and up to $1,000,000 for emergency medical evacuations.
Taking it one step further, in the Classic and Classic Plus Plans, TravelSafe provides coverage Non-Medical Emergency Evacuation. If a natural disaster or political unrest strikes a traveler’s destination, TravelSafe may cover up to $25,000 for the evacuation.
24-Hour Assistance
The safety and security of our travelers is a top priority. Should travelers need assistance locating a hospital, facilitating an evacuation, or finding their way back to their hotel, they can use our partnering 24-Hour Assistance Service free of charge.
Unique Coverage for their Trip
Missed Connection Benefit
Missed Connection is a benefit often overlooked by many travelers until it is needed. We provide a Missed Connection Benefit Limit of up to $2,500, the highest in the industry. If transportation of a common carrier is delayed for 3 hours or more resulting in missed land, air, or sea connections, travelers are eligible to receive compensation for additional arrangements.
Prepare for Winter with our guide to the Missed Connection Benefit by clicking here. \
The Hurricane Warning Benefit
A benefit allowing travelers to cancel their trip due to a hurricane warning is almost unheard of. It was not a benefit until 19XX when TravelSafe Insurance designed the industry’s first Hurricane Warning Benefit.
If a hurricane warning is issued by NOAA to make landfall on a destination, travelers are eligible for coverage under Trip Cancellation. A full refund may be issued on any prepaid and non-refundable travel expenses.
Take a look at TravelSafe Insurance’s Hurricane Warning Benefit Guide Here.
Cancel For Any Reason
Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) was another benefit TravelSafe Insurance introduced into the industry. Many industry leaders hesitated to follow suit until they saw just how much the benefit worked for travelers. While many continue to offer CFAR, our travelers are eligible for the highest reimbursement industry-wide of 75%.
Coverage for their Belongings
Baggage and personal belongings are eligible for coverage up to $2,500 when lost or stolen and $250 when delayed. Travelers can find solace knowing that if the airline, common carrier, or hotel lose their luggage, they will not have to replace material items on strictly their own dime.
The Agent Incentive
Selling travel is a wonderful way to make a living, but it is a still a business, and a business that needs profit to operate. Travel insurance is one of the easiest and quickest ways for travel agencies to increase their revenue.
With TravelSafe Insurance, our travel professionals will see generous commissions and are eligible to receive compensation as early as the following month. There is no need to wait until after a client’s departure date.
Our Commission Protection Program
Not many travel retailers have the benefit of making a base salary. Their livelihood is often commission based, which can be an unnerving experience. TravelSafe Insurance offers commission protection to authorized agents, ensuring agents will not lose compensation due to travellers cancelling their trips.
Next Level Service
As a family owned company, the team at TravelSafe Insurance values close partnerships with all of its travel professionals. Our representatives offer one on one training to help agents get started with TravelSafe Insurance and to understand their role in offering our products. We strive to help agents maximize their commissions.
When an agency’s clientele need help, whether it is choosing a policy to fit their needs or understanding what is and is not covered, we are always more than happy to assist them directly.
Don’t Take Chances – Take TravelSafe
TravelSafe Insurance has evolved since its inception, but never have we sacrificed our strong-standing relationship with travel professionals to make advances in the industry. We continue to offer a high standard of service and commitment to quality, ensuring that we always add value to the travel professional’s booking process and travelers’ experience.
Don’t let travelers take chances, have them take TravelSafe.